Walter Payton, a running back for the Bears for 13 seasons during the 1970s and 80s, was one of the greatest football players of all time. Nicknamed “Sweetness,” Payton rushed over 100 yards in 77 games and over 1,200 yards in 10 seasons, including an NFL-best 1,852 in 1977. A Mississippi native, the 5-foot-10, 200-pound Payton, who wore a white headband under his helmet, became an icon in Chicago, whose beloved team he helped win Super Bowl XX. Acrobatic, versatile, and tenacious – “There’s never been a greater heart,” fellow Hall of Famer Jim Brown once said of him – Payton was just as revered off the field, where he was known as caring and approachable. After retiring in 1987 as the NFL’s all-time leading rusher (Emmitt Smith broke his record in 2002), Payton died in 1999, at age 45, of cancer. That year, the NFL renamed its “Man of the Year” award after him, an honor celebrating one player’s all-around excellence and positive influence on the community.