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https://sports.yahoo.com/frank-gore-is-nearing-walter-paytons-rushing-mark-and-paytons-son-couldnt-be-happier-for-his-exteammate-193016558.html
Jarrett Payton can now admit that Oct. 27, 2002, was an uncomfortable afternoon for him.
On that Sunday, the Dallas Cowboys’ Emmitt Smith surpassed Payton’s father, Walter, for No. 1 on the NFL’s all-time rushing list. Walter had asked Smith to watch over his son, and Jarrett and Smith have shared a special bond since that celebratory day.
Payton admits that on the inside, it wasn’t easy for his younger self to appreciate the moment.
“I’m at a different point now in my life now,” Payton told Yahoo Sports. “When Emmitt broke my dad’s record, I was in college. I was upset. I didn’t want him to break it. I was like, ‘I want my dad to be on top for all of time!’
“But now I am totally different.”
Jarrett was 21 when Smith broke his father’s record. This Nov. 1, it will have been 21 years since Jarrett lost his father to a rare liver disease. He turns 40 this year and has grown in many ways over the past several years, he says, especially as he has started his own family.
Now the idea of preserving his father’s spot in the rushing hierarchy is not something he is clinging onto. In fact, as one incredible NFL veteran — one whom Payton knows extremely well — inches within range of his father’s total, Payton said he’d be able to embrace the moment.
Smith leads the way with 18,355 rush yards, a total that might not be broken for generations. Walter Payton sits at No. 2 with a venerable 16,726.
And stunningly third on the list at 15,347 after passing the mighty Barry Sanders last season? None other than the ageless Frank Gore — Jarrett’s college teammate at Miami...... ------------------
One Hundred.
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