Barry Sanders

[Partial]

Did you guys know Barry Sanders was a pro-bowler every year in his 10 year career? Gosh, thats amazing. I sure do miss seeing that guy as a football fan, but I am so glad he's no longer around as a Packer fan!!

[BigDmoney]

i don't feel sorry for you partial. I am a viking fan and I don't have the stats, but Sander's had to have violated us worse than you. I remember at least 2 200 yard performances. Was the prettiest damn thing these eyes have seen on the field though.

[woodbuck27]

"Did you guys know Barry Sanders was a pro-bowler every year in his 10 year career? " Partial

Wow that is an amazing fact!

Barry Sanders was simply a runner of another type, with incredible patience at the line of scrimmage to look for the delayed opening and super cut back ability.

I always thought that 'the Packers' defended against him pretty well, but I must check that as 'a fact'.

[Scott Campbell]

"Did you guys know Barry Sanders was a pro-bowler every year in his 10 year career? " Partial

Wow that is an amazing fact!

Barry Sanders was simply a runner of another type, with incredible patience at the line of scrimmage to look for the delayed opening and super cut back ability.

I always thought that 'the Packers' defended against him pretty well, but I must check that as 'a fact'.

I'm not sure it was the Packers as much as it was the field. Barry ran a LOT better on turf than on grass.

[ny10804]

About 15 years back, the Packers came to a decision about this proposition:

Tony Mandarich, or Barry Sanders?

They made the right choice...........o wait, damn.

[Dabaddestbear]

I remember a thanksgiving game in which the entire Bears defense swarmed over the line of scrimmage to stop him on an attempt of a short gain. It was like a tidal wave of bodys crashing down on him.....well, how in da hell did he still somehow matter to back peddal, swing his hips shift left and right, hit one seam that wasnt there, bounced back out the seam and then took it all the way for a td!!!!!!

He was fun to watch but just never against the team you was rooting for. You could hold him to one yard all the way to the fourth quarter and he would still end up with 130 yards!

[Bossman641]

Barry was absolutely sick. I've never seen another player with his cutting ability, unreal. He said that he didn't like having a lead blocker cause the guy only got in his way. I wish that he had played long enough to claim the rushing record since I believe he deserves it way more than Emmitt.

There's a bunch of videos of him on youtube but the quality on them all sucks.

This is a little better.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4438262514361322241&q=barry+sanders

[Anti-Polar Bear]

Barry Fucking Sanders was great, but Randy Fucking Moss hurt the Pack more. Therefore, not drafting Moss impacted the Pack more negatively.

[mmmdk]

Imagine...Brett Favre & Barry Sanders on the same team in the '90ties!? WOW!!! I didn't know much about rookies in 1989 but I couldn't fathom that an OT could be more worth than a RB. I was right due to my "go-get-the-guy-that-score-TDs" theory - if nothing else. Oh, well. Getting Favre is still at the top of biggest trade scoops in NFL history.

[Partial]

For whats its worth, Emmit Smith calls the rushing record "Barry's record". I think they were pretty good friends off the field and Emmit had an understanding as to why Barry quit. If Wayne Fontas would have stayed Barry would have been the best ever!!!

[Partial]

For all the youngens out there, check this out

http://youtube.com/watch?v=KFCc8wVngyI&mode=related&search=barry%20sanders

He's the only person i've ever seen that makes reggie bush look average. He was on some of the worst teams ever and made them compete.

[Fritz]

Living in the Detroit area, I got to watch him on a regular basis. He was unreal. It was almost like blockers were a nuisance to him, too. And the guy could be surrounded by four tacklers and like a magician, he'd suddenly appear outside of them. Wow.

As for Favre/Sanders on the same team, as great as Sanders was, I wonder how Holmgren would've incorporated a back who did not block and did not like to catch the ball into the west coast offense.

[red]

barry was a freak, everytime we played the lions i held my breath because you knew barry could take it all the way on any given play

IMO he's in the eite group with payton as the best rb's ever (and i never saw brown play but i always thought he was a bit over rated by just watching the old clips, i'm sure he was the best in his day, but i don't think he'd be the best ever if he played today)

as for barry being a packer. i don't know if it would have worked. as someone else mentioned, he played better on turf and in a dome, and it makes sense, his cuts and quickness are what made him so good. if you put him on a frozen or sloppy field you take away a lot of what made him so damn good and you get what i witnessed back a long time ago, barrry running for -1 yards in a playoff game at lambeau

as a packer fans i would have like to have him, just out of hope that he would have been the same player. as a football fan i'm glad he played somewhere else where the conditions were perfect for him. i just wich it would have been for a team outside the noris division

[chain_gang]

Barry was great, possibly the greatest. I'm just glad at least 1 time in his career Green Bay shut him down. 13 carries -1 yards rushing. Now if it wasn't in Lambeau it probably would've been 20 carries 170 yards, but at least we own the worst rushing game in Barry's career.

The moment I always tend to remember as well is the Thanksgiving Bears game a few years back. He just made the Bears D looked like a pee wee team. Although he's done it to most every team at one time or another, I thought this game was special. Just amazing change of direction, still can't believe some of the cuts he made.

[woodbuck27]

One of the game’s most electrifying runners, Barry Sanders rushed for more than 1,000 yards in each of his 10 seasons with the Detroit Lions (1989-1998). He was the first running back ever to do so. The 1988 Heisman Trophy winner was also just the third person to gain more than 2,000 yards in a season, a feat he accomplished in 1997.

Sanders, after forgoing his senior season at Oklahoma State, made his pro debut just three days after signing with the Lions, who had made him their first-round pick and the third overall pick in the 1989 draft. He absolutely dazzled a Pontiac Silverdome crowd when he dashed for an 18-yard gain on his first carry as an NFL running back. But that was just the beginning. His 1,470 yards rushing that season, a-then Lions record, fell just 10 yards short of the league’s best for the year.

In 1990, Sanders, with 1,304 yards rushing, topped all ground gainers, something he would do again in 1994 (1,883 yards) and in 1996 (1,553 yards). His 44 receptions for 283 yards in 1994 gave him a combined 2,166 yards from scrimmage. The most impressive feat of his remarkable career, however, came in 1997, when he rushed for a league-best 2,053 yards and gained another 305 yards on 33 catches for an amazing 2,358 combined yards gained. That year, Sanders, who was named league Most Valuable Player, gained more than 100 yards rushing in an NFL record 14 consecutive regular season games.

Though not big by most standards, Sanders capitalized on his size by running low to the ground making him less of a target for would-be tacklers. His elusiveness and ability to reverse direction seemingly at will, often left defensive players grasping at air. “He makes you miss so bad, you kind of look up in the stands and wonder if anybody’s looking at you,” Atlanta Falcons cornerback D.J. Johnson once remarked. “You’ve got 60,000 people in there and you wonder if anyone saw you miss that tackle.”

A first - or second-team All-Pro ten consecutive seasons, Sanders became the first NFL running back to record five 1,500-yard rushing seasons, in addition to being the only back to do so in four consecutive seasons (1994-1997).

Selected to play in the Pro Bowl each of his 10 NFL seasons, Sanders held nearly every Lions’ rushing record and numerous all-time NFL records, at the time of his retirement.

woodbuck27

Barry Sanders was simply. . . amazing!