What They're Saying

“Jeff Pearlman does the work of first-rate biography in his addictively readable Sweetness. He presents Walter Payton in all of his flaws and contradictions, yet leaves you in the end with a much deeper appreciation of an uncommon man.”

—David Maraniss, author of When Pride Still Mattered

“Until now, we’ve known Walter Payton as a two-dimensional figure in football’s pantheon. Jeff Pearlman’s thorough biography, exhaustively researched and compellingly written, shows that beneath the Sweetness lay the raw stuff of mortality. Sweetness is the purest, and most poignant, of portraits.”

—Peter Richmond, author of Badasses: The Legend of Snake, Foo, Dr. Death, and John Madden’s Oakland Raiders

“Walter Payton’s life was thrilling, complicated, triumphant and turbulent, and it takes an artful storyteller to present it all properly. Thankfully for Payton—and for us, the readers of this splendid book—there is Jeff Pearlman to provide precisely the perfect touch.”

— Mike Vaccaro, New York Post

“Jeff Pearlman proves once again why he’s one of the best sports biographers in the country. This is easily the most comprehensive look at an historic National Football League figure. Pearlman will tell you things about Walter you didn’t know and he does so in a stylish, informative way.”

— Michael Freeman, author of Jim Brown: The Fierce Life of an American Hero

“With Sweetness, Jeff Pearlman joins that small group of men who can claim to have caught up with Walter Payton, with history’s most elusive football player. But Jeff’s the first to make that chase with love in his heart. This book is beautiful.”

— Chris Jones, author of Out of Orbit