Sweetness_ The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton - Jeff Pearlman [0]
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
PART ONE - COLUMBIA
CHAPTER 1 - BUBBA
CHAPTER 2 - LEARNING THE GAME
CHAPTER 3 - BLACK AND WHITE
CHAPTER 4 - THE EMERGENCE
CHAPTER 5 - RECRUITMENT
PART TWO - JACKSON
CHAPTER 6 - JACKSON STATE
CHAPTER 7 - SOUL
CHAPTER 8 - CONNIE
CHAPTER 9 - HEISMAN HOPES
PART THREE - CHICAGO
CHAPTER 10 - GOING PRO
CHAPTER 11 - BIRTH OF SWEETNESS
CHAPTER 12 - ZERO YARDS
CHAPTER 13 - THE WAKE-UP CALL
CHAPTER 14 - THE STRANGEST RUN
CHAPTER 15 - DARKNESS
CHAPTER 16 - THE UNBEARABLE BEARS
CHAPTER 17 - A ROSE IN A DANDELION GARDEN
CHAPTER 18 - POWER
CHAPTER 19 - SHUFFLE
CHAPTER 20 - SUPER LETDOWN
CHAPTER 21 - AFTERMATH
PART FOUR - RETIREMENT
CHAPTER 22 - NOW WHAT?
CHAPTER 23 - A BOTTOMLESS VOID
CHAPTER 24 - DEPRESSION
PART FIVE - FINAL
CHAPTER 25 - SICK
CHAPTER 26 - THE END
CHAPTER 27 - LEGACY
CHAPTER 28 - AFTERWORD
Acknowledgements
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
GOTHAM BOOKS
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Published by Gotham Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
First printing, October 2011
Copyright © 2011 by Jeff Pearlman
All rights reserved
Gotham Books and the skyscraper logo are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
ISBN : 978-1-101-54463-1
1. Payton, Walter, 1954–1999. 2. Football players—United States—Biography. I. Title.
GV939.P39P43 2011
796.332092—dc22
[B]
2011011466
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A NOTE ON SOURCING
The identifications of four sources are protected by pseudonyms through this book. They are: Lita Gonzalez, Nigel Smythe, Angelina Smythe, and Judy Choy.
As an author, this is not something I relish. However, the contributions of the individuals were deemed more valuable than the names themselves.
To Cathy Lieberman
The embodiment of strength and compassion
Most of life is a falling away.
A gradual surrender of the dream.
The reason sports provide such
dramatic material is that the climax
comes so early in a man’s life,
the decline so swiftly.
—“The Athlete,