He played a mean game of chess

Remembering Walter Payton
Updated: Friday February 6, 2009 9:48AM
Jeff Pearlman

“In Chicago’s Super Bowl year (1985) we played them at Lambeau,” recalled Brian Noble, a former Packers linebacker. “Walter came right at me with the ball … and I hit that man as hard as I hit anyone in my career. I knocked him back about four yards, but he stayed up and just kept going. Touchdown. I was devastated. [Afterward] my teammate put his arm around me and said, ‘Believe me, that’s not the first time and it won’t be the last time that Walter Payton breaks a tackle like that.'”

As opposed to nowadays, where so many so-called “standout” backs couldn’t block an oncoming two-legged cat, Payton left behind a long, bloodied list of flattened would-be pass rushers. He pulverized Minnesota’s Joey Browner, destroyed Tampa Bay’s Hugh Green, flattened Washington’s Dexter Manley. “How many times did he save my butt by picking up a blitz before I was blown up?” said Jim McMahon, the former Bears quarterback. “A lot.” Best of all, Payton never — never — celebrated the aftermaths. (I can only imagine what he would have to say of Terrell Owens.)

Yet for all the brilliance, it was Payton’s away-from-the-field philosophy that elevated him beyond the ordinariness of “great pro athlete.” Unlike 99.9 percent of his professional peers, he didn’t view his job as anything particularly special. Sure, he loved to compete and run the football. But once practices and games came to an end, Payton — who could never sit still for more than two or three minutes — was itching for new, non-football adventures. He collected antique cars and dove from airplanes and fished and hunted and pursued his helicopter pilot’s license. He once beat Artis Gilmore one-on-one in hoops, and another time danced his rear off on an episode of Soul Train. He tried his hand at becoming an IndyCar racer, and later bought his own CART team. He co-hosted Saturday Night Live with Joe Montana, cooked gourmet meals for friends, played a mean game of chess and was the best rapper in the Super Bowl Shuffle.

“He was a real person,” said former Bears coach Mike Ditka. “There was no phoniness about him.”

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