Jarrett Payton Podcast: Finishing My Football Career Back In Chicago

Lost Lettermen: This is Jim Weber from LostLettermen.com and I’m joined by Miami’s Jarrett Payton, son of the great Walter Payton.Jarrett, what’s the reaction like in Chicago to be signed by the Chicago Slaughter of the Indoor Football League?
Jarrett Payton: It’s actually been kind of crazy. I think Chicago fans and people are kind of excited because they’ve watched me grow up as a little kid and watched me play high school and kind of watched me become a man and then follow my career. And now it’s funny I end up in Chicago and people have a chance to actually come watch me play a sport in Chicago. It’s actually, really a dream come true.

LL: When did you first hear about the Slaughter and when did you know this was going to be a reality moving from Toronto back to Chicago?
JP: Once I figured out that Toronto really wasn’t going to use me to all of my abilities and I just kind of felt like it was time for me to come home. November 1st was the ten-year anniversary of my dad’s passing, so my foundation and family kind of needed someone to be here, to actually be able to hold the fort down. And when I came home, I was actually not even thinking about football anymore. I was thinking about my different career moves and then next thing you know I got a call. And it just kind of fit.
I would say it’s like a marriage. When you meet that right person you kind of feel like it’s right and that’s how this felt. And I just feel like I was just going to go with it and enjoy my last few years of football playing here in Chicago.

LL: What’s it going to be like playing for his old teammate, Steve McMichael?
JP: Steve is an unbelievable guy, a competitor, a guy who loves to win; kind of the same mentality as my dad and all those guys from the ’85 Bears team are very special. But to be with him is kind of surreal. He played with my dad and I get to play with him. I know when I signed my dad was watching down, kind of smiling, thinking, “Oh no, this is going to be crazy.”

LL: Yeah, what’s it going to be like when you run out on the field? Are you definitely going to have it in the back of your mind, playing in Chicago?
JP: Oh definitely, and now having the number 34 and wearing that and what that symbolizes and everybody’s talking about “We have another 34 back at home” – it’s very special. I don’t really feel any nerves or feel like I have to do this or do that, it’s just really calming I can compete back at home with my family and friends. A lot of my friends didn’t get to see me play because I used to play in Tennessee or I was in Montreal or Toronto and now that I’m back at home, people are just very excited to be able to come out and watch me play.

LL: Could you talk a little bit more about your connection with the city of Chicago? As you’ve said they’ve watched you grow up, you gave your father’s Hall of Fame speech, you were married at Soldier Field. Everyone just connects you with that city.
JP: Yeah, you know it’s funny. When people think about my dad, they think of him as being from Chicago and he was born in Mississippi. So Chicago has adopted us as their family and it’s funny that some people say my family is the Kennedys of Chicago. I laugh at that all the time because people have watched us grow up. My mom says all the time that there’s no door that you can’t go to and knock on that a person from Chicago not take her in if she ever needed anything. And I think that’s a special part of being here.

I laugh and joke because I don’t think we’ll ever be able to leave Chicago. And I’m fine with that though, because this is the place that I call home and the people of Chicago are like a second family to me.

LL: I wanna also talk to you about your music career. How much time are you going to have for that now that you’re going to be playing for the Slaughter?
JP: Music is actually going to … I think it’s a good thing that I’m home because now I actually get a chance to be in my studio here in Chicago and I’m actually in the process today of going to record more stuff for finishing up the next mix tape called “More Bars in More Places.”

It’s actually going to be featured, hopefully on, there’s a Web site called datpiff.com. So that’s where I’m going to probably release it when it comes out, hopefully in the next month.

Football and music go hand-in-hand and without each other I don’t feel whole. So I try to do both and if I can’t record, I’m always writing. But at this time football will come first.

LL: What do you think of a remix to the Super Bowl Shuffle? I’m sure you’ve been asked that question many times.
JP: (laughs) Yeah I have. All I know is if someone does it … people have been telling me a lot of different stories that Kanye West wants to remix it and all these different things. I just want to put it out there if anyone is going to remix my dad’s part, I better be a part of it. (laughs)

LL: Also we’ve seen the Peeze blog. You’ve seemed to build a really big following there. How did that get started and why the Lil Wayne-inspired name?
JP: Well the Lil Wayne-inspired name … we actually got the name probably around the same time. When I was in college my sophomore year is when Lil Wayne got his name. And I was staying in the Sigma Chi dorm in Miami in the summer time because it was right across the street from campus and it was only like $100 dollars every month. And you know, as a college kid, your budget is kind of small.

So we only had one phone in the house and one of my dorm room guys, he used to just yell my name just “Peeze!” And it kind of just stuck and the blog came after all that. I don’t know, I like to talk to people. I think this whole social media thing is unbelievable and I need to talk to people who are fans of mine, fans of my dad and interact with people all day long. And I’ve created a base on all of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Facebook is where there’s almost about 70,000 people. So to be able to be in contact with that many people is unbelievable.



(lostlettermen.com)