Watching Payton rush was a treat. Like Joe Montana and Dwight Clark, Jim McMahon and Walter Payton just connected, and it was magical to watch them.
P.S. I saw some of the interviews yesterday, and I just wish that McMahon would have taken off his freakin’ sunglasses. Out of respect, if nothing else.
P.P.S. Yes, yes, I know that Dwight Clark was a WR.
So sorry for offering an opinion that differs from the prevailing one.
What I meant to say was, “Walter Payton was the bestest greatest person to ever, ever play football or do anything else, and even though he had achieved more fame, talent and wealth than any 10 SDMBers combined, and probably had a pretty fulfilling life, he should have been granted permanent immunity from all illnesses and been permitted by the Universe to live forever and ever and ever.”
“I love God! He’s so deliciously evil!” - Stewie Griffin, Family Guy
Always Do sign your donor card. My good friend’s husband(inhis 40’s) died last month because they couldn’t find a matching kidney.
Pundit Lisa said:
If I recall correctly from when he was playing, McMahon has some sort of condition with his eyes that necesitates him wearing glasses when he is in front of the bright lights of a camera.
PunditLisa- Jim McMahon has an eye condition that requires him to wear sunglasses.
Pldennison, please troll elsewhere.
Ewww.
I thought Walter Payton was a great guy. He was on one of the greatest teams ever. He was one of the greatest backs ever, both running and blocking.
But, I think you people are missing Phil’s point. He didn’t say anything bad about Payton, or about Stewart. He tried to show what we had by being alive and well. Payne Stewart and Walter Payton died. People die every day. Noone deserves to die, noone doesn’t deserve to die, not even popular entertainers. We die a little bit every day.
Yeah, McMahon has an eye problem that makes it so he has to wear sunglasses. When he played he also had to wear a shaded sheet on his helmet. I thought he had some good words to say about Payton. That was very nice.
Did anyone see the Dallas game on Sunday? Madden and Summerall had a little feature on Payton. Said lots of nice things about him, and showed a few good clips.
pat
Ah, suddenly I’m “trolling.”
No, sorry, Mojo, I’m trying to make a point, albeit one that appears to be going over the heads of those engaged in celebrity-worship:
There is no such thing as “dying before your time.” Do you have a card promising you life through a certain date? I sure don’t. Nobody does. When you die, you die.
Everybody dies. Everybody. Rich & poor, famous & faceless, beautiful & ugly. Everybody.
I’m sure Walter Payton probably was a nice guy. So, probably, were many of the faceless people who died yesterday who had much tougher lives than he did, and without all the privilege that fame and wealth can bring.
Even Satan said, in a thread in GQ regarding the Columbine Martyr: “Her loss was a tragedy, but no more so than the loss of anyone else there, including the Godless heathens.”
He died. Everyone does. Life goes on. It’s silly to me to grieve over the death of a complete stranger merely because he was famous.
“I love God! He’s so deliciously evil!” - Stewie Griffin, Family Guy
I’m with you PLD. Everyone’s gotta go. To claim that anyone has any right to live longer than anyone else is just a load of guano.
Even if you really think about it, what is Walter’s legacy. Did he really do anything of lasting import. No, he was just an athlete. Big deal.
Dopeler effect:
The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
Damn question marks. Insert them where you see fit. Here they are.
? ?
pl - no offense intended, and I don’t expect anyone to grieve over someone they didn’t know.
But I’d like to share soemthing with you.
Although I never knew him and had never met him, there is a 43 year old man who is crying right now over Walter’s death. This is a man who lived two doors away from Walter for years. A guy who rode motorcycles with him. A guy who spent time at Walter’s house and was considered one of Walter’s drinking buddies. A guy who spent Saturday nights in Walter’s basement during band practice, “one of the guys”. A guy who used to sit with Walter at the end of the cul de sac on Halloween night and share a beer and the bonfire with him and their other friends. Someone who, due to various circumstances and the fact that people move, lose contact, etc. hasn’t had much contact with him in several years, but still misses his old buddy. That man is my boyfriend, and to some of us, this is is very real, personal loss.
Perhaps not to me personally as I have never met him, but to his children, to his wife, to his friends, and to those who admired him.
Rest in peace, Walter, Craig misses you.
Unclebeer and Pld, please tell me which part of this statement that you disagree with. Has anyone expressed the sentiment that Payton will be missed “simply because he was famous”? Has anyone said that he should live longer than anyone else? I’m bummed because he was a class act and his death could’ve been prevented if more people were organ donors.
If you’re objecting to something specific that someone said, please let us know what it is. Your strawmen arguments really don’t hold up.
