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Thread: Sportsworld News

  1. #1
    fkdup74's Avatar Pneuberator.
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    a little nostalgia, for one of the greatest B)

    Originally posted by RR News Jan. 30@ 2004

    DETROIT(AP) Barry Sanders was jogging off the field after a game 13 years ago in Washington when he was playfully wrapped up by Matt Millen.

    "He turned around and looked at me like, `What are you doing?'" said Millen, a former linebacker and current president of the Detroit Lions. "I said, `I wanted to tell my kids that I tackled you once in my life.'"

    Sanders, one of the most elusive running backs in NFL history, is expected to be voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday after running for 15,269 yards in 10 seasons with the Lions.

    "I probably don't completely appreciate the significance of the Hall of Fame right now," Sanders said Thursday in a phone interview with The Associated Press. "But it definitely is beyond anything I expected when I started playing the game."

    Few expected Sanders to retire when he did  soon after his 31st birthday and just before training camp in 1999.

    He quietly and mysteriously walked away from the game with Walter Payton's rushing record only one of his average seasons away.

    Sanders announced his decision through a written statement released by his hometown newspaper, The Wichita Eagle. He then eluded reporters as if they were trying to tackle him for four-plus years.

    Two months ago, Sanders had his first news conference since his retirement to answer questions and promote his new book.

    He acknowledged the way he retired was "a little clumsy," and shot down many rumors, including the one that the move was a ploy to be traded.

    "The press conference needed to be done and it definitely has lifted a burden off of me," Sanders said. "Even though the way I retired was messy, I think most people gave me the benefit of the doubt. I think the press conference confirmed what a lot of people thought  that I just didn't have the desire to play, like I said was the case in the first place."

    When he did play, from 1989-98  after winning the Heisman Trophy at Oklahoma State  there wasn't much more he could have done as a running back.

    He was the first player to run for 1,000 yards in each of his 10 seasons, and he led the league in rushing four times. Sanders also was the first to have five 1,500-yard rushing seasons, and the only one to do it four straight seasons (1994-97).

    In 1997, he was named the NFL's MVP after becoming the third player to run for 2,000 yards and the first to have 14 straight 100-yard games.

    "From my era, the last 25 years, there has not been a better running back," Millen said. "Walter Payton, Emmitt Smith, Eric Dickerson, Tony Dorsett, Earl Campbell and John Riggins were great, but none of them could scare defenses more or make fans hold their breath with excitement like Barry did."

    The next time Sanders brags about anything he did will be the first.

    When Sanders scored, he simply gave the nearest official the football and trotted to the sideline. When reporters crowded his locker, he acted surprised that the media wanted to talk to him.

    "We would try to get him to spike the ball  just one time  but he wouldn't do it," said Kevin Glover, Sanders' center in Detroit and close friend. "It just wasn't in his makeup as a person. He was a true superstar, but you would never know it because he was so humble. That's why all of his teammates loved him."

    In addition to the record Sanders walked away from at the end of his career, he chose to not go after another distinction as a rookie.
    I am just a worthless liar. I am just an imbecile.
    I will only complicate you. Trust in me and fall as well.
    I will find a center in you. I will chew it up and leave.
    I will work to elevate you just enough to bring you down.

  2. Lounge   -   #2
    j2k4's Avatar en(un)lightened
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    He was something, eh?

    I was lucky enough to see him play in person many times; as a Packer fan, he (it is more true than I can say) literally struck fear into my heart.

    I think the word awesome would not be inappropriate.
    "Researchers have already cast much darkness on the subject, and if they continue their investigations, we shall soon know nothing at all about it."

    -Mark Twain

  3. Lounge   -   #3
    Jayhawk's Avatar Rock Chalk Jayhawk BT Rep: +5
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    thats a good article i always liked Barry and his ease of running style

  4. Lounge   -   #4
    fkdup74's Avatar Pneuberator.
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    Originally posted by j2k4@30 January 2004 - 09:18
    He was something, eh?

    I was lucky enough to see him play in person many times; as a Packer fan, he (it is more true than I can say) literally struck fear into my heart.

    I think the word awesome would not be inappropriate.
    yeah, maybe never gonna see anyone like him again
    the game was better with him around
    i know the yardage record almost fell, and the TD record has fallen,
    but those are just numbers
    make all the numbers they want, they still aint Barry
    he was a class act, as well as Payton, dont know how i keep watchin
    without em there anymore...
    I am just a worthless liar. I am just an imbecile.
    I will only complicate you. Trust in me and fall as well.
    I will find a center in you. I will chew it up and leave.
    I will work to elevate you just enough to bring you down.

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