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Misleading title. Should be “Barry Sanders explains AGAIN why he decided to retire…just like he has before.”
He finally reveals why he retired: says exactly what he said 20 years ago. Incredible story.
So absolutely nothing new and Amazon made a pointless documentary on it. Cool, I’ll save some time and just watch his highlights again on YouTube.
I never understood the details of why this was an issue or question, maybe for the contract stuff signed before the retirement. He played 10 seasons as an elite RB in the 90s. To have that level of success for a decade is amazing. Only three seasons he didn’t play every game but still more than 10/season.
I lived in the same town as Barry as a kid. One day my brother had a baseball game at one of the high schools and me and two of the other younger brothers were out walking around. We went on the football field and there was Barry fucking sanders, doing some drills on his own.
He was so cool to us, he said he was about to go inside and shoot some hoops and he took us with him. We spent about 30 min with him before we went back to the baseball game. I was 9/10 and didn’t fully grasp how rediculously amazing the experience was for a few more years.
No one ever believes me when I tell them I played bball with Barry that day. But I did. And he was the most down to earth superstar ever man and he was so kind to us when he could have told us to buzz off.
Barry Sanders for life man.
I met herman Moore at a Burger King about 5 years later and he was also nice but nothing could compare to that random June day at Rochester Adams high School.
Stark contrast to my childhood story of meeting a different Barry — Barry Bonds. The guy could have been nice and just shook my hand but he was a complete asshole about it, to a little kid!
Oh so you’re stealing my childhood dreams. No, that’s fine. Totally cool. Barry and Herman Moore…
Did he serve y’all pancakes afterwards?
My aunt used to nanny for a kid in his neighborhood and has a bunch of similar stories where he would spend time with kids and be present. The only thing he wouldn’t do was sign autographs in front of his kids.
My brother who went to college in Flint always had stories of how his friends played bball with Barry in high school and how amazing he was, including his ability to throw it down at 5’8".
ICT gang
Yeah right bro. Pics or it didn’t happen. Jk that’s so sick
man that’s just a fantastic memory and story! thanks for sharing! i can see it in my mind like it happened to me
I ran into Gordie Howe several times in the 90’s at random fast food places. He was also a pretty approachable guy and super kind. I only bring up because of your burger King reference. I spoke with Gordoe in a long john silvers, a taco bell, and a frisch’s big boy
The thought of Mr. Hockey walking around in a Taco Bell is so funny to think of.
I for real bought him a chili cheese burrito when I was 16. Lol
Wish he would have gotten traded to a top 5 team at the time.
I always thought it was more of a passion issue. Like that, he had expended his mental energy with football and just didn’t have the will to keep going after that. Barry talking about the guys who left the prior years who had battled with for a while makes sense in that the bond he had with the team was slipping. As another extremely competitive person, I get it. You never want to fight for something not giving 100%. If he didn’t have that in him anymore, then it makes sense he retired.
This feels most likely. From his retirement fax and the scene with his sons in the documentary, it feels pretty clear that the state of the franchise, the exodus of his teammates, the coaching style of Bobby Ross, and the unlikelihood the Lions would be much better anytime soon just sapped that passion.
If you take away the chances to win, to collectively complete with people you enjoy, and then you’re someone who doesn’t care about accolades… What was left for Barry to play for?
As a teenager, it was certainly shocking, sad, and confusing. As someone now older than Barry was when he retired, I understand the investment he needed to put in want matched by the remaining passion he had to play
CBS really gonna bring up Barry retiring during the best Lions season in 60 years. Cruel. Like telling someone “Hey congrats on your promotion, remember when your dad died though.”
He just released his documentary detailing his career and retirement.
Like telling someone “Hey congrats on your promotion, remember when your dad died though.”
Oh, you mean basically the whole 2020 NFL Draft?
You know what’s weird? Barry Sanders jumped my car at a high school football game once. I had just moved to a public school from a private school and was attending my old school’s big rivalry game as all of my friends were at my old school and I had just gotten my driver’s license. My car had manual headlights that I had neglected to turn off. Barry Sanders jr. Was running back in the game I had watched.
So the game ended and we were all exiting. None of my friends had jumper cables and without them they couldn’t really help so people were just leaving and I was sorta freaking the fuck out because I knew my parents were going to be mad if they had to come get me (this was like my first social outing in my own).
I see my old school’s film guy and he’s walking with another guy. I talk to our old film guy (I’d played sports for this school so he knew me) and he also didn’t have jumper cables but the guy he was with was in a rental and thought he’d have some. He did.
So the thing is, I didn’t know what Barry Sanders looks like. Barry Sanders was a helmet and pads in either orange and black or blue and silver. I was just talking to this dude and he seemed entertained by my questions. I was asking him if his son played for the team. He said yes. I asked him what he does and he told me he owns some car lots. Yadda yadda. When my car started he asked me if I knew of any OSU heisman winners. I said yeah, Barry Sanders. That was when revelation washed over me as I knew his son had just played in the game.
Sorta a cool interaction. Fuck your autographs Barry Sanders got my ass out of trouble.
I feel so dumb lol I assumed he physically leapt over your car at a high school football game for a good 10 seconds
Cool story, thanks for the share!
Nothing but respect for that man. The class and way he played the game I’ll never forget, even as a snotty nose little kid I can vividly remember watching him play the game the right way. Luckily got to see him in the silver dome several times
Check out the doc. Highly recommended very well done
Well, why didn’t he just go to another team instead of languishing at Detroit?
Tldr he saw the lions were going no where.
“Finally”? The fucking article says it was essentially the same thing he said 24 years ago.
Still sad as dude was one of the most entertaining RBs to watch on the field