Payton Remembered as More Than a Player

To most people, Walter Payton was the NFL’s greatest rusher. To the hundreds of mourners at his private memorial service Friday, he was much more.

Teammate. Father. Friend. Prankster. Philanthropist.

“Many of you knew my father as a football player and as a business man,” said his 18-year-old son Jarrett, who offered one of five tributes during the emotional two-hour service.

“I knew him as my dad--and he was my hero. My mother, my sister and I will miss him. . . but we know he’s in a place where there’s no sickness, no pain.”

Payton, the NFL leader in yards gained (16,726) and carries (3,838) who missed only one game in his 13-year career with the Bears, died Monday of bile duct cancer. He was 45.

The mourners included NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and many of Payton’s teammates from the 1985 Bears team that won the Super Bowl.

“He affected so many people in a positive way, not only through athletic prowess, but through his generosity and for the way he lived his life,” said New Orleans Saints Coach Mike Ditka, the coach of that Bears team that was 18-1.

“Walter was a compassionate, loving, caring, sharing individual. When you think about that, you got to celebrate a person’s life. Yeah, it isn’t fair. Forty-five years on this Earth, you should be in the prime of your life. But I think it warns us that tomorrow is not promised.”