So are steroids.
I would not be surprised if you’re right. The drug use and infidelity and suicide threat are getting the initial headlines because they’re so out of line with Payton’s public image, but that doesn’t mean the entire book is 400 pages of what a terrible guy Walter Payton was, and the author does not seem to think he was a horrible person.
His widow acknowledges parts of it - meeting the mistress at the Hall of Fame induction, living essentially separate lives for the decade before his death, and his depression. She claims she didn’t see him even take a Tylenol, but if they had very separate lives, he might have been able to hide that from her.
And yes, in an interview with the author on the local (Chicago) NBC affiliate last night, he said he has tremendous respect for Payton.
Yes, and as I said, it wouldn’t surprise me if he took those, too.
^ This is what I meant earlier. If Connie knew about the infidelity but choose to keep the marriage intact for whatever reason that is her choice. I trust her to know what’s best for her family. She’s hardly the first woman to tolerate sharing her man. Note I said “tolerate” - I don’t assume she was happy about it.
How people order their private affairs is their business. I’m not fond of tell-all “journalism” that feels compelled to drag it all out into the light of day. I’ve even less fond of sound-bites all too easily taken out of context and trotted through the headlines.
I had tremendous respect for Payton as a player (which, as a Packer fan, is saying something 
). I agree with the earlier poster, that he was one of the all-around best football players of all time.
Even back when he was alive, he was pretty well-known as a bit of an odd duck, and an exceptionally private person.
The painkiller story doesn’t terribly surprise me…he was not a big guy (the Bears listed him at 5’10", 200 lbs., but it’s commonly felt that he was both shorter and lighter than that). To have absorbed all the pounding he did, with that small body, I can easily imagine that he needed painkillers.
The book (and the author) are already being widely dismissed here in the Chicago area, where Payton is still highly revered (and where his memory is still invoked for many reasons, including to encourage organ donation). But, from everything I can see, Pearlman did an incredible amount of research, and did not have an axe to grind. Even if there are particulars in the story which he may have not gotten 100% right, I don’t see any logical reason to doubt the overall narrative.
Absolutely. It definitely looks as though that was the cause of emotional problems which Payton’s teammate Dave Duerson suffered, and which eventually led Duerson to kill himself earlier this year (but he intentionally did so in a way which preserved his brain to be studied).
It should be noted that he essentially never missed a game too, unheard of for a running back. I’m curious if the story is that he “took a lot of pain-killers” or “recklessly abused them after retiring”. If it’s the former this is as much of a non-story as there can be.
From the SI story I linked to upthread:
I should note that there is nothing illegal about DMSO and calling it a horse drug is about as useful as calling Lasix (a diuretic commonly used in both animals and humans) a veterinary drug. DMSO is a bit controversial but there’s a good sized alternative medicine crowd using it seemingly safely and reportedly effectively.
Payton died of liver disease (and bile duct cancer). Both Tylenol and Vicodin contain acetaminophen, which can cause liver failure if taken excessively. Reading this, I wonder if there may not have been some connection.
I recall a 60 Minutes segment on DMSO, from the era during which Payton played, in which they interviewed an NFL player (I want to say it was June Jones) who swore by the stuff. I got the sense that there were a number of players who used it, but the guy they interviewed was the one willing to talk about it publicly.
Erratic and suicidal/ That is a good description of lots of ex football players. The effect of concussions shows up later and can be devastating.
How could you play in the NFL and not take pain killers? I think the general public really underestimates just how brutal this sport is. By a lot.
And my assumption is that any professional athlete at that level is cheating on his wife. I’m sure that there are a few exceptions, but these athletes aren’t chosen based on this sort of moral strength. And the opportunities are pretty crazy.
I’m kinda with you. I see steroids as just another way athletes try to find the edge. In order to win. And cheating them as cheating before they were really against the rules is just dumb. Treating athletes who did do them as pariahs is just stupid (especially when we overlook other attempts to “cheat”). The anti-steroids hysteria is pretty tiresom.
Right.
Yeah. Cheating is bad. Any betrayal of trust is bad. But to any one not directly involved, it should be, mostly, a non issue.
Exactly. Relationships are so complex that the knee jerk reaction serves no purpose. And really isn’t all that relevant to those of us not directly involved. It’s real easy to judge when we’re not actually there.
As far as Peyton goes, I’d find it more crazy if he hadn’t taken painkillers. And if he cheated on his wife? Probably a gasp human flaw, but that’s between him and his wife.
Even if you don’t want to be friends with cheaters, even if you don’t want cheaters to represent you in Congress, it’s still silly to get upset about an athlete who cheats. And coming from someone who recreationally angry a lot, that’s saying something.