Relentless

I watched Walter Payton, Beyond the Glory the other night and it’s a good thing that I was the only one home, because I balled my eyes out.

Walter Payton was my first sports hero. It was 1985, I lived in Northern Virginia, I was just getting into sports, and my friends, two brothers, Mark and Scott, used to live in Chicago. It happened to be the year that the Bears stomped everyone. The year of Refrigerator Perry. Jim McMahon. Mike Singletary. Willie Gault. Richard Dent. But the heart and soul of the Chicago Bears that year, and many before that, was Walter Payton.

The Beyond the Glory was a retrospective. It moved you to see just how many people absolutely loved this man. This guy from Mississippi who just showed up, and played SO hard. Someone in the show described him as “relentless,” and that is what stuck with me. He fought and he fought and he fought and just would not stop. Who wouldn’t love this man on his team? Who wouldn’t be inspired.

I had a book on tape that I got a year or two after that. It was Walter Payton on being successful in life. It was a series of thoughts and interviews, and I ate it all up. What a total inspiration this man was. What a horrible loss at such a young age. It’s been a few years since he passed on, but any time there’s ever a mention or a highlight reel on TV, stop and watch Walter Payton run.