Sweetness_ The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton - Jeff Pearlman [175]
Payton tolerated Gault in the way one tolerates the annoying little brother who can’t help himself. But when the receiver checked to make sure Payton would still be partaking in the video shoot, he received a stern look and a sterner lecture. “Are you kidding me?” Payton said. “After we just got our asses kicked like that? No way.” McMahon also refused to attend, leaving a dumbfounded Meyer with two gaping holes. “We told them we weren’t coming,” McMahon said. “I guess they didn’t believe us until we didn’t show.”
The airplane landed in Chicago at three thirty A.M. Less than five hours later twenty-two Bears showed up for the taping. Grumpiness morphed into embarrassment when they were informed of Payton’s decision not to partake. If the greatest Bear thought it wrongheaded, what justification did the others have? “He was the guy we all looked up to,” said Gayle. “We respected his judgment more than our own.”
A couple of days later, when the sting of the Miami setback had lessened, Payton and McMahon filmed their scenes against a blue screen inside the racquetball court at Halas Hall and were spliced into the video. “It’s a terrible piece of work,” said Barbara Supeter, one of the video’s executive producers. “We finished editing and filming on December 18, and on December 22 it was in stores. We didn’t have any writers or choreographers to speak of. And yet, it became this phenomenon.”
On the day before its release, Greg Gershuny, the Bears’ director of information services, was sitting in his office when a member of the public relations staff came in with a tape of the “Shuffle.” The two men listened, and when the song ended they sat in stunned silence. “We weren’t sure whether to hide it or get it on the radio as soon as possible,” said Gershuny. “It was confusing.”
The “Shuffle” went on to become a smash hit—the single sold more than five hundred thousand copies, reached number forty-one on the Billboard charts and, against all logic, was nominated for a Grammy for best rhythmand-blues performance by a group. Years later, Bears players have mixed feelings about the song. Thomas Sanders, the young running back, said some of the participants were promised large payments, then moaned as they were handed checks for six thousand dollars. “We got a whole lot less than we were told,” he said. Many agreed to partake solely because of Gault’s assurances that the proceeds would go to charity, yet only 50 percent wound up being donated to the Chicago Community Trust. “Willie said it’d be just like ‘We Are the World,’ ” said Ted Plumb, Chicago’s receivers coach. “His line was, ‘If we’re gonna feed the world, why not start with Chicago?’ ” Much of the rest of the money went into the pocket of Meyer, whose company, Red Label Records, was on life support. “I don’t know what Dick promised anyone,” said Supeter, “but I know people were pretty angry afterward.”
When they learned that the charity was barely a charity, Chicago’s players banned Meyer from their locker room and, for the most part, their lives. “The guy had the balls to come back and ask us to do ‘The Super Bowl Shuffle II,’ ” said Gary Fencik, the veteran safety. “Singletary threw his gold record in the trash can. He threw it away and walked out.”
The loss to the Dolphins proved to be an aberration, and Chicago wrapped up a marvelous regular season by winning its final three games against the Colts, Jets, and Lions. With a 15-1 record, the Bears were the NFC’s topseeded team. That earned them a week off, followed by a meeting with the NFC East champion New York Giants at Soldier Field.
Eight years earlier, when Payton prepared for his play-off debut against the Dallas Cowboys, Chicago’s players were befuddled by their notoriously cheap organization’s refusal to transport the team to a warm climate to practice. The Bears