Sweetness_ The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton - Jeff Pearlman [151]
As the years passed and the power grew, however, Payton changed. In the spirit of the surface-deep ’80s, his image became everything. Frugal in many areas (with automobiles obvious exceptions), Walter wouldn’t think twice about dropping a couple of thousand dollars on a suit or two. He rarely (if ever) left home without his slacks neatly pressed and his shoes as shiny as new coins, and he could never have enough Rolex watches and gold bracelets (he was especially fond of a bracelet that spelled out P-A-Y-T-O-N in encrusted diamonds). His teeth were sparkling white, his skin unblemished, his mustache meticulously trimmed. “Dad was huge into fashion,” recalled Brittney Payton, his daughter. “There was a men’s store called Realta that was downtown. He would come at night and they’d open up for him. He loved to shop. He would sport his cowboy boots with jeans back in the day, or those big colorful sweaters, and he made it work.”
Most important was the hair. If one looks back at photographs from Payton’s first few years in Chicago, his miniature Afro was routinely messy and awkwardly skewed. It leaned right, it leaned left, it flopped to the front. Oftentimes, Payton merely covered his head with a state trooper’s widebrim model hat. Then, in the early ’80s, he was approached by Willard Harrell, a running back for the St. Louis Cardinals who had a side business peddling a product called Curl Alive with Pro 39. “It was mainly a moisturizer for a black man’s hair,” said Harrell, Payton’s teammate on the collegiate All-Star team in 1975. “It went on wet, it came off dry.” In exchange for the usage of Payton’s name on promotional material, Harrell gave the Bears’ star an unlimited supply of Curl Alive with Pro 39.
Payton’s Jheri curl emerged as one of the Jheri curls of the 1980s—moist yet not dripping; perky yet not over the top. “Dad messed up a couple of couches with his head,” said Jarrett Payton, Walter’s son. “He had that curl working.”
“He did it beautifully,” said Harrell with a laugh. “Walter’s hair was the envy of black men nationwide.”
They weren’t the only ones to notice. The wallflower Walter Payton of years past had become a more confident, more social being. He stepped with an air of importance and no longer shielded himself from the world. Payton became especially comfortable around women who, in turn, became especially comfortable around him. “Walter walked through a lobby or a casino or wherever, and very quickly he’d have five or six or seven hotel room keys put in his pocket,” said Bud Holmes, his agent. “Women sent him their photos. Naked pictures. Pictures in lingerie. He’d laugh about it, but that sort of temptation is not easy to ignore.”
When Holmes negotiated a new contract with the Bears in 1981, one of the stipulations was that, on the road, Payton be granted his own suite. The reason was simple: He wanted a place to bring back his conquests. Although Payton continued to avoid regularly socializing with teammates, that didn’t mean he failed to go out. From San Diego to Seattle, Detroit to Denver, Boston to Buffalo, Payton could often be found at the hot dance clubs, working the moves perfected on 24 Karat Black Gold a decade earlier. Before long, Payton’s personal black book featured a bevy of women in every city. Wherever the Chicago Bears traveled, Payton had females waiting for the signal to discreetly knock on his door at the Hyatt or Hilton or Marriott.
As Connie remained in Illinois caring for Jarrett, her husband was on the road, living the life. Those who knew him best say one of Payton’s great gifts/ills was the ability to compartmentalize. When he was home in Arlington Heights, he could be the prototypical family man. When he was elsewhere, he could do whatever he pleased. To Walter, one behavior had nothing to do with the other. If Connie didn’t know he was sleeping around, how could it possibly hurt her? As far as she was concerned, he sat in his hotel room watching TV and reading the Bible. That was her reality, and it was perfectly fine with Walter.
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