The Baker's Dozen

It’s hard to believe it’s been a decade since Bears’ legend Walter Payton succumbed to liver cancer at the age of 45.  Sunday is the anniversary of the day we lost “Sweetness”, but it won’t be a bittersweet moment for his widow Connie, or his children Jarrett and Brittney.  The Payton family has spent the past 10 years grieving, and growing without Walter.  CBS 2’s Ryan Baker sat down with Connie and Jarrett to find out what life has been like for them since losing a husband, father, and friend.

 They believe he’d be proud of what they’ve become, as they live out the legacy of #34.   “I know I have him in my mind all the time and I see him through the kids and everything they do,” Connie Payton-Strotter said.  Jarrett added, “Yeah, it’s starting to seem like 10 years.  With all of the things that have happened between there.  All the things the family has done, all of the stuff that we’ve done together, stuff on my own, getting married, stuff like that, you start to see how long time is.  I still feel like yesterday that day with the press conference (when Walter Payton reveled his liver disease) and I was holding my dad in my arms…time passes”.   

“I'm happy to say we’re all at good places right now,” said Payton-Strotter.  “I Just recently remarried to someone who admired Walter and loved Walter, and my mother-in-law, who’s graciously accepted him too and says he reminds her of Walter too, so we’re all at a great place.  He’s happy for us where we are right now”.   She says Jarrett looks and acts more like his father as he gets older.  “He does and there are things that he’d do personality wise, and sometimes the way he sounds, and even Brittany.  I look at her and I’m like ‘gosh, she’s definitely her dad’s daughter’”.  “I feel like him, I just do,” said Jarrett.  “ I modeled myself after him.  Everybody has their heroes, everybody has the person who they look up to.  I was fortunate to have him living in my house.  I see myself in him so much because everything I always wanted to be, I strived to be like him”.  “He’ll never be forgotten.  People always ask me, ‘do you get sad when people talk about your dad?’  I said I’ll be sad if people ever stop talking about my dad”.

The Bears will remember Walter Payton and honor the 10-year anniversary of his death with a ceremony during Sunday’s game against the Cleveland Browns.  “There will be tears I’m sure, they’ll be happy tears, joyful tears.  I’m happy that we can be in the presence of people who truly love the Chicago Bears and who truly loved Walter.  It’s a celebration”.

Nicknames are often repeated in sports, but there's never been another Sweetness.  "Other than me, Sweetness J," says Jarrett.  "Sweet 'n Low, Neutrasweet...I've heard alof of those".  "He (my dad) said I wasn't the biggest, I wasn't the fastest, but I was the smartest.  "On the field he was so sweet.  They'll never be another one."  Certainly not as sweet.

In all due respect, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame doesn't come close to the sanctity of Cooperstown or Canton when it comes to sports shrines.  However, a breath of His Airness has elevated this hoops mecca above the heavenly hosts.  Springfield, MA has never seen the star power the likes of Michael Jordan, which is saying something considering Russell, Chamberlain, West, Magic, Bird, and Jabbar have already passed this way.  As we know in Chicago, Jordan has a way of stealing the show.  Ironically, in the midst of all of the festivities surrounding his induction of the Greatest among the greats, he's trying to do the one thing that finally made him a champion.  Pass the ball.  Jordan is going out of his way to deflect the spotlight away from him and on to his fellow '09 Hall classmates...David Robinson, John Stockton, Jerry Sloan, and C.Vivian Stringer.  MJ isn't talking to ANYBODY.  Well, almost anybody.  I managed to cross him over and steal a minute of his time as he was leaving the Hall of Fame dinner Thursday night.  It was a quick exchange but quite revealing.  I asked him if going into the Hall of Fame...the biggest "duh" moment in the history of sports...tops his million mile long list of accomplishments.  Jordan's reply was, "It has to.  Right after the birth of my kids and the Olympics".  Okay, I get Jeffrey, Marcus, and Jasmine coming first.  But the Hall over his six rings with the Bulls?  It showed be how much he respects the game and his peers who have played it and paved the way for him to become the icon he continues to be today.  I'll get a chance to ask him a few more questions in a few minutes when the Hall of Fame press conference begins.  Check back with you in a bit...

