RIP Wayne Wilson #30 (1 Viewer)

[SigFreudianSlip]

RIP.

 

[PanicFootball]

When we were first married, we lived in an apartment on Ackel Drive in Metairie.
This was pretty close to the Saints training facility on David Dr. We found out that Wilson, Dave Waymer and several other players lived there.
One day, driving to Schweges - we see Waymer, Wilson, and Chuck Muncie playing football in the street!!!!
Good times. Bad teams, but good times.

 

[St.Dan]

Sad to see this. Wilson on many occasions ran harder and with more hunger than the more heralded Rogers. Here’s an old game that showed how he ran. 34 totes for 160 yards against the Dolphins in 1983…

 

[FlySaint]

I definitely enjoyed watching him run…smooth!

 

[UFCSaint]

New Orleans Saints mourn loss of Wayne Wilson

Damn. I still remember the Wilson T. We had a running back in high school who reminded me so much of Wilson with his running style and they both shared the same jersey nunber. He has passed as well. RIP guys

 

[woohoosaint]

RIP!

 

[ktbarthedoor]

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!

 

[strandedsaint]

Wayne Wilson was a good guy on a crappy team! Thank you #30 for all your efforts! RIP

 

[syracuse saint]

Sad to see this. Wilson on many occasions ran harder and with more hunger than the more heralded Rogers. Here’s an old game that showed how he ran. 34 totes for 160 yards against the Dolphins in 1983…

Thanks for posting this game link. It was fun to watch.

 

[El Caliente]

I keep reading this as Lil Wayne.

 

[Saintman2884]

Sad to see this. Wilson on many occasions ran harder and with more hunger than the more heralded Rogers. Here’s an old game that showed how he ran. 34 totes for 160 yards against the Dolphins in 1983…

Dan, while Wayne Wilson was a hard-working, hard-nosed, angry runner for some mediocre-at-best, borderline terrible Saints teams of the early-to-mid 80's, what's even sadder and more regrettable is that his once-teammate, the now-deceased Chuck Muncie who began his career in 1976 and had some outstanding seasons here in N.O. but also in San Diego under "Air Coryell's" explosive offense until 1984 when Corryell got sick of Muncie's pathetic, ridiculous excuses that hid a much deeper, sicker personal drug problem and kicked him off the team, and his career collapsed after that. Muncie, easily, couldve been a HOF-caliber RB if he'd applied himself more, and displayed a better, more mature professional attitude during his playing career. Most of his former Saints, Chargers teammates like Wes Chandler, Kellen Winslow Sr., Tony Galbreath, Derland Moore, Dan Fouts have all echoed this sentiment. Muncie said himself he was a pure, natural athlete who rarely ever got injured, and if it werent for his drug/maturity issues (which were interconnected) he could've played for 15 years and when he sees great players inducted into Canton or duel-purpose RB's like Roger Craig who won SB's and had better overall statistics, he agonizingly knows he's as good as they are, intrinsically.

What's even more sobering is that if you set aside his intangibles, his strengths as a RB or WR out of the backfield, you see those factors at work and wonder why in the hell he never totally utilized those gifts. Jim Brown once remarked that Muncie's biggest problem "was that he didnt know where his own head really was".

I sort of have these same feelings for Led Zeppelin, although they were infinitely more successful, popular and influential in their chosen profession as one of rock's greatest acts, live bands, legendary, epic songs and album themes, as hallowed and revered as they were (and still were), I still believe they never completely reached their full, apex-predator height as a band, in essence, I believe that they still had 2-3, maybe more albums left in them before John Bonham died and well, the Ubermensch responsible for creating Jimmy Page's "Hammer of the Gods" dynamic drum sound can't be replaced or re-created and they wisely and morally broke up.

 

[Saintman2884]

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.