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finally, Hoffman Estates—his fights with Gonzalez became the stuff of legend. Through the thin walls, he could be heard screaming, cursing, threatening over the phone. On countless occasions she returned the promise ring, swearing she was no longer interested. “Inevitably,” said Quirk, “she would come back to him. She always came back.” Walter told Lita she was his only love, and she believed him. Little did she know he was using the same line on countless others. “The number of women was dizzying,” said Linda Conley, Walter’s longtime friend and the kitchen manager at Studebaker’s. “I loved Walter, but I’d always tell his girlfriends, ‘He’ll never be yours, so why waste your time?’ He knew he was doing wrong, but it was a challenge to him: How many women could he land?

“My daughter Tyra was really into football, and she just adored Walter. Well, one day we walk into Studebaker’s and there he was, kissing some blond girl. Tyra couldn’t believe it. She was devastated. But that was Walter—you either accepted his behavior or you moved on.”

At one point, Lita became so upset that she removed the promise ring from her finger, placed it in a FedEx package, and shipped it to Payton’s office. Upon receiving the item, Payton brought it to his personal jeweler and had him replace the diamond with a replica. “He sent it back to her without saying a word,” said Quirk. “They made up, of course, but he never brought it up. She probably still has that fake ring.”

The last thing Payton needed was to have his Hall of Fame weekend complicated and compromised. But Lita, who rarely followed up on her demands of Walter, was following up on this one. She would be coming, dammit, and she expected to be treated as his girlfriend. “She was insisting she be seated in the front row,” said Kimm Tucker, the executive director of Payton’s charitable foundation. “We said, ‘Lita, are you insane? We’re marketing this man as a family-friendly spokesperson. His whole image is based around decency. You will ruin him.’ ” Although Walter hadn’t lived at home for nearly five years, Connie was coming, too. She was, after all, his wife. She had stuck by him through the tough early years; had left the comforts of Mississippi for the Windy City; had endured his moods and his mischief; his intensity and his infidelity. To the press, she had never once uttered a foul word about her husband. As far as the world knew, he was committed, charming, dedicated Walter.

There was the image of a marriage to uphold, and Connie was not about to inspire stirrings of “Where was his wife?” should she not attend. It also so happened that her son would be giving the biggest speech of his life.

How could Connie Payton not be there?

A couple of weeks before the ceremony, Payton called Holmes at his home and—having just gotten off the phone with Gonzalez—said, “I’m ready. I want you to help me get a divorce from Connie.”

“Walter,” Holmes replied, “if you do this, it’ll ruin your ass. Your whole image is built as this great, wholesome family guy. You leave Connie, that dies.”

Said Holmes: “Honestly, I believe Walter knew what I would tell him, but he wanted an excuse to give to Lita as to why he wasn’t leaving Connie. He was a real mess.”

Walter didn’t know what to do. He felt the ceiling crumbling and the walls caving in. There was no escape. After keeping Lita at bay for so long, how could he deny her a moment? After keeping Connie around for so long, how could he deny her a moment? “I can tell you that, without any question or doubt, his knowing both women were going to attend was first and foremost on his mind,” said Quirk. “That was more of an issue to him than the event itself. What he feared most was coming to fruition. He had to face the music, and what a shit-ass time for that to happen. Talk about tainting a weekend. The induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame is supposed to be the greatest moment in his life. And the truth is, it was probably the worst moment in his life.”

Payton was scheduled to spend four days in Canton, Ohio, home to the Hall. He would arrive