Third best running back of the NFL history with 15,269 rushing yards and 99 touchdowns (109 including the ones by pass), Barry Sanders personifies an example of determination for a whole generation of football players. This player with accomplishments more grandiose one from the other leaves behind him many records and a career with an abrupt ending.

In spite of the surprising announcement of an early retirement on the verge of the 1999 season, his career of 10 years is garnished with accomplishments and successes that only a player of great calibre could realize. Only regret, he will never have won the Super Bowl.

The men behind the athlete
Small and with a very low center of gravity, Sanders had the basic qualities to succeed as a running back. With determination, speed and amazing feints, he mystifies the opponent’s defensive squad every time.

From the moment he entered the league, Barry created an immediate craze for football and had also a positive impact on the performance of his team. During his career, he exhibited an honest and simple image of himself. Also, the image of a working guy who never gave up in front of any obstacle.

The number 20 of the Lions raised the crowds in all the stadiums of the league by doing what he could do best, dominating his sport and his opponents.

A great vintage
Far from the stellar vintage of 1984 draft with names such as John Elway, Eric Dickerson, Jim Kelly and Dan Marino making their debut in the NFL, the 1989 draft offered players with great talent. Besides Troy Aikman and Barry Sanders, the spectacular Deion Sanders, the versatile Eric Metcalf, the skilful Andre Rison, the robust Carnell Lake and the unique Daryll Johnston had also their place in this good vintage.

The first choice was quarterback Troy Aikman. He accumulated three Super Bowl rings with the Dallas Cowboys in the 90s and in addition he was part of the finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006. Barry Sanders was drafted third by the Detroit Lions immediately after Tony Mandarich, a tackle recruited by Green Bay. The Packers organization never affirmed openly to regret their choice.

No need to say that for Detroit, Barry Sanders proved to be the best draft choice in the history of the organization.

A good start
The NFL was far from knowing that in the 1989 draft it was the beginning of the most electrifying half-back of its history.

Winner of the Heisman trophy in 1988 for his last university season with Oklahoma State, Sanders had before him a promising future in the Detroit Lions organization. Establishing 13 records in the NCAA, Sanders did not take a lot of time to adapt himself to the rhythm of the big league.

During his rookie year in 1989, Barry proved quickly to be an indispensable gear of the offensive strategy of the Detroit Lions. Quick, unpredictable and practically untackable, the young man, native of Wichita in Kansas, could run the length of the field every time he touched the ball. He was compared to Eric Dickerson but, of course, with fewer pounds.

Later in his career, he was nicknamed the "B-Train" because of his power and his regularity. He transformed often a simple run into a monumental rush of 50 yards and more. Alarming for the adversaries! Indeed, he was simply exceptionally gifted.

Barry Sanders entered the professional level only three days after signing his contract with the Lions. He imposed himself from his first presence on the synthetic field of the Pontiac Dome in Detroit. In front of a crowd totally open-mouthed, his first run was an 18 yard gain. As we know it was only a start!

Standing five feet eight inches, he scored, in his first season, 14 touchdowns and eclipsed the record for most rushing yards in a year for the Lions with a mark of 1,470 yards. It was ten yards less than the powerful Christian Okoye of the Kansas City Chiefs who was the leader of the league in 1989.

With these kinds of statistics, Barry Sanders was elected rookie of the year and most valuable offensive player for his team besides the fact that he merited the right to go to the Pro Bowl (all-star game). He visited Honolulu nine times in his career.

First in many aspects
Elected four times as best running back of the NFL (1990, 1994, 1996 and 1997), named two times best professional player of the year according to the Maxwell Football Club (1991 and 1997) and recipient of the title of the most valuable player of the NFL according to AP in 1997, Barry Sanders won everything except a Super Bowl.

For Sanders, to dominate was not satisfying enough. He had to be the best. Some could say it was not always easy with the team that supported him. In spite of this obstacle, he was the first to reach many marks that are still to this day unsurpassed.

