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By Root 1449 0

pitch. It was a strong one: Come to Kansas State, you’ll receive a great education and you’ll play against the absolute best. Come to Kansas State, and maybe—just maybe—you’ll have a shot at going professional. In November 1970, Walter flew to Manhattan, Kansas—a place he had never before heard of—to make an official recruiting visit. Boasting 13,847 students, the sprawling campus of trees and paths and brick buildings was twice as large as Payton’s hometown. He was given a tour of the athletic dormitories, of the student center, of the new KSU Stadium, with its thirty thousand seats. He watched with wide-eyed wonderment as sexy coeds passed, and found himself imagining life in this wondrous—if glacial—new place nearly nine hundred miles from home.

Over the following months Falks followed up with repeated phone calls, as did Gibson. “A talent like his could have taken us to a new level,” said Falks of a team that went 6-5 in 1970. “Walter alone was probably good for three or four more wins a season.”

Yet at the same time Kansas State was giving Payton the hard sell, so was Jackson State and its new head coach, Bob Hill. A former star running back at the school, Hill spent eight years as a line coach and offensive coordinator before being hired in December 1970 to take over his beleaguered alma mater. Having scouted Walter Payton in Columbia High’s season opener against Prentiss, Hill knew of the youngster’s unparalleled talents. “Oh man, he was something,” said Hill. “You saw him play one time and it was clear he was the real goods.”

Unlike Gibson, Hill possessed an ace up his sleeve. During Walter’s senior season in high school, one of Jackson State’s standouts was a junior running back by the name of Payton—Eddie Payton. In a forgettable 1970 campaign that saw the Tigers go 3-7, Eddie Payton ran for 339 yards and four touchdowns. Hill, a renowned hard-ass who lavished praise upon few, lavished praise upon Eddie, and assured him even better times should he woo his little brother to the Mississippi state capital. “So Eddie promised me Walter would be coming,” said Hill. “I said, ‘Eddie, do I have your word on it?’ and he said I did. I said, ‘You’re telling me for your father?’ and Eddie said, ‘Yes, I am.’ I took that to mean Walter would be playing for us.”

Eddie, though, wasn’t Walter’s father. He wasn’t Walter’s mother, either. He was his older brother, and an antagonizing one at that. Although Walter loved and admired his sibling and attended as many Jackson State games as possible, he also found him to be occasionally deceptive, misleading, and condescending. “I didn’t let them fight,” Alyne once said, “but I do think Walter sort of resented the older boy. Eddie would say, ‘Let me show you how to do this,’ and Walter would say, ‘No, I don’t want to know.’ ” Ever since Walter took up football as a sophomore at Jefferson, he had sought Eddie’s approval. It was hard to come by. Eddie was outgoing and gregarious; the life of any party and a beloved piece of the Jackson State campus. But he was (and, some forty years later, remains) insecure to a fault. From afar, he heard of Walter’s phenomenal output at Jefferson and Columbia, and a part of Eddie—according to those who know him well—felt forgotten. It’s one thing for a standout to be replaced by another standout. Happens all the time. But to be eclipsed by a sibling? Later on, when both men were playing in the NFL, Eddie was asked what it’s like to have a brother as a star. “I don’t know,” he replied. “Why don’t you ask Walter.”

“There’s a lot of jealousy there, and there has been for a long time,” said one of Eddie’s close friends. “Eddie loved Walter very much. But, like any older brother would, he had a hard time handling Walter’s success. It gnawed at him.”

Eddie’s antagonism made Walter apprehensive about attending Jackson State. When, in December 1970, the older brother pressed the younger brother to accept a scholarship to the college, Walter agreed. Yet it was far from sealed. Charles Boston, Payton’s head coach at Jefferson High and the assistant at Columbia,