#12

 

BARRY SANDERS

It’s not going out on a limb to say that Barry Sanders was the most elusive running back in the NFL in the post–World War II era. Sanders may have been the most elusive player ever, but there’s no need to compare him to Red Grange, who was essentially the make-or-break player in the NFL when he was taken by George Halas on a barnstorming tour across the country back in the 1920s. However, after that tour was over, Grange played much of his career with an injured knee.

Sanders was a throwback in many ways because he was all about playing the game and running the football and had no interest in self-promotion, endorsements, or publicity. What he did have an interest in was making would-be tacklers miss. He was as good as any back who has ever played at making explosive plays and his 10-year career with the Detroit Lions was a monument to his quickness, explosiveness, and ability to confound opposing defenses.

Sanders served notice when he won the Heisman Trophy at Oklahoma State, but the NFL is strewn with Heisman failures. Sanders came in charging, fully confident in his ability to embarrass defenders with his talent for changing direction on a dime. Sanders could literally jump out of the way when faced with an oncoming tackler. No player had his lateral agility and that’s one of the reasons he was able to make so many great defensive players look so foolish. Vince Tobin was the defensive coordinator of the Chicago Bears when Sanders came into the league and remained in that position through the 1992 season. He saw Sanders twice a year in his first four seasons, and even though he was considered one of the best defensive game-planners of his era, he knew there was not much he could do against Sanders.

“You could come up with the best game plan in the world against Barry and you could make it work for three quarters of the game and he would be completely hemmed in,” Tobin said. “But then he would make something happen because of his leg strength and ability to get out of trouble. He had the ability to jump sideways and create a lane for himself. Nobody else could do that so how could you prepare for it? He’s hemmed in and you are just about to crush him and he jumps sideways and he’s gone. Nobody else could do that and I don’t think anyone else will.”

Sanders didn’t just frustrate coaches. He turned Hall of Fame players into unabashed fans who couldn’t believe their eyes. Fellow Heisman winner Marcus Allen was a brilliant back with the Raiders and Chiefs and will forever be remembered for his 74-yard touchdown run for the silver and black in Super Bowl XVIII against the Washington Redskins.

“I’d be watching the highlights on Sunday night and they would come to the Lions and Barry,” Allen recalled. “They’d show one of his runs and I’d be standing there with my mouth open. Then they’d show another and I couldn’t just sit there. I had to get on the phone. I might call Eric Dickerson or some other back. I’d say, ‘Yo, Dickerson, did you see what he did this time?’ That’s how good he was. I never even thought of doing that with anybody else.”

The late Walter Payton never lacked for self-confidence, but when he saw Sanders run with the ball, his opinion was definitive. “He was the best I ever saw,” Payton said. “He was better than me. I could not do the things he could do.”

Sanders ranks third all-time in NFL rushing yards, trailing only Emmitt Smith and Walter Payton. He had amassed 15,269 yards when he unexpectedly retired before the 1999 season. He decided that breaking Payton’s record of 16,726 yards was not all that important to him and it was Smith, who started in the NFL a year after Sanders, who eventually surpassed Payton’s mark.

Sanders had 14 games of at least 100 yards rushing in 1997 alone, the most ever in a single NFL season. He had 76 100-yard games in his career, second only to Payton’s 77. He scored 109 career touchdowns (99 rushing) and rushed for at least 1,100 yards in every season he played.

San Francisco 49ers head coach Mike Singletary made the Hall of Fame as a middle linebacker with the Bears. He played against Sanders eight times from 1989 through 1992 and that was enough to convince Singletary that Sanders was among the all-time greats.

“We had a pretty good defense with the Bears and we really didn’t pay much attention when we heard there was this back in Detroit who was pretty elusive,” Singletary said. “We were not going to be worried about some college star. But then when the first game started it was obvious that we hadn’t prepared adequately. He was too quick and too explosive. After that first game, we never took him lightly again but it really didn’t matter. He understood what it took to make big plays and he hit us lots of times.

“Part of the problem was his size. There were times when we just couldn’t find him behind the line of scrimmage. He was 5-foot-8 and he knew how to make himself look even smaller. So if you needed a split second to find him, there was no way you were ever going to be able to catch him.”

Frustrated by the lack of progress that the Lions had made and realizing that he had put in 10 outstanding years, Sanders walked away from the game and never came back. Detroit fans wanted nothing more than to see Sanders put on his No. 20 uniform and play again, but Sanders felt he had done enough.

“Why did I retire” Sanders asked. “My desire to not play was greater than my desire to play. It was just that simple.”

Sanders left $20.9 million in salary on the table when he walked away. “Maybe it wasn’t the best business decision but it was the right decision for me and I’ve never regretted it for a minute.”