Time to tear down Walter Payton, I guess...

[Brock]

Book: Walter Payton abused painkillers, discussed suicide
By Chris Chase

A new biography of Walter Payton details the Hall of Fame running back's frequent drug use, extramarital affairs and the crippling loneliness that plagued him after his retirement from the NFL.

Sports Illustrated's Jeff Pearlman spent more than two years working on "Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton" and uncovered startling details about the Chicago Bears running back who was so highly regarded that the NFL named its Man of the Year Award after him.

The book is set for release next week. Excerpts appear in this week's Sports Illustrated. In one section, Pearlman describes Payton's drug use:

The burden of loneliness and his marriage weren't Payton's only problems. As a player he had numbed his maladies with pills and liquids, usually supplied by the Bears. Payton popped Darvon robotically during his playing days—says Holmes, "I'd see him walk out of the locker room with jars of painkillers, and he'd eat them like they were a snack"—and also lathered his body with dimethyl sulfoxide, a topical analgesic commonly used to treat horses. Now that he was retired, the self-medicating only intensified. Payton habitually ingested a cocktail of Tylenol and Vicodin. In a particularly embarrassing episode, in 1988, Payton visited a handful of dental offices, complaining of severe tooth pain. He received several prescriptions for morphine and hit up a handful of drugstores to have them filled. When one of the pharmacists noticed the activity, he contacted the police, who arrived at Payton's house and discussed the situation.

Pearlman also details Payton's use of the painkiller Darvon during his playing days and how he equipped an RV with nitrous oxide to use during training camp.

Once Payton's career ended, he battled depression and often discussed suicide with close friends. Two failing relationships contributed to his malaise. Pearlman describes how Payton's estranged wife and girlfriend both attended his Hall of Fame induction ceremony -- "they were like ships passing in the night," Payton's assistant said -- and made the triumphant weekend one of the worst of Payton's life.

Like Andre Agassi's recent autobiography, in which he detailed his previously unknown drug use, "Sweetness" will be most remembered for the salacious tales revealed within. They'll dominate discussion over the next few days and obscure the brighter stories included in the book: How Payton delighted a cancer-ridden youngster on a flight or those moments when he'd play catch with kids before signing their football. The drug use and affairs will make some forget about how graceful Payton was on the field and how strong he was when facing terminal illness, and how he grew up in segregated Mississippi and calmed racial tensions there with his on-field heroics.

As "Sweetness" shows, our heroes are always more complex than we know.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shu...urn=nfl-wp8200

[Garcia Bronco]

I don't see the problem. Damn right he took painkillers. Did you see what he did for a living? He beat the hell out of linebackers and DBs.

[FAX]

It's true, Mr. Iowanian. Everybody has a secret past.

For example, I was once arrested during a band rehearsal for disturbing the peace and I have pissed off many a girl. Then there was the time when I dumped oatmeal on a cat.

FAX

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

I always think it would be nice to see someone dig into the background, talk to ex girlfriends/wives and friends for dirt on the authors of these types of stories.


I don't consider myself a bad human being whatsoever, but if someone dug into enough of my dirt, it could be twisted into some unflattering reading. I'm sure every one of us is like that and we've all got skeletons of some form.

I sure don't want them checking mine, I tore off a mattress label.

Maybe the funds from this kind of book should go to a charity or descendents of the deceased?

[Frazod]

Never got to see him play in person, but it was neat enough just to see him standing on the sidelines as a spectator during Bears games that I did attend. I know several people who met him and a couple who knew him, and I've never heard anybody say an unkind word about him. Won't be buying this, hope the author falls out of the AIDS tree while choking on antifreeze.

[Garcia Bronco]

"And for those who are going to say what they want to say, may God be with you also."

-Walter Payton

[Rain Man]

9 of the top 13 threads on the first page are about signing Peyton Manning. This thread is one of the other four, but at the same time it also involves Payton.