Walter Payton: Encyclopedia II - Walter Payton - 1985

Walter Payton - 1985

Although Walter Payton was a legitimate superstar and an icon in the city of Chicago, he played on some awful Bears teams. That changed in 1985. Former Bears tight end Mike Ditka had returned to the team in 1982 as its head coach and began rebuilding it. In 1985, the Bears had an incredible season, going 15-1 in the regular season (with their only blemish being an embarrassing loss to the Miami Dolphins on Monday Night Football in the 13th week). The Bears bounced back and finished strongly, then, augmented by a song Bears members recorded called The Super Bowl Shuffle, steamrolled through the NFC playoffs, shutting out both the New York Giants and the Los Angeles Rams, and finally defeating the New England Patriots 46-10 in Super Bowl XX where they limited the Patriots to 7 yards rushing, a Super Bowl record.

However sweet the victory was for the Chicago Bears and their fans, it turned out to be anything but sweet for Walter Payton, who rushed for only 61 yards in the game. Some Bears fans believed that Mike Ditka insulted Payton by putting rookie phenomenon William "The Refrigerator" Perry, normally a defensive tackle, in at running back on a goal line play and giving him the ball. Payton was visibly upset on the sideline about not being allowed to contribute more.

While Payton only began playing football in his junior year of high school, Walter Payton retired with 16,726 yards, a total surpassed by the Dallas Cowboys' Emmitt Smith in 2002. On July 31, 1993, Payton was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. His son Jarrett Payton, now a running back with the Tennessee Titans, gave his induction speech. Coincidentally, Walter Payton's former teammate, Jeff Fisher, is the Titans' head coach.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "1985", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki