Here is the statement from Virginia McCaskey, daughter of Bears founder George Halas:

After Brian Piccolo died, my husband, Ed, and I promised ourselves that we wouldn't get so personally involved with any of the players, and we were able to follow that resolve until Walter Payton came into our lives. You all know what a difference that he's made for all of us - for the National Football League.

I'm trying to think of words that bring Walter Payton to me, and the first one that comes to mind is excellence and the second one is class and the third one is fun, because that was a big part of everyone's contact with Walter in one way or another.

Almost six years ago Ed and I moved from our big house to a little house and we had to distribute many of our treasures. We have a lot of game balls and mementos, and even though our children had dibs on the ones from Walter, we said no, we're taking those to the little house and we'll find a good place for them, and we do have those balls now.

We hoped to make a difference for Walter with our organ donor commitments and our prayers, and now we have just our prayers, for Walter and his family and for all of us. Thank you.