Twenty years out. And a lot of time. And plenty of sad and acrimonious water under the bridge. An estrangement between Sanders and the Lions ensued because of a dispute over money. By , the famous story Nike mural of Sanders was scraped off the side of the Cadillac Tower that overlooks Campus Martius in downtown Detroit. Eventually, Sanders and the Lions patched things up. In , he rejoined the Lions in a paid role as a team ambassador and said he plans to make an appearance at training camp this year.
Twenty years is a long time. But not to Sanders. Time has flown, as far as that. So that part is fun. Memories are funny things. They are highly subjective and can belie the truth. Twenty years is indeed a long time. An entire young generation of Lions fans who never saw Sanders play in person could tell you that. And, really, so could Sanders.
He knows what his year-old body tells him when he listens to its creaks and groans. Because like just about everyone else who watched Barry Sanders play, Barry Sanders also misses what Barry Sanders could do. Facebook Twitter Email. Carlos Monarrez Detroit Free Press. Show Caption. Emmitt Smith, at TDs, averaged 0.
Again, Brown played in many fewer games, though he averaged 0. Alexander makes this list despite playing just nine seasons, and scoring just 11 touchdowns in his final three seasons. Speaking of what could have been, Sanders fell just short of TDs thanks to just four rushing scores in his final season. In fact, Vardell also had six rushing TDs in , and all of those came from the 1.
Yes, according to pro-football-reference. Peterson may pass Sanders in overall plus-yard TDs, but three of his long TDs fall outside the year span. Oh, and if you were wondering about the real long-distance threat of a plus-yard touchdown, Peterson is first with 16, though just 14 came in his first 10 seasons.
Sanders had 15 over his career. Who would you rather have? Contact Ryan Ford at rford freepress. Follow him on Twitter theford. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter. I have enjoyed playing for two great head coaches, Wayne Fontes and Bobby Ross, who are good coaches and leaders. I am not involved in a salary dispute of any kind.
If I had played this season, I would have earned a more than satisfactory salary. The reason I am retiring is simple: My desire to exit the game is greater than my desire to remain in it. I have searched my heart through and through and feel comfortable with this decision. Lions management, coaches, players and fans studied that announcement for any hint of who was to blame.
This was a player with four years left on a contract, signed just one year prior. At the time he signed, the Lions made him the highest-paid player in NFL history. He was showing few signs of slowing down. Sanders rushing totals for the previous five seasons were 1,, 1,, 1,, 2, and 1, Those years also produced three of his top-four seasons for rushing yards-per-carry of 5. This was a healthy star at the peak of his powers, with years left on a new contract.
Was it the general manager? His last contract negotiation was difficult, with Sanders holding out from mini-camp. Was it head coach Bobby Ross?
It was well known that Ross was a stern taskmaster who ran the team much differently than his teddy bear predecessor, Wayne Fontes. Was it ownership?
Carrying the unbearable weight of a losing culture on his shoulders for ten years must have been quite the burden. Was Barry turning his back on the fans? After all the support he received, didn't he have an obligation to honor his commitment and play out the contract? Everyone needed to speculate because Sanders disappeared after the announcement. Like an off-tackle run where he reversed to the opposite side of the field, Barry boarded a plane to London for a European vacation.
No one heard from him for weeks, while management, coaches and players were left to awkwardly answer questions to reporters. In hindsight, those involved in the organization knew something was brewing and everyone with an agenda attempted to steer Sanders into staying. On the return flight from the final game in Baltimore, Sanders told defensive linemen, Robert Porcher and Tracy Scroggins, that this was his last game.
His two teammates spent the entire flight trying to understand where he was coming from. Stay one more year and break the record. Ah, the career rushing title. One of the greatest records in all of sports, it was held at the time by the legendary Walter Payton. Everyone associated with the Detroit Lions wanted Barry to break that record. When he won the Heisman Trophy after his junior year at Oklahoma State, his linemen had to force him to accept the award on live TV from Tokyo, where his team was preparing for a bowl game.
Barry was planning to blow off the ceremony for the most coveted individual award in the sport of the football. He only went when he saw how much it meant to the linemen who blocked for him. In the final game of the season, Sanders needed yards to finish as the league's rushing champion.
With a comfortable lead against the Atlanta Falcons and yards in the game, Barry told head coach Wayne Fontes to put in his backup , "Coach, let's just win it and go home.
When asked after the season if he regretted the decision to pass on the rushing title, Sanders was nonplussed. I don't want to ever fall victim to that. Convincing Barry Sanders to stay for an individual record was a dead end. Teammates had a much better chance of guilting him to stay because they couldn't run the ball without him.
Indeed, the Lions leading rusher in the first year after Barry's retirement was Greg Hill with a paltry yards on the season. Coach Bobby Ross knew something was up.
After missing a team mini-camp, Ross stayed in character and gave Sanders a deadline of June 1st to make a decision. That date came and went without a response from Barry. Of course, now that Ross had egg on his face, he wanted everyone to know how nice he tried to play. One year earlier, Ross arrived as new head coach while Sanders was holding out during his contract negotiation.
But he's as far behind as you can be. This is his team. I think he should be here. Every minute he's missing is valuable time. This may be part of the game, but I don't have to like it. Given how Bobby Ross started their relationship with petty, public complaints, it was no surprise that his calls went unreturned. It wasn't Barry's style to err his grievances publicly but his father, William Sanders, always had plenty to say. Earlier that summer, the elder Sanders shared strong words for the coaching staff.
He doesn't need a fullback and a tight end in front of him slowing him. I think it's worse under Bobby Ross. That guy he's got running his offense [offensive coordinator Sylvester Croom] doesn't have any imagination whatsoever. From a fan's perspective, I sympathize with that viewpoint. I used to play drinking games with friends where we guessed the next play from the Lions offense.
The person doing the guessing rarely had to take a drink of beer. William Sanders wasn't the only person critical of that coaching staff.
Barry's replacement at running back later reflected on the offensive coordinator, Sylvester Croom. Three running plays. Like, three.
And we got four later on in the year. Like one, two, three, four. Barry Sanders to the right. Barry Sanders to the left.
Barry Sanders draw. I don't recall the fourth play that Hill talked about it but doesn't sound like they changed up much once they lost their Hall of Fame backfield talent. The team in was loaded with young stars.
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