People ask me all the time, "who is the most famous person you've ever interviewed?".  My response is always, "besides Michael Jordan?".  The tougher query is, "what is your favorite Michael Jordan moment?".  Very well...where do I begin?  I'd need a Baker's Triple Dozen to list them all, but to narrow MJ's magical moments down to one is quite a trick.  I've made you make some tough choices this week as we countdown to MJ's induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame...the biggest no-brainer in the history of sports.  Jordan's "Magical" shot against the Lakers in the '91 Finals vs. him "Blazing 3's" on Portland in the 92 Finals.  How about His Airness "Posterizing Patrick Ewing" vs. "Flying from the FT line" to win the '88 Slam Dunk contest at the old Stadium?  Whew!!  The "Dagger" to kill Cleveland in '89 or "The Shot" in Utah to win Championship #6.  Decisions, decisions.  The truth of the matter is, they're all the best.  As indelible as they and countless other jawdroppers are, none of them are my most memorable.  As a kid growing up in the near South suburbs of Chicago, I never thought I'd be rubbing shoulders with the G.O.A.T.  I've been fortunate enough to witness MJ up close, and see what it is that makes him tick.  His mantra is, in the words of Jay-Z, "I WILL NOT LOSE!!".   He talks just as much trash or more playing cards with his boys and standing over a 12 foot putt as he did abusing opponents on the court.  His fierce competitive fire has been a blessing and a curse.  I'm sure he wishes he could've been a better husband and father.  On Friday he'll receive the ultimate honor for being driven to un-bull-evable limits.  I'll be there in Springfield, MA to witness "His Airness'"crowning achievement.  I'll be talking to you from there.    

Out of the mouths of babes....sometimes comes slobber.  Like his fellow tweener Derrick Rose a few months earlier, Patrick Kane drooled all over himself with his weekend arrest for allegedly beating up a Buffalo cab driver with his cousin.  I'm pretty sure his mugshot isn't the picture EA Sports had in mind when they made him the cover boy for their NHL 10 video game.  Also like D-Rose is with the Bulls, Kaner is #1 pick, Rookie of the Year, the face of the Blackhawks franchise and one of the NHL's emerging young stars.  While both of these phenoms perform like seasoned pros while playing their respective sports, we often forget they're much closer to pueberty than they are to being grown men.  Neither of them will be able to legally buy a beer until they both turn 21 later this fall (although I suspect both have had a "pop" or two).  Kane and Rose may already be millionaires but all the money can't in the world can't buy you maturity.  20-year old kids...even those in the media spotlight carrying the enormous weight of a team and city on their scrawny shoulders...often do stupid, dumb, thoughtless, reckless, and immature things (I know I did....thank God there were no camera phones then!!!).  While inexcusable, foolish behavior like flashing gang signs or roughing up a cabbie over $.20 shouldn't come as a complete shock.  (really? 20 cents?  I know times are hard, by c'mon Kaner!).  One of my favorite sayings is, "youth is wasted on the young".  Clearly, Patrick Kane and Derrick Rose aren't squandering their athletic talents.  Let's hope they learn a thing or two after skinning their knees....in front of all of us. 

