Walter Payton = best ever

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Clinton statement on Payton

By The Associated Press
A statement by President and Mrs. Clinton on the death of Walter Payton:

We were saddened to hear of the death of Walter Payton. In the long highlight reel of this life cut short, Walter Payton will always be a man in motion: breaking tackles, breaking records, clearing every obstacle in his path. From the first day he donned the uniform of the Chicago Bears, in 1975, until his retirement 13 years later, Walter Payton missed only one game -- and that was because the coach ordered him to rest his ankle.
He followed a long line of great Bears running backs and became the greatest of them all. The record books confirm that. But individual triumphs would never mean as much to Walter Payton as a victory he could share with his teammates and with the fans who endured, season after season, the icy winds of Soldier Field.
Walter Payton would not stop running until his Bears were as great as the Bears of old, until they had again won the Super Bowl -- which they did, in dramatic fashion, in 1985.
Walter Payton faced his illness with the same grit and determination that he showed every week on the football field. The people of Chicago -- and all Americans who love the game of football -- will miss him profoundly.
We would like to offer our condolences to Walter's wife, Connie, and to their two children, Jarrett and Brittney. Our hearts are with them today.



He was called Sweetness, but to defenders Walter Payton was anything but. He was an unstoppable force running with the ball, he had great hands as a receiver out of the backfield, and he could throw a devastating block that would knock defenders out of their socks.

He also seemed to have a sixth sense for picking up the blitz. Walter Payton was the type of blocker that could lay out a defender coming through a hole in the line just like a linebacker mowing down a running back.

Walter's biggest assets on the field were his leg strength and incredible balance. He could run over a would-be tackler with the force of a freight train. Or he might simply hit a defender hard enough to bounce off, and around him. He also had a straight arm that could take a defender off his feet and send him sliding across the turf on his facemask.

Walter always played the game with the attitude that if he was going to get hit at the end of the play, he was going to dish out a little punishment of his own; something to make the defender remember him the next time they met. Seldom did Walter finish a play by running out of bounds. He was always looking for that extra yard, and that ever-so-slight advantage over his opponent.
http://football.about.com/library/we...lterpayton.htm