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a similar role. He didn’t care what she thought about football or his contract or, frankly, much of anything. He spent his Saturday mornings soaking in cartoons—a ritual Connie failed to appreciate. (The one thing Payton never watched? Football. “For me to watch a football game at home,” he said, “makes about as much sense as a secretary going home and spending her nights typing.”) “Connie was very quiet, very sweet, very helpful,” said Jenkins. “She seemed to adore Walter, though I did get the impression it was a typical pro jock marriage. Everything revolved around him and she was there to serve.”

The couple now lived in a modest house in Arlington Heights, and while Walter apparently loved Connie (When asked to name his extravagances in a 1979 interview with the Tribune, he responded, “My wife.”), he didn’t seem especially interested in her. During his rookie season, when the two were apart, Walter desperately craved her company. But that was loneliness talking. In person, Walter and Connie formed a strange union. The things they had in common—dancing, Jackson State, Southern heritage, quirky humor (they attended the Bears’ 1978 team Halloween party as the black Coneheads)—only extended so far. Connie struggled to adjust to Chicago (“[It] just seemed like this cold, faraway, miserable place with these little birdcage houses,” she later said.), and they rarely took trips that weren’t related to football. Conversational topics were limited. Social engagements were few. When they dined with couples, Walter’s time would be fully devoted to the other male. There was little cuddling or hand-holding, and she struggled to grasp his unpredictable moodiness. Smiling, laughing Walter morphed into frowning, brooding Walter with a snap of the fingers. “Connie was real quiet and subdued, which Walter really wasn’t unless he got in a funk,” said Holmes. “She was not a real forceful person, and back then she was petrified of Walter. Not in a violent way, but in not wanting to get on his bad side. I never got any indication from Connie that she had any interest in going out and partying or drinking or cutting up behind his back. But the marriage was what it was. Connie was very tight with her first cousin Hazel [who was married to Rickey Young, Walter’s former Jackson State teammate] and Cookie Brazile [the wife of Robert Brazile, another former JSU player]. I remember all three girls in the office one day and they were talking—‘Honey, I’ll tell you one thing. He can have all the hos he wants, as long as I get the money.’ They all died laughing. But they knew what it was to be married to an athlete, and they surely accepted it.”

Perhaps eventually. But in 1979, still in the early years of marriage, Connie didn’t recognize the seeds being planted at the Buick events. Here, Walter Payton was king. The models hit on him with a jarring lack of subtlety. Female attendees slipped their phone numbers into his pocket. Walter wasn’t quite sure how to respond, but celebrity clearly came with its perks.

Payton was known to talk up his love and commitment to Jesus Christ, and the temptations that came with NFL superstardom seemed to make him crave faith more than ever. Yet the little Bubba who attended Owens Chapel Baptist Church with his mother and siblings every Sunday was now all grown up. The concept of infidelity was nothing new—according to multiple family friends, Walter’s father wasn’t one to limit himself to his wife.

During training camp at Lake Forest College in 1978, Harper, the Bears fullback/chapel leader, brought Payton, quarterback Vince Evans, and defensive back Mike Spivey into a dorm room. He asked the men to hold hands and bow their heads, then led them in the Lord’s Prayer. “We all rededicated ourselves to the Lord . . . being born again,” said Spivey. “I am a born-again Christian, and in my opinion Walter exemplified a strong Christian man.”

That’s what Payton strove to be—a strong Christian man.

“I think Walter was an idealist, and he fought to hold on to those beliefs,” said Holmes. “But the ideals got harder and harder