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Barry Sanders

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Barry Sanders

Barry Sanders being carried off the field after becoming only the 3rd player in NFL history to rush for 2000 plus yards in a season.
Date of birth July 16, 1968
Place of birth Wichita, Kansas
Position(s) HB
College Oklahoma State
NFL Draft 1989 / Round Round 1/Pick 3
Pro Bowls 10
Statistics
Team(s)
1989 - 1998 Detroit Lions
College Hall of Fame
Pro Football Hall of Fame, 2004

Barry Sanders (born July 16, 1968) is a Hall of Fame and Heisman Trophy winning American football running back who spent his entire professional career with the Detroit Lions of the NFL. Sanders is best known for being among the most prolific running backs in NFL history, but he retired in his prime, leaving him just short of the all-time rushing record.

Contents

[edit] College career

Sanders played for the Oklahoma State Cowboys from 1986 to 1988. During his first two years, he backed up All-American Thurman Thomas. Thomas moved on to the NFL, and Sanders became the starter for his junior year.

In what has been called the greatest season in college football history,[1] Sanders led the nation by averaging 7.6 yards per carry and over 200 yards per game, including rushing for over 300 yards in four games. He set college football season records with 2,628 yards rushing, 3,249 total yards, most point (234), 39 touchdowns, of which 37 were rushing (also a record), 5 consecutive 200 yard games, scored at least 2 touchdowns in 11 consecutive games, and 9 times he scored at least 3 touchdowns. Sanders won the Heisman Trophy as the season's best player.[2]

[edit] Professional career

Sanders in action against Tampa Bay

After his junior year, Sanders left Oklahoma State and entered the NFL draft. The Detroit Lions selected Sanders with their 1st-round (3rd overall) pick in the 1989 draft. Though there were concerns about his size, it turned out these concerns were mostly unfounded. Sanders was far too quick for defenders to hit solidly on a consistent basis, and too strong to bring down with arm tackles. Though short at 5'8", Sanders was very stocky; his playing weight of 203 lb (91 kg) was the same as Walter Payton and only slightly under the NFL average for a back. Further, Sanders was able to dazzle onlookers at an ESPN slam dunk contest by jamming comfortably from a flat footed position demonstrating his other defining characteristic: explosiveness. Combined with his low center of gravity, also of note was his on-field humility. Despite his flashy playing style, Sanders was rarely seen celebrating after the whistle was blown instead he preferred to hand the ball to a referee or congratulate his teammates. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he never spiked the ball after a touchdown.

In his rookie year in 1989, Sanders missed training camp due to a contract dispute. Despite that, he ran for 18 yards on his first carry, and scored a touchdown on his fourth. He finished the season second in the NFL in rushing yards and touchdowns, and won the Rookie of the Year Award.[3]

In 1994, Sanders rushed for an impressive 1,883 yards, on an even more amazing 5.7 yards per carry. But he also totaled 283 receiving yards, which gave him a combined 2,166 yards from scrimmage for the season. This was one of Sanders most impressive feats, and it gave him the NFL's Offensive Player of the Year award. In 1995, Sanders posted 1,500 yards rushing with 398 receiving yards, barely beating his rushing total alone of the '94 season. In 1996, Sanders rushed for 1,553 yards with a career-low 147 receiving yards. Sanders greatest season came in 1997 (see below), when he rushed for a career-high 2,053 yards.

In Sanders last season in the NFL, 1998 he rushed for 1,491 yards, breaking the four-year streak of rushing for over 1,500 yards in a season.

Despite his individual success, the Lions never reached the Super Bowl while Sanders played for them. The closest they ever came was in the 1991 season. Aided by Sanders 1,855 combined rushing/receiving yards and 17 touchdowns during the season, they recorded a 12–4 record and went on to defeat the Dallas Cowboys 38–6 in the divisional playoffs, the Lions only playoff win since 1957. However, they were crushed by the Washington Redskins 41–10 in the NFC Championship Game, and Sanders was held to just 59 total yards. Detroit made the playoffs 4 more times during Sanders' career, but each time they were eliminated in the first round.

In Sanders' spectacular but fairly short career, he achieved Pro Bowl status in all of his 10 seasons as a pro. Sanders was named All-Pro from 1989-1991 and 1993-1997 and was named All-Pro second team the '89, '92, '93, '96, and '98. Sanders was also named All-NFC from 1989-1992 to 1994-1997. Sanders was named NFL Rookie of the Year in '89, Offensive Player of the Year in '94, MVP in '97, and was named to the 1990s NFL All-Decade team.

