Barry Sanders retired from the NFL on July 28th, 1999. He was just 1457 yards short of the career rushing record. This opened the door for Emmitt Smith to capture the record in 2002. Oh, the injustice!Consider this: When Barry retired after the 1998 season he had just over 15,000 yards. Emmitt had 12,500. However, Sanders averaged 1,500 yards a year for his career; Smith averaged just 1,200 per year. If Sanders had played another 5 years (the same amount as Smith) his rushing total would have been approximately 22,500 yards. This would have put the career record far out of reach of Smith, who finished his career with 18,355 rushing yards. This article from 1997 illustrates the differences between them: http://www.sportingnews.com/archives/sanders/playeroty.html Many of us are left wondering how many yards Sanders would have racked up had he been running behind the kind of offensive line that Smith had; or having the benefit of a balanced gameplan that included a HOF QB. It’s also remarkable that Barry didn’t play running back until his senior year of high school.
Add to this the fact that Emmitt never rushed for 2,000 yards in a season, Barry rushed for over 1,000 yards every single season he played, was selected to more Pro-Bowls despite the fact that he played 5 years less than Smith, rushed for 1,500 yards or more in one season a record five times, and I come to the inevitable conclusion that Barry Sanders was not only a better running back than Emmitt Smith, but that he was more deserving than Smith of the career rushing title. The only reason he didn’t not only break the record, but put it out of reach for the foreseeable future was that he retired early. So why did he? Rumors abound, and reading what Barry himself has had to say in the last seven years doesn’t do much to clarify the reasons.
All I can say is that if I had been him I wouldn’t have made that decision. In fact, as a fan I feel somewhat cheated by the way things unfolded. We’re left with an enigmatic back who retired from the game too early, clearing the way for a poseur to claim the most prestigious record a running back can earn. Before anyone objects to the term poseur, consider that Emmitt himself has referred to the record as “Barry’s record.” I would also like to point out that I don’t begrudge Emmitt the yards he earned; I merely feel that if things had turned out differently and Barry had continued to play that Emmitt would be second on the career rushing list to Barry. And that there would be a big gap between them.
I’m certainly not alone in my feelings on this subject. At Barry’s HOF enshrinement Gale Sayers had this to say: “God gave me a talent and then took it away,” Sayers said. “God gave him a talent and didn’t take it away. He quit.”
In closing, I feel obligated to also point out how short-termed our collective memories can be about players who leave the NFL early. Whether it’s because of injury or whatever else, this always seems to be the case. Bo Jackson comes to mind as one example. It seems that Barry Sanders’s name only comes up when a young running back is compared to him during a broadcast or talk-show. That’s just sad.
8 replies on “Lament for Barry Sanders”
Barry was the man! on a sucky team, that’s why he called it quits so early… they still would suck even if he was playing all those years.
I agree that Sanders was a better player Of course we know that Barry Sanders would have owned that record had he chosen to. Fact is, though, he didn’t , and you can’t say that he was “more deserving” of the record when he didn’t bother to go out and break it. You can always play the “what if” game. While I preferred Sanders to Smith, I still wouldn’t go calling Smith a “poseur.” He was still a pretty good back in his own right, and I always thought he was very gracious about the record.
I also think it’s a compliment to Sanders when a young running back is compared to him. Why else should we mention him? He retired in 1999, so we have to move on.
The real best running back of all time was… JIM BROWN and he left early two, after only 9 seasons were he averaged 5.2 yards a carry. no one had the speed/strength combo like Jimmy, he was the man.
high on something Barry Sanders was arguably the most-talented running back to ever play the game. He more than likely would have ended his career as the greatest back to ever play the game and held just about every rushing title there is. The fact of the matter is HE QUIT. Does that not mean anything to fans anymore? He quit, for whatever reasons, personal or not. Yes, he was great, but what did that get him? Isn’t winning the ultimate goal? He could have at least hung around long enough to get out of Detroit and try to win, if playing on a bad team was his excuse. I HATE making it look like I dislike Barry, because that’s definitely not the case. I just feel his talent outlived his character..and the greatest backs in the game had both talent and character; the two ingredients that lead to championships.
Now to my main point.
Emmitt Smith is the ALL-TIME RUSHING LEADER-18,355 yards. I don’t know if this is known, but NO OTHER RUNNING BACK has ever ran for that number of yards. He won 4 rushing titles and 3 Super Bowls; The man only missed 7 games when he played for Dallas. Durability is something that’s forgotten nowadays with the way players are. Emmitt seperated his shoulder in a game and kept going! When he retired, after 15 years in the NFL, he held records for consecutive 1,000-yard seasons with 11, rushing touchdowns with 164 (he scored 175 overall, second to Jerry Rice) and rushing attempts with 4,409. You know, I think someone needs to look up “poseur” in the dictionary.
“[Walter] is looking down smiling from ear to ear. He once said that if anybody breaks his record, he hopes it is Emmitt because he would do it with the class and the dignity that the record represents,” says Eddie Payton, Walter’s brother, on ESPN Classic’s SportsCentury series.
There’s one of the others with my feelings.
Lament for the Other great backs…. I also have nothing but respect for all the great ones. All the talk about who is the greatest is purely subjective. Sure you can quote all the stats you want, (they are by the way completely relevant), but it’s all the intangibles that make it too difficult to call with certainty. So all we’re left with is opinions. Mine is that, the greatest of all time is still “Sweet Walter” Payton. This coming from a life long Vikings fan. I can’t count how many times he just ran us into submission. I personaly don’t hear all that many Giants fans going on about Emmit or Dallas fans crowing about how great Montana/Rice was… I guess you just have to learn to accept differing opinions. Of course your own always wins out in the end…
Jim Brown was the best! If you read the article again you will notice that I never named Barry as my pick for the best ever. That honor truly has to go to Brown for the same reason that Ruth was the best baseball player ever: he was SO much better than any of his contemporaries that he stands as a giant among them. My point was not just that Barry would have owned the record had he played longer, but that he would have put it out of reach of the guy who owns it now, and probably even out of the reach of the new crop of RBs playing now (Portis, Edge, Tomlinson, etc.)
You missed my point. Part of what I was trying to get across was that had Barry played as long as Emmitt, he would have put the record out of reach of Emmitt. He would probably have also put the record out of reach of the good young backs who are playing right now. Emmitt’s record will be broken in 10 years or less, mark my words. Maybe it will be Clinton Portis; maybe LaDanian Tomlinson; maybe somebody else. Barry would have set the bar too high for them to reach. THAT was my point.
PS – Neither Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, or Walter Payton ran behind the kind of road-graders Dallas had as an O-line during Emmitt’s career. My MOM probably coulda racked up 1,000 yards behind those guys.
I understand I get what you’re saying there, but I have little lament for a guy who quit. I’d have no problem talking about the greatness of a man who tore an ACL, had a stroke, maybe even got kicked out for drug problems….but the fact that gets me is he quit. What-ifs just don’t seem to mean as much when that’s the case.
Also, I’ll take you up on someone breaking that record. It won’t happen simply due to injuries. You have to run a long time, and run a long time well to break that record. Nobody’s legs will hold up long enough.