Former BYU Cougars quarterback Taysom Hill’s four-touchdown performance last Sunday for the New Orleans Saints certainly turned heads around the NFL, and it also landed him in elite company with one of the greatest football players of all-time.
With his three rushing touchdowns and one passing touchdown, Hill now has 21 rushing touchdowns, nine passing touchdowns and seven receiving touchdowns for his career.
According to the NFL Media Research Department, just one other player in the Super Bowl era (since the NFL and AFL merged in 1967) has tallied at least 20 rushing touchdowns, eight passing touchdowns and six receiving touchdowns in a career: Chicago Bears legend Walter “Sweetness” Payton.
For his career, which spanned from 1975-1987, Payton tallied 122 rushing touchdowns, 15 receiving touchdowns and nine passing touchdowns.
Payton, who died in 1999, became the NFL’s all-time rushing yards leader in 1984 and held the record until Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith broke it in 2002.