I don't think anyone is shocked or surprised that the other shoe...or syringe...finally dropped with Sammy Sosa.  Watching Slammin' Sammy transform from the skinny kid he was when he played for the Sox, into the chiseled body builder he became with Cubs is all the physical evidence a person with eyes should need to know he was popping more than Flintstone vitamins.  The "smoking gun" the New York Times provided just confirms long held suspensions about Sosa's steroid use.  According to the report, he tested positive for a performance enhancing drug in 2003, along with 103 other players, including Alex Rodriguez.  The results of those tests were supposed to be kept confidential by Major League Baseball and the Players Union.  Somebody snitched.  That bothers me as much as Sammy "forgetting" how to speaking English while he was lying in front of Congress.  Why are we picking and choosing which big fish gets reeled in to be filleted and fried by the media and fans?  Is it because somebody had it out for A-Rod and Sammy?  There were a lot of slimy creatures caught up in the League's net when it finally decided to put some shark teeth into its drug testing program.  Let's see all the names of who was doping up and be done with this mess once and for all.  By the way, it's interesting that the story about Sammy failing a drug test SIX years ago surfaced a couple of weeks after he spoke of "camly awaiting his induction into the Hall of Fame" with his 609 career homers.  Just coincidence, right?  Of course, no one from Commissioner Bud Lite all the way down to the team owners, GM's, and Managers had a problem with the superstars juicing up when Sammy and Big Mac were putting butts in the seats when baseball was on life support in the 90's.  I'm not saying we should let Sammy off the hook for cheating, but the waters were tainted by a culture he didn't create and cultivate alone.  Come clean about who was juicing, but say it ain't JUST Sosa. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy

The Super Bowl....World Series...NBA Finals....Final Four.....Kentucky Derby.  I've covered them all, but absolutely nothing compares to the unbridled excitement, enthusiasm, and euphoria I've experienced here in DC during the Inauguration festivities.  It's utterly amazing how for these 48 hours the country seems to truly be a United States of America.  What's catching to me how everyone is trying to capture his or her piece of history.  I'm walking out the door now to grab mine at the swearing in ceremony.  I'll keep you posted.

 

Obama Woooo!!

As I sit here at my gate at Midway Airport waiting to board flight #243 to Baltimore, the enormity of the situation at hand has finally hit me.  The Inauguration of our 44th President, Barack Obama, must be the THE most monumental event of this generation and a possibly of this century if   Ronnie "Woo Woo" Wickers is making the trip.  My first celebrity sighting before I even get to DC.  In all seriousness, hearing Woo Woo break out in one of his trademark chants signifies how special and unique this moment is.  I'll be updating you on my travels as I witness history.  In the meantime, I'm glad I brought my noise cancelling ear phones.  It's going to be a long flight with Woo Woo on board.

Have you missed me?  I apologize for the writer's block, but here's a fresh Baker's Dozen out of the oven just in time for the holidays...

1.  Who's Dumb and Dumber?  Pro athletes packing heat in public, or shady politicians on the take?

2.  Okay...O.J. Simpson may be tops on the stupid list.

3.  If the Guvna is guilty, I think his memoir should be titled, "The Audacity of a Dope".

4.  We'll see if the Yankees ask for a bailout after giving Cha-Ching $abathia 161 million bucks.

5.  The Cubs are infatuated with their "Pet Peav", but how about picking up a player who won't disappear in the playoffs?

6.  Kenny Williams has something up his sleeve.  He better.  The President-elect is watching.

7.  There will be a big time college football playoff before Barack Obama leaves office.  I'll bet a Blago jail sentence on it.

8.  Orange ya glad Derrick Rose ended up with only 10 stiches after his apple cutting fiasco?  We know the kid can slice and dice, but c'mon?

9.  Drew Gooden should be in one of those Christmas specials with his "Mr. Heat Miser" beard.

10.  At least somebody got in the Hall of Fame this week.  Way to go Fitz!

11.  I'm glad Ron Santo has his jersey retired at Wrigley.

12.  How did the Bears go from Super Bowl to a mediocre team?  Lovie will have alot of time ponder that question if he doesn't get back to the playoffs.

13.  Here's an early stocking stuffer for you.  It's my You Tube moment from the Newsapalooza charity event with Richard Marx.  Neither the late, great Donny Hathaway, nor Chris Brown have anything to worry about.  As for Randy Watson....

Here’s the link: http://cbs2chicago.com/video/?id=52357@wbbm.dayport.com

Check me out on the Bruce Weber Show on the Big Ten Network this Illini Hoops season...and hit me up on Facebook!