Sweetness_ The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton - Jeff Pearlman [248]
“Best day of my life,” Brandon said. “I was floating on air.”
Eleven years later, twenty-three-year-old Brandon Peacy was working as a producer for WKRS, a five-thousand-watt radio station out of Waukegan. A couple of days before the October 22, 1995, Oilers–Bears game at Soldier Field, Peacy returned to Lake Forest to pick up press credentials at Halas Hall. While waiting for assistance, he spotted Walter Payton, now forty-two and eight years retired, walking down a hallway.
“Hey, how ya doing?” Payton said.
“Hi, Walter,” Peacy replied. “It’s good to see you.”
The two chatted for a couple of minutes, when Payton said, “I have this thing for faces—something tells me I met you before.”
“You did,” Peacy said. “But I was just a kid, so you probably don’t . . .”
“Try me,” he replied.
Peacy told Payton the story, how he was a twelve-year-old boy in 1984, and it was during a practice, and McMahon and Suhey and Fuller and . . .
“Were you with a real tall guy?” Payton asked. “A tall guy wearing a green hat?”
Bill, Brandon’s father, is six foot seven. He had, indeed, sported a green baseball cap.
“Uh . . . yeah,” Peacy said.
“So you must have been the little kid,” Payton said. “The one in the purple shirt.”
Peacy was dumbfounded. His jaw dropped. His eyes widened. All he could say was, “Holy shit.” Walter Payton broke up laughing, then jabbed Brandon in the arm. “I tell everyone I have a great memory,” Payton said, “but nobody believes me.
“I’m glad you know the truth about me.”
WHAT BECAME OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS
Connie Payton, Walter’s wife of twenty-three years, still lives in Chicago, where she heads the Walter and Connie Payton Foundation and speaks glowingly of her late husband. In 2008, she married Michael Strotter, a native Chicagoan and the CEO of Advanced Medical Imaging Centers. She is, according to her children, comfortable and happy in her role as gatekeeper of her late husband’s legacy.
After graduating from the University of Miami in 2004, Jarrett Payton went on to play, briefly, with the Tennessee Titans, the Amsterdam Admirals (of NFL Europe), and the Canadian Football League’s Montreal Alouettes and Toronto Argonauts. He now hosts a weekly Internet radio show in his native hometown and is working toward becoming a hip-hop artist and comedian. Of the fourteen tattoos that adorn his body, five are depictions of his father. When, in 2009, he married Trisha George, the wedding took place on March 4—3/4, in honor of his dad. The reception was held at Soldier Field. Should he one day be blessed with a son, Jarrett already has a name picked out. “Tres Quatro,” he says. “I love that.”
When people speak with Jarrett, they often feel as if they are in the presence of his father. The smile is the same, the gregariousness toward others eerily familiar. Just as his hero loved reaching out toward strangers, so does Jarrett. Shortly after Walter died, Jarrett said he was faced with a choice—he could either run away from the comparisons, or embrace them. It was, he says, an easy decision. “I want to hear about my dad every chance I can get,” he said. “I know this sounds crazy, but I believe he’s watching down on me, guiding me. Whenever I look at the clock, it’s 1:34, 2:34, 3:34. The number’s everywhere which, to me, means he’s everywhere.”
Though softer and less engaging than her older brother, Brittney Payton is also a local media personality. A graduate of DePaul University, she now works for WGN as one of the hosts of a TV show, Chicago’s Best. Like both of her brothers, Brittney looks very much like her father, from the almondshaped brown eyes to the high cheekbones. “There are a lot of days I’m sad my dad isn’t here,” she says. “Just because of all the things he’s missing. When my brother got married it was such a happy day, but it also hurt, because there was a real void.”
Eddie Payton has been the golf coach at Jackson State University since 1986.