Sports Illustrated writer Paul Zimmerman wrote:

"It doesn't matter where the play is blocked; he'll find his own soft spot...The scheme doesn't matter with Sanders. He can run from any alignment. While other people are stuck with joints, he seems to have ball bearings in his legs that give him a mechanical advantage...Sanders' finest runs often occur when he takes the handoff and, with a couple of moves, turns the line of scrimmage into a broken field...Nobody has ever created such turmoil at the point of attack as Sanders has...Knock on wood, he seems indestructible..."

[edit] 1997 season

Barry Sanders' greatest season came in 1997. After a horrendous start in which he gained only 53 yards on 25 carries in the first two games of the season, Sanders rang off an NFL record 14 consecutive 100 yard games, including two 200 yard performances, en route to rushing for 2,053 yards. In reaching the 2,000 yard plateau, he became only the 3rd player to do so in a single season and the first since O. J. Simpsons to rush for 2,000 yards in a span of 14 consecutive games. He was the first running back to rush for 1,500 yards in five seasons and the only one to do it four consecutive years. At the end of the season, Sanders shared the Associated Press's NFL Most Valuable Player Award with Brett Favre.

[edit] Retirement

At the age of 30, Sanders stunned many when he announced his retirement from pro football. He left football healthy and in his prime, having gained 15,269 rushing yards, 2,921 receiving yards, 118 kickoff return yards, and 109 touchdowns (99 rushing and 10 receiving). He retired within a one-season striking distance of Walter Payton's career rushing mark of 16,726 yards. Only Payton and Emmitt Smith, who broke the record in 2002, have rushed for more yards than Sanders. Yet by comparison, Payton amassed his total in 13 seasons, while Smith did so in 15 (and surpassed Payton in his 13th season), while Sanders only played for 10. However, perhaps Sanders' most impressive statistical achievement was to join Jim Brown as the only players among the NFL's 50 all-time rushing leaders to average 5 yards a carry (only a handful manage above 4.5 yards per carry).

Sanders's retirement was a matter of some controversy. Two years beforehand, Sanders had renewed his contract with the Lions for $35.4 million over six years with an $11 million signing bonus. When he retired with several years left on his contract, the Lions demanded that he return $7.3 million of the bonus.[4] Sanders refused, and the Lions sued and eventually won a judgment against him. On February 15, 2000, arbitrator Sam Kagel ruled that Sanders was in default of his bonus agreement and owed $5.5 million plus interest over the next three years.[5]

Several years after retirement, and repeated refusals to discuss the abruptness of it, Sanders finally admitted that the culture of losing in the Lions' organization was too much to deal with even though he said that he could still play. He explained that it robbed him of his competitive spirit, and he saw no reason to believe things were going to improve. He also stated that there were tears in his eyes as the Lions lost the final game of his career the season before he left, because he knew in his heart he was never going to play another NFL game - "I sobbed for 3 months!"[6]

[edit] Personal life

As of 2007, Sanders lives in suburban Detroit with his wife Lauren Campbell (a former weekend news anchor in Detroit) and four children.

[edit] Career highlights

  • Sanders holds the NFL record for the most carries for negative yardage. This is due to his common practice of running backwards to avoid a tackle in hopes of breaking out an explosive run; this, however, often led to being brought down behind the line of scrimmage. According to the SI Book of Football, these numbers were 336 Carries for -952 Yards. That then says that he had "forward" runs of 2726 Carries for 16,221 Yards (Which would have left him 505 Yards behind Payton), for a 5.95 YPC average.
  • He set 34 NCAA records during his Heisman Campaign.
  • He holds the college single-season rushing record with 2,628 rushing yards in 1988 at Oklahoma State University.
  • As a receiver, Sanders made 352 receptions for 2,921 yards and 10 touchdowns for the Detroit Lions.
  • Sanders led the NFL in rushing four times. 1990, 1994, 1996, and 1997.
  • He rushed for over 1,500 yards in a season for an NFL record five times.
  • In 1988, Sanders won the Heisman Trophy while attending Oklahoma State University.
  • In the 1989 draft, he was selected in the 1st round (3rd overall) by the Detroit Lions.
  • In 1997, he set an NFL record by rushing for at least 100 yards in 14 consecutive games and became only the third player to reach 2,000 yards in a single season. He shared the NFL MVP award with Brett Favre.
  • During the final 14 games of the 1997 season Sanders rushed for exactly 2000 yards on 310 carries (6.5 yd./carry), a figure which bears comparison with O.J. Simpson's 14-game mark of 2003 yards on 332 carries (6.0 yd./carry).
  • Each of his 10 years from 1989 through 1998 he was first- or second-team All-Pro and selected to the Pro Bowl.
  • Over his professional career, he rushed for at least 100 yards in 76 games, just short of Walter Payton's 77 games and Emmitt Smith's 78 games, while playing three and five seasons fewer, respectively.
  • At the time of his retirement, Sanders' 15,269 career rushing yards placed him second behind Walter Payton's 16,726 yards. At Sanders' then-current yearly yardage pace, he would have eclipsed Payton within one or two years.
  • If Sanders had gained an additional 31 yards over the course of his 153 games, he would have been only the 2nd NFL runner to average 100 yards per game. (See Jim Brown)
  • His 18,190 career yards from scrimmage place him fourth on the all-time list.
  • In 1999, he was ranked number 12 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players, making him the highest-ranking Lions player.
  • On January 31, 2004, he was elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
  • On August 8, 2004, he was inducted to the Hall of Fame along with Bob Brown, Carl Eller, and John Elway.
  • On November 25, 2004, his jersey number #20 was retired before the Lions' annual Thanksgiving Day game. (It should be noted that the number was shared with former running back Billy Sims and Hall of Fame defensive back Lem Barney, who also attended the event.)

