Elfrid Payton (Canadian football)

Elfrid Payton Sr. (born September 22, 1967) is an American former all-star gridiron football player in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Payton graduated from Grambling State University.

Elfrid Payton

No. 56
Date of birth	(1967-09-22) September 22, 1967
Place of birth	Gretna, Louisiana, U.S.
Career information
CFL status	International
Position(s)	DE
Height	6 ft 3 in (191 cm)
Weight	245 lb (111 kg)
US college	Grambling State
Career history
As player
1991–1993	Winnipeg Blue Bombers
1994	Shreveport Pirates
1994–1995	Baltimore Stallions
1996–1999	Montreal Alouettes
2000	Winnipeg Blue Bombers
2001	Toronto Argonauts
2002–2003	Edmonton Eskimos
2004	Winnipeg Blue Bombers
Career highlights and awards
2× Grey Cup champion (1995, 2003)
CFL All-Star	1993, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002
CFL East All-Star	1993, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001
CFL West All-Star	2002
Awards	1993 James P. McCaffrey Trophy 2002 CFL Most Outstanding Defensive Player 2002 Dr. Beattie Martin Trophy
Career stats
Canadian Football Hall of Fame, 2010

Career

Payton played with seven different teams over the course of his career.

1991–1993 – Payton played with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, where he was an all-star and James P. McCaffrey Trophy winner in 1993.

1994 – Payton started the season with the Shreveport Pirates, but finished with the Grey Cup finalist Baltimore CFLers, registering twenty seven tackles and four sacks.

1995 – Payton had eighteen sacks in an all-star season with the Grey Cup champion Baltimore Stallions.

1996–1999 – Payton had three all-star seasons (1997, 1998 and 1999) with the Montreal Alouettes.

2000 – Payton returned to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

2001 – Payton was an all-star with the Toronto Argonauts.

2002–2003 – Payton played with the Edmonton Eskimos, where he won the CFL's Most Outstanding Defensive Player Award and was an all star in 2002, and won a Grey Cup in 2003.

2004 – Payton returned to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Payton played in 189 total regular season games, seventeen playoff games, and four Grey Cups. His 154 career sacks are the 2nd highest career total in CFL history.

Post-career

In 2010 Payton was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.

Payton's son, also named Elfrid, was a basketball player at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette who won the 2014 Lefty Driesell Award, and now plays for the New Orleans Pelicans of the National Basketball Association.