“Never die easy. Why would you run out of bounds and die easy? Make that linebacker pay. It carries to all facets of life.
It’s o. k. to lose, to die, but don’t die without trying, without giving it your best. ” This words inspired me in my own life.
I believe that Walter Payton is a great role model because he is a great football player and is a great person through his good works and kindness. He shows this by his exceptional skill on and off of the football field. Walter Payton was born in Columbia, Mississippi on July 25, 1954.He was born to an verage poor family with his sister Pam, his brother, Eddie, and his father and mother.
They lived in a town called Hendrick Street where whites were wealthier than blacks and nobody thought twice about it. Walter never grew up knowing what racism was, he just knew it was a feeling. He knew when he should and shouldn’t do something, and that was just the way it was. During the summer, Walter loved to make up games and new sports to play with his neighbors.
They would just go out into the fields everyday barefoot and play tag football, where Walter learned to get his great speed and quick jolts.He learned how to avoid the tacklers all through his life just from playing tag football out in the fields. During the summer, Walter would always get into trouble with his brother Eddie. Walters mother, Connie Payton, in order to stop Walter from getting into any trouble would order piles and piles of piles of dirt and would force Walter and Eddie to get wheelbarrows full of that dirt to spread around in the gardens.
They would sometimes spend hours a day doing that. “That was the hardest work of all” ,says Walter, “spreading the dirt around would build me up so much, there were no weights needing to be ifted”. ( Never Die Easy . 19) Walter attended high school in John J.
Jefferson High, an all black school. It was right next to the all white school, Columbia High.Than the U. S.
Supreme Court decided to enforce the integrate all schools by 1970. Walter was never the “big man on campus”. He was a drummer for the high school band for his freshman year, before Jefferson and Columbia were integrated. Than, Walters brother Eddie, persuaded Walter to join the football team.
Eddie was already a jock running back for Jefferson who was popular. Everyone thought that Walter had to gain some of hose genes from his brother. So Walter agreed and by his junior year was playing for Jefferson High in a starting position at running back.Walter was a star the second he stepped foot on that field.
He never knew but he said it just came to him that where he needed to run, he ran, and when he needed to lower his shoulder, he would lower it. That’s when the two schools, Jefferson, and Columbia integrated. Nobody was too anxious to integrate. They just thought they were going to get treated like dirt at the other school and nobody would speak to each other.
Walter, though was excited to show off his skills. During the first practice of the season for the new Columbia High, Walter was called into a play. They coach called in also one of the best linebackers on the high school team in. He was a senior and nobody could get past him.
The ball was hiked and Walter just ran. The next thing you knew, the senior was laying on the ground shocked. He could not believe that a junior could knock him down. That is when he realized that football was going to be in his life for a lot longer than he could ever imagine.