I’ve never understood why people mourn celebrates that they never met. When JFK Jr and Pricess Di died, the only thing I thought of was that I would probably be E-mailed some good jokes the next day.
But now I think I understand. Walter came to Chicago in '75 when I was 11 yrs old, he was my first and only sports hero. Walter projected class on and off the field. Yesterday driving home from work I actually started crying. I feel bad for Walter’s family, but what makes me feel worse is the fact that part my childhood is gone forever.
THe next time I see people mourning a celeb I probably won’t be mourning with them, but I’ll understand a little bit better than I did yesterday.
I think that
can be interpreted by any person of reasonable intelligence that “He should be allowed to live longer than others,” and strongly implies that it is because he is a famous athlete. So, yes, I do take exception to that.
I’m still curious as to why I am not permitted to have an opinion on the matter. I didn’t say his death was a good thing; I said that it wasn’t any more or less important than anyone else’s in the scheme of things, and that he didn’t deserve it any more or less than anyone else.
Hell, a marketing manager for one of my office’s biggest and most well-known clients died on the EgyptAir flight, and I don’t expect you all to grieve or particularly care, but why is his death more deserved or less tragic than Walter Payton’s? (Hint: It isn’t.)
“I love God! He’s so deliciously evil!” - Stewie Griffin, Family Guy
I never said that you weren’t entitled to an opinion. You’re free to make as big of an ass of yourself as you like. However, the example you provided was a statement by Satan that he later amended to:“I think what we mean is they didn’t deserve to die “so young.” Mid-fourties both of them, and class individuals I kinda like to have around a bit longer myself. Silly me…” Do you also have a problem with this one?
Peyton was a great back; I remember him playing in the Super Bowl the Bears won. I don’t think he was the best pure runner – after all these years, I think Jim Brown still deserves that title – but Peyton could do anything: run, catch passes, throw passes, and block. He was the best all-around back I’ve seen.
The eulogy aside, people, lighten up on pldennison. He, she or it has made some valid points that must be emphasized in this oversentimental age. I don’t read anything pl said as denigrating Sweetness.
Mojo, if not for Walter’s fame, would you miss him? Would the multitudes have even heard of him? Obviously not. It follows then that you will miss him only because he was famous.
I sure Phil can defend himself but if you are going to raise such a horrendous stink over Satan’s modified quote, maybe you should also check the chronology of the posts a bit closer.
Dopeler effect:
The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
Look- I didn’t know Payton. I only know his on-field accomplishments and how he was portrayed in the media. He seemed like a classy guy and a far cry from a lot of the self-centered athletes you see today. I just can’t understand why, in a thread where most people are remembering his accomplishments and the positive effect he had on people, why Pld feels compelled to say “We’re all gonna get it, so start appreciating what you have”. True? Yes. Tactful or appropriate? Not at all.
I can’t speak for others but I’m bummed because he seemed like a classy guy, not because he was “famous”. I didn’t know Martin Luther King Jr., John Denver, or a slew of other famous people who have died. But I don’t mourn them because of their fame, but because of the way they carried themselves in life. Its only because of their fame that I was familiar with that.
Well, I feel better knowing McMahon has to wear the sunglasses, and he wasn’t doing it to be a hotshot. Mea culpa.
I think part of the reason Payton was an exceptional athlete is that he consistently went way above and beyond the call of duty. You didn’t read about him holding out for more money, or not wanting to play because he was afraid of getting injured. I’ve read that he even tried to hide his injuries so they wouldn’t bench him. Compare that to the whiny bunch of men that represent pro football today.
Payton had a spirit about him that is rare today. I think Pete Rose had the same quality. You could see that they loved to play the game, and what they lacked in terms of physical ability they made up for in pure enthusiasm.
But that is exactly the point, Mojo. Lots of people who would be portrayed as “classy” die every day. Are you bummed about them too? It appears not, the only time I see an expression of sorrow for a “classy” person’s death, is when that person is a celebrity.
I’m sure there are many your local newspaper every week. You know the type, good father, good husband, civic role model. I hear no sorrow for those folks.
Dopeler effect:
The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
Just got my delivery from the Poem of the Week mailing list.
Subject:
PotW #159 - By Request - Sweetness
Date:
Tue, 2 Nov 1999 12:09:14 -0500 (EST)
To an Athlete Dying Young
- A.E. Housman (1859-1936)
The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.
Today, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.
Smart lad, to slip betimes away
>From fields where glory does not stay
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.
Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears:
Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man.
So set, before its echoes fade,
The fleet foot on the sill of shade,
And hold to the low lintel up
The still-defended challenge-cup.
And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl’s.