5 Mind-Blowing Barry Sanders Facts

Part of what makes sports fandoms so fun is the many debates that rage around players' legacies. One such debate that is largely agreed upon is the argument surrounding the greatest running back in NFL history.

There are several names that come up, like Dallas Cowboys back Emmitt Smith and Chicago Bears runner Walter Payton. However, the name that most fans point to in this conversation is the legendary Detroit Lion, Barry Sanders. Sanders' ability to break tackles, evade defenders, and consistently find the end zone makes him an undeniable fixture of the GOAT conversation.

Height is usually a definitive measure of a player in the NFL. However, Sanders carved out one of the best careers of all time while standing at only 5-foot-8. The vast majority of running backs are at least a couple of inches taller than Sanders, but his height actually played to his advantage in several instances.

Thanks to his low center of gravity, opposing defenders had a hard time out-leveraging him, often keeping their pads too high when making contact. Additionally, Sanders was able to pick up blitzers in pass protection the same way, anchoring down against bigger defenders to turn himself into a human wall. 

Making the Pro Bowl is considered the crowning achievement of many players' NFL careers. For Sanders, it was the sign of a regular season. Through his 10 years in the big leagues, Sanders was selected to the Pro Bowl every single time, making him one of the few players to ever gain that distinction in every season of his career. Sanders was also either a First or Second Team All-Pro in every single year of his career, an achievement perhaps even more impressive than the Pro Bowls.

While 10 years is quite the career for most running backs, when Sanders retired after a decade in the NFL, it was clear that he was walking away with plenty of gas left in the tank. The running back amassed 1,491 yards and four touchdowns in his final season.

To make Sanders' decision to walk away even more puzzling, he was only 1,457 yards shy of breaking Walter Payton's all-time rushing record, a mark Sanders reasonably could have achieved with just one more season. Sanders' retirement remains one of the most shocking decisions in NFL history, especially considering the success he seemed guaranteed to have every year.

To put things in perspective, Emmitt Smith racked up 18,355 yards in 15 years. Sanders finished his career with 15,269 rushing yards in only 10. Had he continued to play, he would almost certainly be the NFL's all-time leading rusher.

Every year of Sanders' career was obviously excellent, but there was something special about his 1997 campaign. Sanders ran the ball 335 times for an absolutely ridiculous 2,053 yards, averaging 6.1 yards per carry on the way to becoming just the third man in NFL history (at the time) to rush for 2,000 yards in a single season. That list has gotten significantly longer since Sanders joined, but the fact that he was able to achieve this feat in 16 games. And to do it on a Lions team that did not have many other threats, shows how elite Sanders really was.

In the midst of his 2,000-yard campaign, Sanders managed to put together an NFL record that still stands today. His first two games were lackluster, totalling only 55 rushing yards over both contests. After those two games, a 2,000-yard season seemed almost incomprehensible, but Sanders proceeded to rip off 14 straight games of 100 or more rushing yards. The streak included two single games of over 200 yards on the ground. His stretch of production remains unprecedented in the NFL and is one of the greatest stretches of production in any statistical category.

Retiring at the top of his game might have been controversial at the time, but Sanders certainly made the decision that was right for him. He etched himself throughout the history books in just 10 years in the NFL, and retired from a Detroit team that had suffered through losing season after losing season. Sanders stated that he did not want to leave the Lions, but that his drive to play for a losing team was diminishing with each year.

Instead of playing a few more seasons on a Lions team that was not going anywhere, sacrificing his body and his mind, Sanders decided to call it quits before his play deteriorated. It is becoming an increasingly popular decision, with other notable players like linebacker Luke Kuechly and quarterback Andrew Luck making the same decision in the modern era. Sanders had one of the best careers on the gridiron of all time and still managed to escape with the most valuable assets of all.