His ultimate battle with illness truly proved him the champion he always had been and prompted a staggering outpouring of love and support from hundreds of thousands of friends and admirers. And when his playing days were over, he approached business and charity endeavors with the same determination and success he had brought to the football field, always putting first his devotion to friends and family. Drafted by the Bears in 1975, he predicted that he would last only five years but went on to play thirteen extraordinary seasons, a career earning him regular acknowledgment as one of the greatest players in the history of professional football. Growing up poor in Mississippi, he took up football to get girls' attention, and went on to become a Black College All-American at tiny Jackson State (during which time he was also a finalist in a Soul Train dance contest). Never Die Easy is Walter Payton's autobiography, told from the heart. Walter Payton was not just a football hero he was America's hero. Off the field, he was a devoted father whose charitable foundation benefited tens of thousands of children each year, and who-faced with terminal liver disease-refused to use his celebrity to gain a preferential position for organ donation. Walter Payton-the man they called Sweetness, for the way he ran-remains the most prolific running back in the history of the National Football League, the star of the Chicago Bears' only Super Bowl Championship, eleven times voted the most popular sports figure in Chicago's history. It's okay to lose, to die, but don't die without trying, without giving it your best.' His legacy is towering.

Why run out of bounds and die easy? Make that linebacker pay.

Never die easy by walter payton