More Top Picks Best Stretching Machines For Flexibility
player ready...If Barry Sanders doesn’t beat out Brett Favre for the NFL’s Most Valuable Player award, he should at least get a thank-you note. The one-man team of the Detroit Lions has become pro football’s one-man show.
When the memories get sorted out, Sanders will remain at the forefront. It was his season, stolen the way Michael Jordan steals nearly every game he plays, with individual skill beyond all normal expectations. You watch him run and you think you’ve seen everything feet and legs and bodies can do. Then you see him again.
Otherwise, it was not the greatest of NFL seasons.
There was no return to glory by the Green Bay Packers to capture the imagination. There was no rise to prominence by expansion teams like the Carolina Panthers or Jacksonville Jaguars.
Jerry Rice got hurt in the first game and hurt again after an extraordinary comeback. Emmitt Smith never seemed well. Terrell Davis started fast and hurt his shoulder. The New England Patriots and Packers followed up last year’s Super Bowl run with seasons marked by injury–to Edgar Bennett, Craig Newsome, Gilbert Brown, Terry Glenn and Curtis Martin.
It is a sport of attrition and sometimes worse, as the terrifying neck injury to Lions linebacker Reggie Brown left a sickening final-week impression of the regular season.
“This game, any play you can be done,” Lions defensive end Tracy Scroggins said. “We all take it for granted we can go out and hit someone as hard as we want and pop back up and go home and maybe be a little sore the next day, not realizing any play can be your last one. It’s a violent game and you almost have to look past it every time you go out there.”
Think of that the next time you begrudge a player’s salary.
It remains a game of greed. The Vikings told Minnesota they can’t make it in the Metrodome. The Colts got a new deal from Indianapolis to keep them in the RCA Dome. Sean Gilbert turned down $4 million to play for the Washington Redskins this year because he wanted $5 million. “We’re fanatical religious dudes,” said his agent, Gus Sunseri.
The president of the nation’s largest cable TV company said cable rates will go up “something really awful” next year as soon as the NFL signs its new contract with the networks.
It remains a game of incivility. Bill Romanowski spit in the face of J.J. Stokes, prompting a $7,500 fine but also generating thoughts of ugly racial overtones among even his teammates. Kerry Collins’ downer year with the Carolina Panthers began with a racial taunt he may never live down.
Bryan Cox led the helmet-throwing brigade with a spectacular debut to open Monday night football, setting the tone for a disastrous season in Chicago.
Barry Switzer set the tone in Dallas, where the biggest offense of the season occurred when the coach was arrested for carrying a loaded pistol through airport security.
It remains a game of coddling. Lawrence Phillips missed $100,000 of his $300,000 off-season workout bonus because he was in jail. So St. Louis Rams coach Dick Vermeil made it up to him. Phillips, of course, repaid the favor by spending it in such ways that he was unable to show up at work on time. Vermeil released him and Jimmy Johnson rescued him in Miami, where he remains one of the worst running backs in the league.
The season didn’t even go to the wire in most of its playoff races. More teams than not were playing for nothing the last week. The Tennessee Oilers played in front of friends and family but few fans in Memphis. It was a no-show season for the Bears too.
Barry Sanders saved it. When he came to Chicago in the third week, he had gained only 53 yards in his first two games. For the next 14 he would gain an even 2,000, at least 100 yards every single game. The Bears’ biggest contribution to the season was to serve as Sanders’ launching pad.
As memorable as his eye-popping numbers was his inconspicuous nature. It’s not so much that Sanders is humble; it’s that he is dignified. He is proud without the loud, the uncommon athlete. Not once did he jump up after averaging 6.1 yards a carry and signal first down. Not once did he taunt, or gloat, or showboat. He saves his dancing for the line of scrimmage, his prancing for somewhere far from the cameras. A shrug is his idea of a high-five. He would rather practice than preach his religion, starting with his checkbook.
During his nine years in Detroit, he has passed up numerous opportunities to choke his coaches.
Sanders says he learned from watching his parents go to work to support 11 kids in Wichita, Kan., where dad William was a roofer and swears to this day Jim Brown was a better running back than his son.
“Barry’s getting close,” William Sanders conceded. “I think when he racks up 20,000 yards in the NFL, that might be the greatest accomplishment he can ever do.”
More Top Picks Best Soft Close Cabinet Hinges
As usual, Barry will leave all predictions to others.
“I never expected to be able to do this and I’m eternally grateful that it happened,” he said.
So is the NFL.