While I was growing up, my father was a racist. However, he refrained from referring to Walter Payton as the “N” word. At 10 years old, I asked him why. As he stammered on about how much of an upstanding man and hard worker Walter Payton was, I realized that Sweetness was a man of enough character to make a racist aware of his own bigotry and hypocrisy. I learned a lot that day. I learned a lot about what it was to be a man. I loved Walter Payton for changing and softening the heart of my father. The Bears won the Superbowl that year and I danced the superbowl shuffle with my dad. Bear down.