Walter Payton and Devin Hester

Since the Bears season was over and because Walter Payton was one of the primary reasons I became a bears fan, I was trolling YouTube for Walter Payton Highlights.

I missed out on Walter's best years, since I'd never even seen a football game prior to 83 when Channel 4 started showing games in the UK. For some reason the game just grabbed me to the point that I played for a year on one of the UK teams circa 1989 despite running up an overdraft to pay for the equipment. Fact is I was a bad 3rd string running back the year I played, 1 carry for 3 yards if I remember correctly and couple of blown kick coverages even if I was faster than most of the guys in pads.

But Walter Payton is the reason I'm a Bears fan and to a large extent the reason I watch football, so I sometimes like to watch highlights especially with such a dismal season to look back on. Someone had posted highlights of Hester on the ChicagoBears.com boards, and I was scanning those. Anyway while drinking single malt scotch and watching said highlights I was surprised by the similarities.

Not that Hester looked vaguely like Payton, Unless he suddenly starts running people over they're very different players. But specifically in their ability to set up blocks, Payton was a surprisingly patient back and watching him set up his down field blocks reminded me of Hester doing the same on kick returns, moving left and right just enough to miss on coming tacklers waiting for the opportunity to explode downfield.......

Hester is enough to make me ache for the 2008 season in Chicago, as Payton was enough to make me root for Chicago in the mid 80's when the NFL was first shown on British television.

There are a lot of off season questions to be answered by the Chicago Bears, but at some level those answers don't matter to me. I'm a fan and I support them regardless, of course I prefer them to win. And through my "fan only rose tinted spectacles", right now I fully expect them to be champions next year.