[edit] Career statistics

[edit] Regular season

¹Led league ²Second place ³Third place †Tied
Year Rushing Receiving Total
Att Yds Avg TD Rec Yds Avg TD Yds TD
1989 280 1,470² 5.3 142† 24 282 11.8 0 1,752³ 14
1990 255 1,304¹ 5.1 13³ 36 480 13.3 3 1,784² 16¹
1991 342² 1,548² 4.5 16¹ 41 307 7.5 1 1,855² 17¹
1992 3123† 1,352 4.3 9 29 225 7.8 1 1,577 10
1993 243 1,115 4.6 3 36 205 5.7 0 1,320 3
1994 331 1,883¹ 5.7 7 44 283 6.4 1 2,166¹ 8
1995 314 1,500² 4.8 11 48 398 8.3 1 1,898² 12
1996 307 1,553¹ 5.1 11 24 147 6.1 0 1,700³ 11
1997 335 2,053¹ 6.1 113† 33 305 9.2 3 2,358¹ 14³
1998 343 1,491 4.3 4 37 289 7.8 0 1,780 4
Total
(all-time) 		3,062
(4th) 		15,269
(3rd) 		5.0 99
(8th) 		352 2,921 8.3 10 18,190
(4th) 		109
(10th)

[edit] Trivia

  • Sanders is an unlockable boxer in the video game Knockout Kings 2002. He is a free agent running back in the Madden NFL games and ESPN NFL 2K5 video game in season mode if the player gets the Super Bowl MVP Award and wins the game.
  • Sanders is also known as one of the most unstoppable players in Tecmo Super Bowl, a Nintendo game that was incredibly popular during his early career. Many tournaments banned the Lions due the fact that using Sanders gave the team an almost unfair advantage. Other players with this quirk were Thurman Thomas and Bo Jackson.
  • Sanders appears in the original NFL Street as an unlockable legend and he can be created in NFL Street 2 as a player in his likeness.
  • Sanders appeared in Madden NFL 1999 as a member of the Detroit Lions, but he would later retire before the following season.
  • Sanders will appear on the cover of 2K Sports All-Pro Football 2K8.
  • Sanders reportedly was a member of the Detroit Lions because of former coach Wayne Fontes. The Lions' management wanted to draft another Sanders, cornerback Deion, but Fontes convinced them to draft Barry instead.
  • Sanders teamed up with ESPN's Kenny Mayne a few years after retirement and did a joke interview, stating his "retirement" was a result of miscommunication between Sanders and his coach Bobby Ross (Sanders saying he was "tired" and being misheard). The segment also made sure to point out that Sanders never spiked the ball during his career.
  • Sanders holds the record for the most yards gained on a Thanksgiving Day game.
  • In the Madden (video game) community, it is commonly referred to as playing like Barry Sanders when the juke and spin controls are used for domination.
  • With his very first kick return attempt in college at Oklahoma State, Barry Sanders took the ball all the way downfield for a touchdown. Then starting running back, Thurman Thomas looked at his coach and said, "This guy is gonna be pretty good."

[edit] References

Ron Knapp Sports Great Barry Sanders Revised Edition copyright date 1999 page 16

  1. ↑ Merron, Jeff. "Best individual college football seasons", ESPN. Retrieved on 2007-08-12.  Marron wrote, The only serious question when composing this list was "Who's No. 2?
  2. ↑ Heisman Trophy / 1988 - 54th Award. Retrieved on 2007-08-12.
  3. ↑ Marron, Jeff. "LT best NFL rookie of all time", ESPN. Retrieved on 2007-08-12. 
  4. ↑ http://www.sportslawnews.com/archive/articles%201999/Sandersbonus.htm
  5. ↑ "Ruling: Barry in default", Detroit News, 16 February 2000.
  6. ↑ In Their Own Words, NFL Network

[edit] External links

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