It’s final now
The decision’s made
So I pack up and dip in the Escalade Cause I belong now
NFL passed me
You ask me
I’m so happy now
I hope that my dad sees
The workin’ finally paid off.
First lines of the rap song “I Belong” by Jarrett Payton
The telephone rang in Chicago, and he didn’t answer. He didn’t recognize the number. The phone rang again, and still he hesitated. The area code was foreign, and he had no idea who was calling. The phone rang a third time, and curiosity got the better of him. Jarrett Payton said hello.
The caller identified himself as Jim Popp, head coach of the Montreal Alouettes, a team in the Canadian Football League. Payton moved swiftly to his computer and googled Jim Popp’s name. A CFL Web site appeared on the screen, and as Popp continued with his introduction, Payton silently read the same biographical information that the coach was imparting almost word for word in his ear.
“We spoke for at least an hour,” Payton recalled. “I had the ability to talk to him like I knew him already. I sensed he had a plan for me.”
So last week Payton arrived in Montreal accompanied by his mother, Connie, to begin a new chapter of his football career.
Popp believed the versatile 26-year-old running back would fit in well with the Alouettes, a team with a long and storied history. In the last five seasons the Alouettes have won one CFL championship Grey Cup and made three trips to the Cup finals. They have revived football in Montreal, recording 71 consecutive sellouts at Molson Stadium.
“I try to find unique people who care as much as I care about the things we do here,” Popp said.
He was impressed with Payton’s conversational skills on that first call.
“More than anything,” Popp said, “he had a sincere interest. There was excitement about the opportunity.”
For Payton, the call made him feel wanted. It was a feeling he had not had for some time.
Last week in Montreal — between opening a Canadian bank account, going for his first jog on the downtown streets, practicing a few tentative phrases in French, showing his mother his rental apartment and introducing her to Popp — Payton reflected on a difficult period in his life and the challenge ahead.
His release last September from the Tennessee Titans came as an unexpected blow. He signed with the team as an undrafted free agent in 2005 out of the University of Miami and was allocated to NFL Europe, playing in the summer of 2005 for the Amsterdam Admirals. Payton said he loved playing in Europe, where he was embraced by the fans and helped the Admirals to victory in World Bowl XIII.
He returned to the Titans for the 2005 season, played in 13 games and fully expected to be on the roster the following year. The last thing he expected in 2006, Payton says, was his release. When it happened, he left Tennessee and returned to Chicago, where he moved in with his mother, who had recently sold the family’s suburban home and bought a condominium.
He was down, Payton says, but not defeated. He did not suffer a crisis of confidence.
“I had no doubts about my ability to play the game,” Payton said.
Determined to stay in shape and to keep marketing himself to NFL teams, Payton began a tough training regimen that included three sessions of boxing a week. He drew some interest from teams around the NFL, but no takers. Then the call came from Canada.
Payton, who routinely expresses his thoughts in a hip-hop style his mother aptly likens to poetry, detailed his feelings after visiting Montreal during a frigid spell in February and signing a one-year contract with the Alouettes.
I got the gift and the curse
Wish for the worst
In Montreal before I finish the verse
I found a mellow set/
What was better yet
I signed
JP now an Alouette
Got a battle yet
I’m just right for the job
It feels so right.
When Popp phoned Payton the first time, the coach never mentioned Jarrett’s famous dad, or, as Jarrett would put it, “the gift and the curse.” It was a purposeful omission. Even though Popp revered Walter Payton as a kid, wore his number when he started playing sports, has a picture of him hanging on his office wall and even named one of his daughters Hayley Payton, Popp kept Walter Payton out of the conversation when he first spoke with Jarrett.
“Jarrett is Jarrett,” Popp said. “He’s not Walter. I did not know Walter. I knew about him. In my opinion, he’s the greatest football player ever. But I will treat Jarrett as Jarrett. I will never say, ‘You need to be your dad.’ “
In death, Jarrett and Connie Payton believe, Walter Payton looms even larger than in life. They have witnessed Walter’s legend grow in the years since he died of liver cancer in 1999. Almost every day, Jarrett meets someone who brings up his father, and indeed, Jarrett himself keeps the memory very much alive.
He wears a silver dog tag around his neck engraved with the words “Never Die Easy,” a motto Walter adopted from his college coach at Jackson State. On Jarrett’s right biceps are two tattoos: his father’s unmistakable face and, underneath it, a more recent tattoo of No. 34 in a Bears uniform as he reaches for a football with the Chicago skyline in the background. Jarrett’s number — 33 — is there, too, floating near his father.
Connie Payton isn’t crazy about the tattoos, but acknowledges they carry for her son a deep family connection — a gift and a curse.
“I think sometimes my name hinders me from getting a fair shake,” Jarrett said without rancor. “In all aspects, people say I’m like him.”
He welcomes the comparison but also feels the burden. Even when he was 14 and a standout soccer player participating in games around Illinois, people would yell from the sidelines, “You’ll never be like your dad.”
Jarrett says that in Montreal he has three goals for the year: play football after a lengthy hiatus, win a Grey Cup and learn about a new culture. In the last instance, he can claim an identity distinct from his father. When camp begins the first week of June, Jarrett will have played professional football for three teams in three countries. As for what lies further down the road, Payton says he would not be completely truthful if he didn’t admit to thinking about returning to the NFL someday.
“It’s what I know,” he said.
Jim Popp understands Payton’s sentiments. He comes from North Carolina and dreamed of playing in the NFL himself until he blew out a knee playing for Michigan State. He has been affiliated with the CFL for 16 years now, and he believes Jarrett will come to realize the positive aspects of playing in Canada.
“You’ve got to find happiness, and you’ve got to find respect,” Popp said. “The CFL will offer you just about everything you want.”
As a loving mother, Connie Payton dearly wants her son to find his place in the game.
“I have no doubt he can play in the NFL,” she said, “but I feel good about his move to Montreal. It’s nice to be wanted. And it’s nice when people believe in you.”
