Walter Payton

First, he took flight, stretching his torso across the goal line and ascending to a level his opponents simply couldn’t reach. Then, as he often did throughout his 13-year run, Walter Payton elevated a bit more on Oct. 7, 1984, leapfrogging every player to lace their cleats on the NFL’s all-time rushing leaderboard. Walter Payton’s 34-touch afternoon was sprinkled with sweet plays, one after another for Chicago, but few plays rivaled his one-yard touchdown before halftime — headlined by a patented superhero-like leap — or the six-yard run that left him immortalized in the record books. In the Bears’ 20-7 win over the New Orleans Saints, Payton paired his climbing to No. 1 all-time with 32 carries for 154 yards and a touchdown, alongside two catches for 11 yards.