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Blog: Sweetness

Today we interviewed Jeff Pearlman the author of Sweetness The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton. I've got to be completely honest, I was prepared to hate the book and question the author about why he would write such a negative portrayal after the man died. I formed my opinion by reading reviews and comments by prominent sports figures including one of my favorite ex Bears Mike Ditka. He said he would spit on Pearlman and had no respect for him. I was fully prepared to jump on the haters bandwagon and go down that road during the interview. Shame on me for almost closing my mind and feeling that way.

The book isn't just about the bad but the good as well...a complete biography. When asked about the fact that Payton is dead and can't respond to the negative aspects Pearlman responded by saying that issue was the lamest criticism he'd heard. His answer was a good question...so we can never write biographies about people who have died? Duh...no more books about Lincoln? JFK? He interviewed hundreds of people and according to him gives a complete picture of a football icon warts and all.

So thinking about it after interviewing Jeff I am most assuredly going to read the book and feel kinda bad that I felt the way I did . I'm always asking people to keep an open mind so I should have taken a bit of my own advice. I guess like Walter Payton I'm pretty flawed too. Sorry Jeff, and I'll give it a read.

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