Making a name for himself

October 19, 2005
By Michael Lev
The Orange County Register
NFL Europe

World Bowl winner Jarrett Payton is making his own mark in the NFL. (Hans De Wolff)

About the least fair thing you can do to the son of a legend is compare him to his dad. But here's the funny thing about Jarrett Payton: In many ways - the ways that really matter - he's just like his father, the late, great Walter Payton.

Jarrett Payton, a first-year running back with the Tennessee Titans, is a hard-working, selfless, well-liked teammate. No matter how many yards Jarrett might gain in his career, you get the feeling Walter would have been proudest of that.

As Jarrett Payton made his first meaningful contributions in the NFL, the testimonials came pouring in.

Don Soldinger, his position coach at Miami (Fla.), said: "I love all the kids I've coached, but I love this guy's personality. He's just a special guy to me. He's a joy to have in the room."

Bart Andrus, Payton's coach in NFL Europe, said: "He's the kind of guy you want on your football team. He's just a gem to have around in terms of work ethic and attitude." Payton and Andrus spent just a few months together this spring with the Amsterdam Admirals, but the coach had plenty of stories to tell.

"Just to give you an example of the kind of team player he is," Andrus said, "we would be out at practice during the season, guys are being stretched, and all of a sudden he'd get up and run through the guys screaming at the top of his lungs: 'Is this the greatest job ever?' "That says it all about him. He's just totally overenthusiastic."

Sound familiar? Walter Payton played with incredible passion before retiring from the Chicago Bears after the 1987 season as the leading rusher in NFL history. Less than 12 years later, he died of bile duct cancer.

Dealing with his dad's death was just one of many obstacles Jarrett faced as he launched his football career. Walter died while Jarrett was a freshman at Miami. A series of injuries followed. He had to bide his time behind a bevy of future high draft picks (Clinton Portis, Willis McGahee, Frank Gore). For a while, the Hurricanes moved Payton to fullback.

He always thought back to his father's advice.

"Never die easy. Never give up," Jarrett Payton said. "Things aren't always going to be how you want them to be. If you keep working hard, eventually you'll get it."

Payton scored for the Titans in Week Five. (Getty Images)

Payton rushed for 985 yards as a fifth- year senior, and the Titans signed him as an undrafted free agent. Their coach, Jeff Fisher, was a teammate of Walter's, but this was no charity case. Jarrett Payton stuck on the Titans' practice squad throughout the '04 season and made the most of his NFL Europe allocation, averaging 5.6 yards per carry and scoring seven touchdowns.

When the Titans lost running back Travis Henry to a suspension, they activated Payton. In his first game, Oct.2, he carried four times for 37 yards. This past Sunday he scored his first touchdown. He always believed he would make it.

"Other people probably didn't, but I always knew I would," he said. "Things aren't always going to go as planned. There are going to be roadblocks, but you've got to look past all that. It helps off the field, too. That's how life is."

No one knows that better than Payton, who said he never tires of hearing stories about his dad. Andrus had one more about Walter's son. It happened just before the final play in Amsterdam's World Bowl victory.

"He just broke down," Andrus said. "He told us it was the first time he had cried since his father died. I'm not a psychologist, but I think a lot of it ended at that point. To me, he had graduated into being a little bit out of the shadow of his father."

Not that there's anything wrong with being in it.