Payton Exchanging Pigskin for a Leather-Wrapped Wheel

Bo Jackson has a hobby. (Football.) Herschel Walker has a hobby. (Ballet.) Willie Gault has a hobby. (Bobsled.) Seems as if everybody has something to do with his spare time these days--so, when we heard about Walter Payton’s new hobby, we decided to check it out, see if he was serious about it.

He was.

Auto racing.

Payton, 33 and retired from active duty in the National Football League, is thinking about driving competitively in Sports Car Club of America events. To get a first feel of life behind the wheel, Payton intends to drive in a pro-celebrity race April 16 at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, and take it from there.

“Let’s just see how it goes,” Payton said, when we caught up to him after 60 practice laps at the Willow Springs International Raceway, near Lancaster. “Before I get into something, it’s got to be fun. A lot of things I do in the off-season could be fun. We’ll see if this one is.”

Dwight Clark, a San Francisco 49ers wide receiver and another recent retiree who doesn’t much feel like enrolling in arts and crafts at the local community college, also will be driving at Long Beach. Clark reportedly is toying with the idea of trying the NASCAR circuit.

The Long Beach race takes drivers through the city’s streets, 10 laps over a 1.67-mile circuit. Last year’s winner averaged 57.95 m.p.h., which Payton has been known to do on a freeway or two. One sportswriter who once bummed a ride with Payton found himself hanging onto his seat belt for dear life.

Of course, this was just in keeping with the Chicago Bears’ tradition. Remember, a whole pack of Bears got pulled over last year on their way home from training camp in Wisconsin, most of them evidently under the impression that the Interstate 94 speed limit was 85.

Payton, not as fast on the field as off, is looking for ways to expend some of that excess energy he has. When you ask him if he might actually devote himself to racing cars, he reminds you of his other interests in a hurry.

“It’s hard to find time for everything when you’re trying to buy an NFL franchise,” Payton said.

Oh, yeah. Sweetness, who has invested his money wisely over the years, including what he received for posing for a box of Wheaties, wants to go directly from the locker room to the luxury box. He is driven to become the owner of a pro team, and, knowing Payton, he’ll get there.

Any progress?

“Nothing I can tell you about right now,” he said.

Payton’s nest egg might be considerably larger if he had been as lucky as another Bear, linebacker Wilber Marshall, in the free-agent market. When Payton became a free agent a few years ago, his telephone never rang. Owners considered the price too high. But, when Marshall made himself available to the Washington Redskins, they made him an instant millionaire.

Payton has spent his money on all sorts of things over the years. He has socked it into a shopping mall and four nightclubs. And his hobbies have ranged from going after his helicopter’s pilot license--”I’ve almost got it, a couple more hours,” he said--to motorcycles and antique autos.

“I actually only had one antique car, which I was taking care of and was going to give to my father. But, he passed away before I could give it to him,” Payton said.

As for driving cars fast? Payton was asked when that began to appeal to him.

“Every time you get on the freeway,” he said.

Stretched the speed limit a few times, have you?

“Oh, no. I would never do that. That’s against the law,” Payton said.

That’s Walter, all right. The one doing 54.

If this auto racing thing doesn’t work out, hard telling what Payton might try next. Maybe hang-gliding. Maybe ice dancing. He was great on “Soul Train” once. Maybe some other Winter Olympic sport--giant slalom, or something. There’s a movement afoot to enter Gault, Edwin Moses, Bo Jackson and an experienced driver as one of our bobsled teams in 1992. “That bobsled kind of interests me,” Bo said recently. Maybe Walter’s interested, too.

All of these guys are branching out, some of them in the arts. Gault, a hurdler turned football player turned Olympian, also has appeared in Chicago theatrical productions. Walker is presently in rehearsal for a Dallas ballet. Vance Johnson of the Denver Broncos is an accomplished painter, a Patrick Nagel with a flat haircut. Jim McMahon is in the new Anthony Michael Hall movie. Bo Jackson is killing time in the Kansas City outfield.

It’s not enough to be just a football player anymore.

When Payton was finished spinning his modified Celica around the 60th lap, we asked him if he was going to stick around and keep training for the race.

“Can’t,” he said. “I’ve got to get back for (Chicago teammate) Todd Bell’s wedding.”

Walter, Walter everywhere.

Probably flew himself in by helicopter.