1976 Topps Walter Payton Rookie #148 SGC Gold Label Pristine 100....

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One of only two Gold Labels in over 1,300 submissions!

1976 Topps Walter Payton Rookie #148 SGC Gold Label Pristine 100. In the thirteen seasons following his first round acquisition in the 1975 NFL draft, this superstar running back refashioned the record books in his image, claiming the top ranking in a vast array of career categories including rushing yards, touchdowns, carries, yards from scrimmage, all-purpose yards and more. His coach and a Hall of Fame player in his own right, Mike Ditka, called Payton the greatest football player he'd ever seen, but an even greater human being.

Today the annual award presented to the NFL player offering the greatest service to his community fittingly bears Payton's name. Those hoping for the next incarnation of the iconic Gale Sayers saw Payton's 679 yards in 1975 as a considerable disappointment and worried that their first draft pick had been wasted.

They were wrong. Payton more than doubled his production in 1976 and earned his first of nine Pro Bowl appearances. In 1977, he'd set a single-game record of 275 yard while playing with a 101-degree fever, and go on to lead the NFL in rushing yards for the season. With each successive Sunday, the number 148 card of the 1976 Topps Football set more firmly established itself as the decade's most coveted cardboard, and Payton as the face of the Chicago Bears.

Presented is the very finest trading card heralding the arrival of this Windy City icon, one of just two to garner the maddeningly elusive SGC "Gold Label" to denote "Pristine 100" condition. To provide some context for just how much "sweetness" that Gold Label adds, we remind bidders that a 1986-87 Fleer Michael Jordan rookie housed in a gilded SGC slab commanded a world record $420,000 in our August 2020 Platinum Night auction, nearly quadrupling the price achieved for a PSA Gem Mint 10 example in the same sale.