Walter Payton had Matt Suhey. Brian Piccolo had Gale Sayers. Ed McCaskey remembers both relationships too well. When McCaskey visited Piccolo in a New York hospital in 1970, the reserve running back was in the final stages of cancer.
“Tears popped out of my eyes,” McCaskey said. “He was gasping for breath. He looked up and said: `Don’t worry Big Ed. I’m not afraid of anything. Only (Ray) Nitschke.”‘
Now chairman emeritus of the Bears, McCaskey was driving to Payton’s house Monday, but never got there. Payton wanted to see him.
Instead, Suhey delivered a message: “Walter said, `Tell Pops to bet the No. 3 horse in the fourth race.’ “
Payton and Piccolo, Bears pranksters, died young but will live long.
Sayers’ famous New York speech, written by McCaskey and immortalized in the film, “Brian’s Song,” is repeated today from church pulpits. Sayers, accepting the George S. Halas Award for courage from the Pro Football Writers for his comeback from knee surgery, said:
“You flatter me by giving me this award, but I tell you here and now that I accept it for Brian Piccolo. Brian Piccolo is the man of courage who should receive the George S. Halas Award. It is mine tonight, it is Brian Piccolo’s tomorrow.. . . I love Brian Piccolo and I’d like all of you to love him too. Tonight when you hit your knees, please ask God to love him.”
Sayers was ill himself and unable to be in New York when Piccolo died, but he visited most every weekend. There were other teammates who were close, like Ralph Kurek. But Sayers was Piccolo’s roommate.
“He was right there to the end,” McCaskey said. “The loyal, devoted, self-sacrificing friend. The same thing happened here (with Suhey and Payton).”
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Suhey was with Payton every step of the way, even though Suhey would prefer nobody knew it.
“He’s been remarkable staying in the shade,” McCaskey said.
During the 1969 season, only the Bears knew something was wrong.
“My locker was right next to Piccolo’s in Wrigley Field,” linebacker Doug Buffone said. “Brian was coughing and I asked what’s wrong. He was always kidding and he said: `Aw, I got cancer.’ He didn’t know.”
Piccolo could hardly breathe in the game against Atlanta. He was sent for tests, which found the lump in his chest. Sayers gave a dedication speech the following week before a game against Baltimore that Colts quarterback Johnny Unitas evidently didn’t hear. The Bears lost again during their 1-13 season.
“Can’t you guys do anything right?” Piccolo asked.
Suhey offered to drive Payton to Mike Singletary’s house 10 days before the Hall of Fame running back died. Payton would provide directions. He turned Suhey into a trick-or-treater, sending him unaware to unsuspecting doors while he laughed in the car.
Suhey and Payton were not roommates. Payton roomed with Roland Harper, then roomed alone. Choosing roommates isn’t as touchy as it was 32 years ago. Piccolo and Sayers were the first to break the unwritten team color barrier in 1967.
McCaskey remembers going to Halas with the idea.
“If you have Gale’s permission, it’s all right,” Halas said.
Sayers agreed.
“Why did you go to Sayers first?” Piccolo asked.
McCaskey explained: “He’s the star.”
Piccolo replied: “I’ll room with him. But he can’t use the toilet.”
“In those days,” Buffone said, “it was more of a big deal than now. It was paired up automatically, black with black and white with white. Those two guys were the first ones to really do that.”
Piccolo, like Payton, thought he would beat his disease.
“Let’s get out of here,” he would tell wife, Joy. “This place is full of sick people.”
For his fourth and final trip to the hospital, Piccolo refused a wheelchair. There was hope until a doctor told Joy: “There is evidence of cancer in the liver.”
Piccolo was only 26 when he died. His story lives 29 years later.
Bears former strength coach Clyde Emrich believes people miss the point when they think of Payton dying young.
“He was given 90 years and he lived them all in 45,” Emrich said.
Piccolo’s story required books by Jeannie Morris and Sayers and a movie to eventually tell. Payton’s story received 1,002,782 hits from 54 countries on the Bears’ Web site by Thursday afternoon. And if anybody besides McCaskey played the No. 3 horse in the fourth race at Hawthorne Wednesday, they are winners.
“Paid $12,” McCaskey said.
Courage and humor, friendship and love transcend time and race, celebrity and disease.
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