WHERE YOU BEEN?
Where you been? You used to ask.
Walter Payton did it all with so much class.
You ran further than anyone of your time.
All the while you never bitched or whined.
In a game about being tough and making money,
You were called “Sweetness”, cuz you were as smooth as honey.
Those who stood in the way fell like diabetics,
To your talent, stiff arm, and pure athletics.

Do you remember the glory days at Soldier Field?
You were like a run away bus forgetting to yield.
Do you remember when we went all the way?
Ditka didn’t let us score, he was so ashamed.
He let everyone else have their moment of glory, 
Maybe someone should have told him, you wrote the story.
Then you retired at the top of your game,
Our life, the Chicago Bears, and football would never be the same.

As the years passed I wondered, where you been?
But then you came and said you needed our prayers to win.
Disease had attacked your liver and I didn’t understand.
You didn’t drink and by all accounts you were a good man.
You took your last hand-off that cold November 1999, 
“Sweetness” became an angel, crossing that eternal goal line.
Now it seems so clear as to where you been.
Right here in my mind and heart, showing me how to win.