Sweetness_ The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton - Jeff Pearlman [63]
An opportunity to further buttress his legend came on October 20, when Grambling arrived in Jackson for a matchup so highly anticipated that the Clarion-Ledger actually placed a preview story on the front page of the sports section. Coached by a legend-in-the-making named Eddie Robinson, Grambling was the pride of the SWAC—a nationally known program that even rednecks and racists seemed to admire for its ability to churn out professional players. Grambling had defeated Jackson State in four of the teams’ five previous meetings, and Hill was fed up. During practices that week he beat on his players with a torturous cruelty excessive for a man known for torturous cruelty.
By the time the Grambling game began, Hill’s men were exhausted and emaciated from a week of nonstop down-ups and wind sprints in the ninetydegree heat. Jackson State was thought to be the better ball club, what with Payton leading the SWAC with 690 rushing yards and Jimmy Lewis pacing the league in most passing categories. The defenses were both strong (Grambling ranked number one in the SWAC, Jackson State was number two), the coaches both admired. The teams sported identical 5-1 general records, as well as 3-1 marks in the SWAC.
Yet even though Waller officially proclaimed October 20 to be (to Payton’s great embarrassment) “Walter Payton and Tiger Day,” an exhausted Jackson State had no chance. A boisterous sixty thousand fan–crowd poured into Memorial Stadium for the clash, expecting Payton and Co. to run all over Robinson’s 4-3 defense. But Jackson State’s offensive line was tired, sluggish, and unable to move Grambling’s two star defensive ends, Ezil Bibbs and Gary “Big Hands” Johnson. The result was a dispiriting 19–12 setback—in the words of the Claron-Ledger’s Steve Burtt, “a sloppy, penalty-plagued game” that crushed Hill’s hopes of an outright SWAC title.
For those football fans who lavished praise upon the Michigans and Nebraskas while dismissing Grambling and Jackson State as nonentities, Payton’s stat line called into question his ability to compete at the highest level. He ran fifteen times for a pedestrian seventy-nine yards and was outgained by twenty-five yards by someone from Grambling named Rodney Tureaud. Yet to Robinson and his players, Payton conducted himself masterfully. The Tigers played two quarterbacks, Jimmy Lewis and Porter Taylor, neither of whom fared well. The line was beaten off the ball all night, and Young uncharacteristically missed a series of blocks. That Payton gained seventy-nine yards wasn’t a disappointment, but a miracle. “Payton is fantastic,” Robinson said afterward. “He can beat you if you give him the slightest chance.”
“His legs kept moving, and moving, and moving—he never gave up,” said Bibbs. “I tackled him one time and it took me ten yards to bring him down. He had such strong legs. If you tried to tackle him up high you would never bring him down. I never saw one person bring him down. When you looked in his eyes, you saw that there was no fear. You could hit him, give him your best hit—heck, we had three all-Americans on that line with me. We’d hit him, drop him in the backfield, taunt him. He’d jump right back, look right at us like, ‘You didn’t hit me hard enough.’ Some of those hits were brutal. But he didn’t fear it.”
When the season came to its end, Jackson State found itself a disappointing 9-2, again tied for the SWAC crown. Payton was heartbroken, and wondered aloud whether he could have done more to help the Tigers. Sure, he ran for 1,322 yards, scored a school record twenty-four touchdowns, kicked one field goal and thirteen extra points. Sure, he caught fifteen passes for 188 yards. Sure, he blocked like an offensive tackle. “He wanted to win like I wanted to win,” said Hill. “His drive was real.”
Some of the pain was lessened on