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This Day In Sports…October 7, 1984, 40 years ago today:
The late Walter Payton becomes the NFL’s all-time leading rusher while going for 154 yards in the Chicago Bears’ 20-7 win over New Orleans to surpass Jim Brown’s career mark. Nicknamed “Sweetness,” Payton ended up with 16,726 yards in 13 seasons, retiring after the 1987 campaign. Former Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals running back Emmitt Smith eventually broke Payton’s mark in 2002 and is still the current record-holder with 18,355 yards.
Payton was a centerpiece of the best Bears team of all-time, the 1985 squad that won the franchise’s only Super Bowl. One of the great NFL injustices ever came in Chicago’s 46-10 rout of New England in Super Bowl XX. With the Bears up 37-3 in the third quarter, they had the ball at the Patriots’ one-yard line. Instead of giving Payton his one chance at a Super Bowl touchdown, coach Mike Ditka put 335-pound defensive tackle William “The Refrigerator” Perry in the backfield and had him plunge in for the score. It was just wrong. And today Ditka says he regrets the decision.
Payton was the fourth overall pick of the 1975 NFL Draft out of Division I-AA (now FCS) Jackson State. He went on to be a nine-time Pro Bowl selection and was the league’s MVP in 1977 and was highly-respected on and off the field. The top offensive player honor in the FCS annually is known as the “Walter Payton Award,” and the NFL player with the highest achievements in community service each season is given the “Walter Payton Man of the Year Award.” He passed away 25 years ago after being diagnosed with a rare liver disease. Payton was 46 years old.
It wasn’t all roses for Chicago the day Payton set the record, though, as the San Diego Padres beat the Cubs in the final game of the National League Championship Series to extend the Cubbies’ World Series-less streak to 39 years (78 without a championship). The Cubs infinite era of futility finally ended in 2016 when they won the Series. The Bears returned to the Super Bowl after the 2006 season but lost to the Indianapolis Colts. It’s now going on 39 years since Chicago won one.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
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