Cracking wise will have to take a bye week, sports fans.

It's gonna be tough trying to insult Browns fans, point and laugh at Mike Ditka, gloat in the Rams' trip-up and generally be a curmudgeon when the overwhelming feeling right now is one of sadness for Sweetness.

	It seems like just yesterday that Walter Payton was tearing up the field in the NFL.

Walter Payton is gone, and his death only makes you realize how fleeting our moments as football fans can be. Wasn't it just a few Sundays ago he was high-stepping his way into our living rooms, holding that ball like he was delivering a loaf of bread to the end zone?

Wasn't it just a couple Januarys ago that he was dancing the Super Bowl Shuffle on our TV screens?

Couldn't have been 13 years ago, could it?

Man. What a bummer.

The lesson to be learned: treasure it all while we may, fellow NFL zealots. Pump your fist for every Randy Moss haul-in. High-five your buddy for every Charles Woodson interception. Brave that bone-chilling December day at Lambeau to see Brett Favre make a football field into a ballet.

We had all the beauty the NFL has to offer just before our eyes on Sunday, Week 8 of our last season of the century.

In honor of the late, great one, let's make this week's List of Five a tribute to all that was Sweet about Week 8, and all that Sweetness would have enjoyed watching on his last NFL Sunday with us:

1. The sight of a Peyton Manning spiral landing in Marvin Harrison's hands.

Are we fully appreciating what we have brewing in Indianapolis? I don't know if Manning is going to be as decorated as Joe Montana. Shoot, four Super Bowls probably isn't in the cards in the salary-cap era. I don't know if he's going to pack the record books like Dan Marino. Hey, 60,000 yards is, um, like, a lot of yards. And I don't know if he's going to lead career-long comebacks like John Elway. Yo, that's pretty special stuff. But so is what Manning has turned into, and so has Harrison. These dudes froze Deion Sanders on Sunday for the winning score!

Indy? Good in football? Wow. The Colts' franchise hasn't won 10 games since 1977, back when the league was playing 14 games and back when Bert Jones was handing off to Lydell Mitchell and finding Raymond Chester over the middle. Can that talk. I'm calling it right now -- at least 10 for these sweet-to-watch Colts, and for the duo that might define the next decade.

2. The sight of Doug Flutie doing it ... again!

Fourth-and-15. Late fourth quarter. Bills down to the Ravens. Flutie drops back, way back in the pocket, dekes us all and then takes off running. Run, baby, run! How fresh was that, Flutie diving for that last yard for the 16-yard gain to keep the drive alive? And then to find Jonathan Linton for the winning score after a cross-the-field scramble. He is at that point where Fran Tarkenton meets the Energizer Bunny, stiff-arming Father Time and finding yet another Sunday of football, open for a first down. Sweet.

3. The thrill of the Giants, the agony of the Eagles.

This game gives us some crazy stuff, and if that wasn't the ghost of Joe Pisarcik with a headset on down on the Vet sidelines on Sunday, then I don't know what it was. That's the hilarious thing about our game: You just never freaking know. Eagles going to get a pound of flesh from the hated G-Men, try to legitimize their season, give everyone a sign that they're a club on the rise? Uh, yeah ... and don't look now, dudes, but that's Michael Strahan sprinting down the AstroTurf, stepping on your dreams every yard of the way. Great finish, great angst, sweet drama.

4. The sight of the Miami Dolphins and their bona fide NFL ground game.

Payton toted the pill 3,838 times, more than any back in league history. And now that Marino is down for the Dolphins, Miami coach Jimmy Johnson plans on giving his 1-2 rookie punch of Cecil (The Diesel) Collins and J.J. Johnson roughly 3,838 carries in the next few weeks. But why not? It's great to watch. Fresh, young legs churning as strong as ever in the fourth quarter, like they did in their victory over the Raiders. Even Oakland coach Jon Gruden, when he finished unscrunching his face after the game, said with a hint of near-awe in his voice: "That's football, right there." Just as Sweetness would have liked it.

5. The sheer exuberance of the first Cleveland win in four years.

It would have been kind of fun to see Cleveland go 0-16, just so I could write more columns about the fat guy in the dog mask and describe how he would spend his Decembers in a lonely, sad, unfurnished bachelor pad in suburban Cleveland, eating baked beans out of a can in a dark room lit only by the blue glow of a 3 a.m. NFL Films rerun on Otto Graham. But no! The fat guy in the dog mask got the last laugh, with a thrilling, chilling, Ditka-killing Hail Mary. How about that? Enjoy, Browns fans. Only one problem: Ditka was Payton's Super Bowl coach. No wonder Ditka handled himself with aplomb after the game.

He knew some things are more important. And he probably knew that, very soon, he would be missing Sweetness, as the greatest running back in NFL history high-stepped his way into heaven.

Brian Murphy of the San Francisco Examiner writes a weekly "Tuesday Morning Quarterback" column for ESPN.com.