Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award

With the Super Bowl approaching and the finalists having been announced for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award, I think this would be a good time to talk about the man himself, Walter Payton. The NFL Man of the Year Award was renamed to include Walter Payton's name after he passed away in 1977 to honor his memory. His widow, Connie Payton, is one of the members of the panel of judges.

Walter Payton has been on my mind quite a bit lately. It doesn't hurt that he's a Hall of Famer or that he's being talked about a lot on sports news stations. It also doesn't hurt that he's another one of our Keepr NFL Legends (a title he definitely deserves). So, I picked up his Keepr and plugged it into my laptop and let it take me back. Flipping through the photos I saw one from Superbowl XX. I remember that game. The Chicago Bears decimated the New England Patriots 46-10. I flipped through a bunch more and was astonished once again when Walter Payton goes airborne to earn his 100th career touch down.

After flipping through his career photos, I watched his career through interviews and game footage. After watching the Hall of Fame speech of this former RB of Chicago Bears, there's no doubt in mind he is one of the most prolific running backs to ever play the game. He's easily in the same category as Lenny Moore and Franco Harris. I can remember watching him put a move on somebody and everybody would dive of the waist line and he'd be to the right or the left. He was just a phenomenal running back and an over all great guy. He was just an exciting player to watch. He was a guy who had moves that nobody else had. He was absolutely exciting to watch. The fans LOVED him.  

Franco Harris is a Keepr

Franco Harris was probably one of the great running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers ever.  He was in there with Terry Bradshaw and they played phenomenal. This past weekend was the anniversary of Harris’ immaculate reception and it has me fondly recalling the memory. I was at the game of the immaculate reception. The immaculate reception was a deflected ball that Harris caught and ran in for a touchdown. It was a phenomenal catch and a great run after the catch. The ball was almost on the ground and he caught it. It was so low and it was amazing. Some think that the ball touched the ground but I think it was just a great catch. They definitely went to and won the Super Bowl on that play itself. It is the play that made Franco Harris go down in NFL history and made him a Keepr.

Franco Harris was a very special athlete. He lasted a long time in the league and went to the pro-bowl 9 times during his career.  They had a great team. Chuck Noll was the coach who came from Baltimore over to Pittsburgh. He put the team together and got them really focused. They’ve done a pretty good job.

I knew a lot of Pittsburgh guys because I was born in Pittsburgh but grew up in Cleveland. So, when they played each other it was tough for me to decide who to cheer for.

In the 60’s, Pittsburgh wasn’t a great team and when we (Baltimore Colts) played them, they were an easier team to beat. Then, around the time of the immaculate reception that changed and they became a great team. Franco Harris deserves to be in the pro-football hall of fame, there’s no doubt about that. He really is an NFL Legend.

DC Channel 8 Interview

I apologize for the few and far between blog posts recently. I have been very busy with interviews and other schedule tying events related to the NFL Keepr. This video posted below is one of my more recent interviews from last week with Alex Parker on WJLA Channel 8 Sports Talk.