http://www.freep.com/article/20090726/SPORTS01/90726010/1049/rss14 It has been 10 years since Barry Sanders quietly walked away from the Lions. Here are some other favorite facts and memories from his time with the Lions: • The Lions making the playoffs five times in his 10 seasons. • His nonchalant way of flipping the football to the referee after scoring a touchdown. • Rushing for over 2,000 yards in 1997. • His consistency -- he missed only nine games in his career and never had a season of fewer than 1,115 rushing yards. • How he hated being pulled in goal-line situations for a bigger back. • Reaching the Pro Bowl in every season. • How even if he had a bunch of one- and two-yard runs, he'd always bust out a long run at some point. • How the Lions' blocking scheme always seemed to call for him to beat a linebacker at the line of scrimmage. I hated him for walking away like he did, but I sure do miss watching him on Sunday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDIQEJayxO0 Barry made me love football. Barry had some of the most powerful legs in the history of the game. Breathtaking. I'll never forget the Monday night football game against the Cowboys where they were wearing their throwbacks and we won in overtime. Barry had an unbelievable game. I loved seeing Herman Moore and Brett Perriman giving Barry those downfield blocks. When Barry walked away I was in shock and disbelief and momentarily thought about giving up on football. It was like my spirit was torn from my heart. I'll never forgive the Lions for not trading him and giving him a chance to win with a contender when he retired. Rumor had it the Redskins were offering a lot of draft picks and we turned it down thinking Barry was going to come back. It was a lose-lose for the Lions. Nobody made a 2 yard loss look better than Barry. He was the most entertaining football player EVER. I don't ever remember seeing Barry take a hard hit. Nobody could ever get a clean shot on him, even from behind. It was like he had eyes on the back of his helmet. Speed, quickness, balance, power, vision...God couldn't create a better back.
Have you ever noticed in the highlights, it looked like there was 15 defenders in the backfield before Barry had the ball?
Hell yeah! There's a big reason why he rushed for the most negative yards in the history of the game. It was amazing what he did against the defenses that he faced week in and week out. That's what makes him even better than anybody else truly realizes if they didn't actually watch the games. Teams were putting 8-9 guys in the box every down and dared us to throw.
I got to see his 97 season as a little kid, was a pleasure to watch really. Most exciting style ever and just as good as any other RB. Him and Randy Moss made me more interested in the sport when I was just starting to care.
