RIP Wayne Wilson #30

ktbarthedoor said
WW taught me that NFL players don’t let up until well out of bounds. Years ago I did sideline camera work, and he cleaned my clock on a sweep—knocked me into the wall below the cheap seats. RIP, sir. You hit hard!

That's an attitude or a persona that Wilson picked up or co-opted from Walter Payton that RBs should never die easy and run from sideline-to-sideline to just gain easy yards, that if their going to be tackled after a 5-10, 15 yard gain, or be stopped for a 3-yard loss, make those MF LB's, DB's or DE's earn it by showing they can drag your arse down, kicking and screaming. Wilson and most NFL RB's who entered the league in the late 70's or early 80's admired or saw Payton as an influence in their running styles and attitude. He was the Gen-X Jim Brown.

Never die easy. Never make it easy for opposing defensive players to bring you down and if possible, break their balls in their attempt to do so. It's an attitude Payton learned from watching guys like Larry Csonka barrel through people to win SB's, how Chuck Foreman in Minnesota could take a random short pass or draw play, and turn what was designed to be a 4-5 yard rollout into a 65-yard TD play to how later generations of RB's following Payton from Emmitt Smith, Marshall Faulk, Edgerrin James, L.T., who took his prototype model of a duel-purpose, workhorse RB and made it a permanent, pivotal aspect in game-breaking powerful offenses.