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back to ever run with the ball.

Barry Sanders was nothing less than phenomenal when he ran with the ball. He did not just make great players miss but he made great players look absolutely foolish. I once saw him stop on a dime with five or six defenders around him. Then he took off again leaving a pile of defenders diving for a spot he no longer was at. If I would have seen the cartoonish display in a movie I would have thought it stupid and unbelievable. It was real live though and that made it amazing. Sanders scored 99 rushing TD in his career, only eleven less than Payton had, and the Lions coaches would not use him in goal line situations because they were afraid of him getting hurt. Ninety nine touchdowns and most of them came from five plus yards out. He once had two ninety plus yard runs in one game.

Did Barry Sanders have the all time yardage record? No, he retired a season too early because he was tired of the Lions front office messing things up. Did he win a Super Bowl? Not on a team as bad as the Lions. Yet he consistently put up 1400 plus yards. Only once did he have less than 1300 yards on an injury shortened season when he still had 1115 yards. Only two season previous to his retirement his ran for over 2000 yards. If there was any flaw in Sanders game, it was his blocking. For that argument alone would I concede that he might not have been the best running back of all time.

Learn more about this author, Kenneth Schonmeier.
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