The number 20 of the Lions was the first player in the NFL history to accomplish ten consecutive seasons with 1,000 yards or more by rushing. He is also the only one to have done this achievement during his ten first seasons at the professional level!

Another record that should be told is that Barry Sander is the unique player to accomplish five seasons with more than 1,500 yards as well as to be the only player to do it consecutively, which was from 1994 to 1998. In the same way, Sanders is still to this day the only player in the history of the NFL to have accumulated three 80 and more yard runs which were converted into a touchdown during the same season. Two were done in the same game. Seven years after his retirement, his series of 803 consecutive possessions (703 runs and 100 receptions) without fumbling the ball is still unbeaten.

During his prolific 97 season, Barry Sanders was the first player in history to perform 14 consecutive games with more than 100 rushing yards.

"If there was ever an artist, he was a Picasso. He was one of the few that would make other athletes' jaws drop." explained Marcus Allen, a member of the Football Hall of Fame about Sanders amazing game.

Retiring at the top and in controversy in 1999, Barry Sanders occupied at that moment the second place among the best running backs of all time with 15,269 rushing yards. It was 1,500 yards less than Walter Payton, previous holder of the record. Emmitt Smith is the new leader in this field with an impressive total of 18,335 yards.

The surprising retirement
Taking the planet by surprise, Barry Sanders announced his definitive retirement from football before the start of the 1999 season.

Rumours were running for some time concerning the Lions star player’s retirement, but the team was still expecting him at the preseason training camp. Sanders never showed up!

July 28, 1999, two days before the start of the camp, Sanders announced his retirement. The city of Detroit was caught off guard by this announcement. Their star player who had still three or four good seasons to give was leaving the team without warning. Nothing had prepared the Detroit fans to this kind of announcement. "My desire to exit the game is greater than my desire to remain in it." affirmed Sanders in a short interview with the media.

By announcing his retirement with four years on his contract, Barry Sanders renounced to approximately 21 millions dollars in salary and bonus besides the fact that he put many million dollars of advertising aside. So, the reason was not money.

From this announcement, he was labelled as the one who had destroyed the Lions, the one who had annihilated all chances of the team to win a championship and the Super Bowl. Despite this new reputation, all agreed on the fact that he was among the group of the best players of the league and that he was the most electrifying half-back to have run on the NFL fields. The supporters of the Lions and of football in general were cut short with his retirement. The surprise was so striking that it provoked from the fans a large spectrum of emotions towards Barry Sanders. No one wanted to see him leave due to his sensationalism. However, the departure was real.

Five years later
It required five long years for Barry Sanders to come back on the subject of his retirement and to clarify the fact that he will never come back to the game, not with Detroit or not with any other team of the league.

"I waited the day before the training camp to announce my retirement because the days before my announcement of my departure, I did not know if I wanted to continue, if I still wanted to play football." were the first comments of Sanders concerning his retirement. Millions of fans over the world waited, for many years, his explanation.

"It was a huge decision to make for me. At that time, I did not know if I should pursue in this way. I felt that it was time for me to retire, but I was incapable to convince myself that it was the thing to do for me. It took many days to arrive at a decision and many others to find how I should announce it." affirmed Barry Sanders during the launching of his book concerning his career.

Answering the hurtful comments of many fans of the team, Sanders insisted on the fact that he made the decision of ending his career considering what was best for him and not with the objective to harm the team. "I made the decision for me and only me. I think that by taking a few steps back on the situation, I needed to find myself again, to come to an agreement with myself on what I wanted and what was good for me."

Removing the veil on a part of the mystery which shrouded the reasons of his retirement, Barry Sanders spoke nearly 45 minutes with the Detroit media.

The electrifying half-back
It is difficult in a few lines to describe the principal accomplishments of the one who many qualify as one of the greatest of all time. We will remember him as one of the most electrifying half-back of the NFL history, as the one who changed his sport, as a reliable player whose talent is still to this day renown by his peers. Barry Sanders was and will always be known by his colleagues as a gentlemen. All the adjectives of the world do not suffice to describe the career of the one that many players could never describe in a single file!