Walter Payton is a jazz bassist and sousaphonist from New Orleans, Louisiana.
He has played with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and the Young Tuxedo Brass Band, and leads his own group called the Snap Bean Band. He also taught music at New Orleans' McDonough 15 Elementary.
Payton is the father of jazz trumpet player Nicholas Payton.
Walter Jerry Payton (July 25, 1954 – November 1, 1999) was an American football player, who played for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League. He is remembered as one of the most prolific running backs in the history of American football. Payton, a nine-time Pro Bowl selection, once held the League’s record for most career rushing yards, touchdowns, carries, and many other categories. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1993. The NFL player and coach Mike Ditka described Payton as the greatest football player he had ever seen - but even greater as a human being. blank">Never Die Easy: The Autobiography of Walter Payton. _New York Times book review of Never Die Easy. Michael Lichtenstein, 2000.
Payton began his football career in Mississippi, and went on to have an outstanding collegiate football career at Jackson State University . He started his professional career with the Bears in 1975, who selected him as the 1975 Draft’s fourth overall pick. Payton proceeded to win two NFL Player of the Year Awards, and won Super Bowl XX with the 1985 Chicago Bears. After struggling with a rare liver disease for several months, Payton died in 1999 at the age of 45.
