Book: Walter Payton was addicted to laughing gas, morphine, and murderous thoughts

Darius
Darius Members Posts: 22,649 ✭✭✭✭
edited September 2011 in From the Cheap Seats
this is just an excerpt from a new book set to be released about the life of mr. payton. now grant it, this ? here probably only covers 1% of the book and its definitely been 'leaked' as to stir up controversy and interest in the book. Also, the author has a tendency to paint athletes in a troubled light. He's wrote about the '86 mets, Barry Bonds, and Rodger Clemens. But unlike those guys, Walter Payton is a guy adored by the league and fans, which is why its gonna ? alot of people off. probably even the league. but I'm sure only a small percentage of people are aware of the 'dark side' of his life which is why i think its good for a book to tell about it. to show that they are people. they aren't perfect, they aren't always what they appear, and they shouldn't be role models simply b/c they are good at a game. and i'm sure many people will say that they dont care about what these athletes do away from the game. thats such ? . they act like they dont care when its about a player they admire. With that said, here are the controversial parts.
The burden of loneliness and his marriage weren't Payton's only problems. As a player he had numbed his maladies with pills and liquids, usually supplied by the Bears. Payton popped Darvon robotically during his playing days, says [his longtime agent Bud] Holmes, "I'd see him walk out of the locker room with jars of painkillers, and he'd eat them like they were a snack", and also lathered his body with dimethyl sulfoxide, a topical analgesic commonly used to treat horses. Now that he was retired, the self-medicating only intensified. Payton habitually ingested a cocktail of Tylenol and Vicodin. In a particularly embarrassing episode, in 1988, Payton visited a handful of dental offices, complaining of severe tooth pain. He received several prescriptions for morphine and hit up a handful of drugstores to have them filled. When one of the pharmacists noticed the activity, he contacted the police, who arrived at Payton's house and discussed the situation. Payton was merely issued a warning. "Walter was pounding his body with medication," says Holmes. "I wish I knew how bad it was, but at the time I really didn't."

Back when Payton drove his own RV to Bears training camp, he used to load the rear of the vehicle with tanks of nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas. At nights and during breaks in the action, players sneaked into Payton's trailer, loaded the nitrous oxide into balloons, then carried them around while taking hits. The goofy laughter could be heard throughout the training facility.

On one particularly dark day in the mid-'90s, Payton wrote a friend a letter saying that Payton needed to get his life in order and was afraid of doing "something" he'd regret. In the note Payton admitted that he regularly contemplated suicide. Thinking about "the people I put into this f---ed-up situation," he wrote, "maybe it would be better if I just disappear." Payton said he imagined picking up his gun, murdering those around him, then turning the weapon on himself. "Every day something like this comes into my head," he wrote. He was distraught over these persistent thoughts about wanting to "hurt so many others" and not thinking "it is wrong." Payton ended the letter by admitting that he needed help but that he had nowhere to turn.
Walter's extramarital dalliances were becoming common knowledge throughout Chicago. He confided in those with whom he was close that when his children graduated from high school, he would divorce Connie [who declined to speak at length to the author] once and for all. "He didn't want the children to go through the rigors of a celebrity divorce," says Kimm Tucker, the executive director of Payton's charitable foundation. "He knew what the spotlight felt like when it was negative, and he hated the idea of Jarrett and Brittney experiencing any of that." Says his longtime friend Ron Atlas, "Walter knew that if he left Connie, all the work he'd done to his image would go by the wayside."
Shortly after he learned he'd been voted into the Hall of Fame, Payton spoke with Lita Gonzalez [not her real name], a New Jersey-based flight attendant with whom he'd been in a tempestuous relationship since they'd met at the Michael Spinks-Mike Tyson heavyweight title fight in Atlantic City in 1988. "I'm coming to the ceremony," Gonzalez said. "There's no way I'd miss it." The last thing Payton needed was to have his Hall of Fame weekend complicated and compromised. But Lita was coming, and she expected to be treated as his girlfriend. "She was insisting she be seated in the front row," says Tucker. "We said, 'Lita, are you insane? We're marketing this man as a family-friendly spokesperson. His whole image is based around decency. You will ruin him.


Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/football/nfl/09/27/walterpayton.book/index.html#ixzz1ZOw0Jnwt

Comments

  • Darius
    Darius Members Posts: 22,649 ✭✭✭✭
    edited September 2011
    and i understand his body took a beating and he had to take addictive pain medication. but driving an RV around with a nitrous tank on the bag aint regular. neither is having a gas filled balloon in your hand at any given point in the day
  • dc's teflondon
    dc's teflondon Members Posts: 5,895 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited September 2011
    ? probably led to his health problems later in life
  • Darius
    Darius Members Posts: 22,649 ✭✭✭✭
    edited September 2011
    ? probably led to his health problems later in life

    cosign.

    come to think of it. the lack of food in some places probably leads to alot of starvation
  • Gooner
    Gooner Members Posts: 9,761 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited September 2011
    matt- wrote: »
    cosign.

    come to think of it. the lack of food in some places probably leads to alot of starvation

    lol...i jus saw this on the local news...but yea this isnt a good look at all for his image but ppl love him so much this will b swept under the rug
  • Darius
    Darius Members Posts: 22,649 ✭✭✭✭
    edited September 2011
    lol...i jus saw this on the local news...but yea this isnt a good look at all for his image but ppl love him so much this will b swept under the rug

    yeah. its gonna give a whole new meaning to the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award.

    oh and

    After struggling with the rare liver disease primary sclerosing cholangitis for several months, Payton died on November 1, 1999, aged 45, from cholangiocarcinoma. His legacy includes the Walter Payton Award, the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, and a heightened awareness of the need for ? donations.


    considering abuse of pain killers 'n such can destroy a liver, its pretty obvious it killed him. and its probably better than his foundation raise awareness to promote dangers of the medications to nfl players, and to everyday citizens instead of promoting ? donation
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