Sweetness epitomized grit

Just stumbled across this MMQB item from earlier this year. Walter Payton is still my favorite player of all time. As I read the article I couldn't help but think about Pete and John constantly searching for guys with grit. Sweetness was that kind of guy. Sounds like the kid he befriended--now a scout for SD--is too. Maybe the Hawks can poach him from the Chargers. ;-)

http://mmqb.si.com/2015/03/31/walter-pa ... gers-scout

He and Randall Cunningham are my two all time favorite non seahawks. I think he's the closest comparison to marshawn lynch as we've had in the league.

JSeahawks":ss5kxwky said:

He and Randall Cunningham are my two all time favorite non seahawks. I think he's the closest comparison to marshawn lynch as we've had in the league.

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Earl Campbell.

Maulbert":1kiqnx45 said:

JSeahawks":1kiqnx45 said:

He and Randall Cunningham are my two all time favorite non seahawks. I think he's the closest comparison to marshawn lynch as we've had in the league.

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Earl Campbell.

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Both lynch and Payton were much shiftier then Campbell IMO. Although his best years were a little before my time so I don't remember him other than just highlights.

I've said before that both Walter and Marshawn display(ed) a similar never-say-die attitude on the field. Walter was smaller (as were defensive players back then), but he loved to punish guys before they managed to take him down.

Walter Payton was amazing and is my favorite non Seahawks running back of all time.

Payton was the ultimate football player. Marshawn has similarities in how he plays, though he's a little bit rougher around the edges off the field. But that is in part the different eras they played in. But between the lines, you couldn't ask for a more determined running back in either of them, who loved to run over DBs, but also loved to juke them silly, too.

I think Walter was a little bit smoother and shiftier, but neither shied from contact, unless he saw an opening. Both would lower their shoulder and drive into a would be tackler in ways that ensured they fell forward. I remember from his first years here, Marshawn may have run more yards behind the LOS than beyond it because of our crap O-line those days. It sometimes seemed that way. But never once made a public comment or remark, just strapped it up and took it on. I think his first two seasons were what really set the tone for the Seahawks in the Pete Carroll era.

Grit? You damn right. In spades.