Don't Spit on Payton's Biographer

Jeff Pearlman, a Sports Illustrated writer and author of numerous sports books including biographies of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, must be nostalgic for the days when the only people angry with him were his subjects. His new biography, Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton, has apparently united the nationâ??s third-largest city against him. This is because, in Payton, a running back for the Chicago Bears from 1975 to 1987, Pearlman picked the antithesis of Clemens and Bonds: as close as professional sports, and certainly the National Football League, ever comes to a plaster saint. Pearlmanâ??s book portrays Payton, who died in 1999, as a human beingâ??a legendary player and great spirit but a tormented, sometimes selfish, and entirely imperfect man.  For following his responsibility to the truth, not to the wishes of Paytonâ??s many admirers, Pearlman has been condemned widely by football fans, received â??vicious threats,â? and earned the scorn of some of Paytonâ??s old teammates. Mike Ditka, who coached Payton in Chicago, called Pearlman â??a gutless individualâ? and said heâ??d spit on him.