The exhibition A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Yards: Sports Photography of Walter Payton opened alongside the exhibition Sweetness: The Walter Payton Story at the Lake County Forest Preserves’ Lake County Discovery Museum on October 2, 2004.

Both exhibitions celebrate the life and achievements of one of football’s greatest legends and one of the best people ever to grace the city of Chicago.

For the Picture is Worth A Thousand Yards exhibition, professional sports photographers were asked to contribute their favorite photographs of Walter Payton.

The resulting images stand as a visual testament to the great skill, driving passion, and sweet nature of Payton, as well as to the skill of the photographers and to the art of sports photography.