PAYTON’S
SWEETNESS

Topics: Compassion; Empathy; Ministry

References: 1 Corinthians 12:26; Ephesians 4:32; 1 Peter 3:8

After ten seasons as place kicker with the Chicago Bears, Bob Thomas was notified by the management that he was being cut.

Thomas, a born-again Christian, waited until he knew the locker room would be cleared of players to clear out his things. He didn’t have the emotional strength to face the players he’d grown to love. His celebrated teammate, Walter Payton, another believer, learned about Thomas’s termination and waited alone at the kicker’s locker. When Bob saw Walter, he buried his face in the running back’s chest and allowed his friend and fellow Christian to comfort him.

After Walter Payton’s death in 1999, Thomas recalled that emotional moment in the locker room. “To share your grief with a Hall of Fame running back with that kind of compassion, empathy, and ability is really my fondest memory of the guy we called Sweetness,” he said.

—Christy Gutowski, “Payton’s Was a Shoulder to Cry On,” Daily Herald, Suburban Chicago, Illinois (November 2, 1999)