Name: Walter Payton Is Fueled By The Haters | David Letterman
Uploaded: 2025-08-21T15:01:17.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Walter Payton Is Fueled By The Haters | David Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-08-21. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Walter Payton Is Fueled By The Haters | David Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-08-21. Transcript available.

Nice to see you. Congratulations on the record in October, and also the Bears
are in the playoffs, right?
Yes, it's true.
Is this the first time in recent history for the Bears?
Well, since I've been with the organization, we've been in there two other
times. This is the third time.
Have you got a good shot this time to go somewhere?
Well, up until yesterday, it looked real good.
It might be a possibility that we might be playing San Francisco in the first
round.
Yeah, yeah. Well...
Same thing I said.
Now, you got up this morning and flew in from Chicago, right?
Right.
And where do you play next week?
In Detroit.
So what kind of a schedule are you on here?
Well, uh...
Shouldn't you be somewhere besides here, is what I'm saying?
Well, since you mentioned it, we had practice this morning where we go in and
we watch the film of the game that we played.
Tuesdays are off days.
Now, what is that like? You get up this morning, are you sore and stiff from
the game before?
Well, it takes me until Thursday to get over the game on Sunday.
But today, what it would be like is that if we won the game, it's a lot of...
It's easy.
You know, we go through the film real fast, everybody's out and have a good
time.
When you lose, it seems like for 30 minutes, it takes four hours to go through
that whole thing.
Yeah.
And do you concentrate if there's a glaring mistake on the film or the videotape?
Is it frozen?
You analyze it, replay it, and you look at it again and again, and the
embarrassment mounts and...
You know, with what we have, we don't freeze it, but we just keep running it
back and forth.
And you just hope that the film just breaks when it comes to your time.
And you just found out something.
You were reading in the newspaper that yesterday was another landmark in your
career, wasn't it?
Yeah, I found out that I'd carried the ball 3,000 times in 10 years.
Good heavens.
Now, what is your current rushing yardage?
You want to know the truth?
Yeah.
I don't know.
You don't know.
I know it's over 13,000.
13,000.
And Jim Brown's record was what?
12,600 and something.
Wow.
Good heavens.
Now, Eric Dickerson yesterday just broke a Simpsons record for...
This was for a single season rushing.
I want to congratulate him on that because he's a tremendous athlete.
And I know it's...
Now, do you know OJ at all?
Yeah, I know him.
Is he going to be steamed about this?
Not at all.
You know, it's a funny thing because now that I'm in...
I've passed Jim Brown and I'm in a position for my record to be broken.
I can understand what he's going through and what he went through because no
one...
Even though, you know, he carries on like he doesn't bother me or anything, no
one wants to be topped.
And that's, you know, I guess that's a human characteristic.
Speaking of Jim Brown, now, what is the deal here with these guys?
What is...
They both lost their minds, right?
Franco and Jim.
They're going to...
It's like a...
What are they doing?
Like some sort of 100-yard race on Super Bowl Day?
Well, what it is, I think that Jim Brown, for a long time, had been giving us
some bad publicity about Franco.
And Franco has been kind of nonchalant about it when he was in the NFL.
Now that he's out, I guess it's a time where both of them can capitalize on
their sellability.
Yeah.
So they're going to race each other head-to-head 100 yards.
Now, how old is Jim Brown?
I think he's about...
I hope he doesn't get bad.
I think he's about 47.
I would think at least 47.
Yeah.
And Franco Harris is planning on playing another season.
Yeah.
So now who's going to win this race?
You want to know the truth?
Sure.
It's a toss-up.
Oh!
No.
It's not a toss-up.
I'm serious.
It doesn't matter that Jim Brown is older.
You know, I've seen Franco run.
And he's not known for his...
He's not really a speed merchant, as we say, is he?
I don't know if it's 100 yards or 40 yards.
Franco, when we were in Chicago doing the Donahue show, he said...
It was no way that Jim Brown was going to beat him in the 40 yards.
And when they turned to me and they said, what about you?
And then they said, well, we're only parts of you.
And then it came back to 100 yards.
I don't know.
Jim Brown, it might be a good race.
If I had to bet on it, I don't know.
I would probably hedge.
This would be something.
This could start a whole new competition.
Jim Brown just going around challenging people.
Would you beat Jim Brown now?
It depends on what you're talking about.
In the 40 yards?
Yeah, say 40 yards.
No doubt about it.
What about 100 yards?
No doubt about it.
Yeah.
What about a mile?
Of course you're going to beat him.
I could beat...
Well, no.
I want to talk about quarterbacking yesterday.
But before we get to that, when you're running, when you're playing,
and say you're having a good day or saying you're having maybe a subpar day,
do guys, do defensive team members, do they talk to you?
Do they needle you?
Do they say anything to you when a guy catches you?
A couple of things.
Unfortunately, we're on the air.
We can't say it.
But is there a lot of that sort of psychological bantering going back and forth?
Or is it friendly stuff?
They say, Walter, nice to see you.
Good luck.
How are your knees?
Well, it is a factor of intimidation out there.
Because they feel if they can get you thinking about them and not what you're
doing,
they've got the advantage.
And does it work at this stage?
You've been in the league a long time.
Does it bother you still?
Not at all.
Yeah.
What is the best thing to do if somebody is trying to gain a psychological
advantage on you like that?
I don't know.
Probably the worst thing to do is, like, what I can't stand is when I go into
another stadium
and I'm walking out onto the field and then the fans in the stands say,
Oh, we're going to get you today.
You're not going to do this.
You're not going to do that.
I can't deal with it.
That upsets me so bad that it makes me play better.
Oh.
Oh.
Yeah.
So, well, now the folks at other stadiums know not to do that.
Now, how is it determined that you get to be quarterback for a while on Sunday?
How did that happen?
I was hoping that you would overlook that.
Since you brought it up, when Jim McMahon got hurt, we put in an offense where
we used three running backs
and me as the guy who initiates everything.
And it was because we thought Jim would be back, but since he's not going to be
back,
we still used it because going into the playoffs, it makes other teams that are
going to defense us
have to work on more and you don't have that much time to work on things going
into the playoffs.
Was it fun for you to be quarterback?
Up until he called the first pass.
Then it got a little hairy, but it was enjoyable.
Yeah.
Now, what's the risk there?
Isn't it a possibility that somebody could dump on you and you'd be in trouble?
Well, the way our quarterbacks have been going down, it is a big risk.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, Detroit next week?
Detroit.
And then probably San Francisco in the playoffs?
You know, we hope that we can play them because if we do, that more or less
will show the people, you know,
what type of team that we have.
Well, if you beat those guys, yeah.
That's right.
You're in good shape, sure.
Yeah.
Nice to meet you, Walter.
It's a pleasure.
Thanks for your time.
I know you're very busy.
Thank you, Paul.
Let me explain that Paul Reiser will be rescheduled to be on another show as
soon as we possibly can.
I'm awfully sorry.
We ran out of time.
We'll see you tomorrow night.
Herbie Hancock and Burt Reynolds.
Thank you, folks.
Goodnight.