Why DID Barry Sanders retire early?

[bigtomgetsgwap]

Because the Lions Suck....anyway I went to his induction at the Hall of Fame...they said he would run with a 300lbs lineman on his back and his legs wherestrong enough to do it with two

 

[jakecuevas]

he ran the ball hard had many carries....get got beat up .....it is hard for a small guy to be a power back

 

[xtapolapacetl]

S4L getting closer to his 279th ban with every post he makes..

 

[bigmike23]

I said once and I'll say it again, I don't understand how you can take anyone who roots for the Cowboys and Bulls seriously as a sports fan.
What the hell is that suppose to mean??

anyways i agree with shoes for once, there are players that have been in worse spots then barry and didnt "retire" on there team because they wasntwinning.

 

[jordanxi45]

Barry Sanders = Greatest RB of ALL-TIME.

 

[prurientsole]

Funny how Lomas Brown and Kevin Glover had both been playing with the Lions since 1985, but didn't make a Pro Bowl until Barry showed up...

 

[sundoobie]

Barry left because he loss the motivation to play for the Lions. The team refused to trade him therefore he retired.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/1999/year_in_review/flashbacks/lamb/
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/1999/year_in_review/flashbacks/lamb/

Nevertheless, William Sanders remembers the call he got from his son after that remarkable '97 season, during which the Lions went 9-7 and were a wild-card team. "He wanted to quit," William says. "He was disenchanted with the offense. I told him no, give it a year." Last season Barry's frustration grew. His father said he has never seen Barry as low as he was on Oct. 4, after the Lions blew a 27-10 second-half lead to the Bears in Chicago and lost 31-27. "A lot of times," Barry told SI a week after the Chicago debacle that left Detroit 1-4, "after a bad loss like that, I go home and I'm ready to quit. I just can't stand it."

While his father blasted the organization and suggested his son might retire ("He's sick of the Lions," William said in April, "and he's sick of losing"), Barry said nothing. The silence worried the team. Schmidt called Ware in an attempt to reach Sanders, but Ware said, "Barry needs his space." Running backs coach Frank Falks was so concerned that he went to Barry's Rochester Hills, Mich., home and sat on his front porch waiting for him to return. Hours passed. Sanders never came home, so Falks finally left.

^ u guys remember this when he broke 2,000 yards on the last game of the 97 season vs the Jets.

 

[nycknicks105]

Originally Posted by koolbarbone

Originally Posted by nycknicks105

Originally Posted by S4L3

He's a quitter....

If you really think about it, him leaving football never to come back is selfish all together.

Barry didn't owe anything to anybody. Just because you wanted to see him play longer doesn't make him selfish.
Sure it was disappointing to see him go but at the end of the day when it comes to your profession you have to do what is in your best interests. He didn't own anything to his teammates. And even if they are mad, that's for them to decide, not the general public, Barry certainly didn't owe US anything.

As a professional football player for the NFL...he doesnt play for himself. he plays for the entertainment of the FANS......yes, thats right, US. Withoutthe fans, the NFL is nothing. Without the fans, he wouldnt have made as much money as he did.

So he did owe us.

 

[presequel]

He owes us nothing. If he decides to stop playing, then thats it. He doesn't have to play 8-12 years because thats what all the 'great' ones do.

 

[dajoka004]

Why do you guys fuel S4L? Just don't talk to him, and he'll shut up.

Barry HATED Bobby Ross.

I was actually at his last game. Bobby Ross's cousin got us tickets to the game. $$##@@% tickets were way up in the nose bleeds.

 

[eaglebball1499]

As a professional football player for the NFL...he doesnt play for himself. he plays for the entertainment of the FANS......yes, thats right, US. Without the fans, the NFL is nothing. Without the fans, he wouldnt have made as much money as he did.
So he did owe us.
I disagree. When it comes down to it, professional leagues and teams are corporations just like General Motors and Microsoft. The onlydifference is that the product isn't a car or an OS, but a football team in the case of the NFL. You wouldn't say your Suburban or Windows Vista owedyou something if it crapped out on you, you'd say the company did a crappy job for putting a bad product in the stream of commerce. If anything, the blamewould be on the Lions for putting such a mediocre to poor product on the field for all those years. Barry and everyone else played as hard as they could, andin Barry's case it jut got to a point where enough was enough. I can kinda respect that.

 

[imaniketalker]

Very nice analogy eaglebball.

 

[skiptomahlouie]

Barry Sanders told Bobby Ross "I'm tired." Bobby Ross misheard him and thought he said "I'm retired." Once the media found out, hewas too shy to correct them so he just stayed retired.

 

[dmxfury]

Without the fans, the NFL is nothing.
Obviously, any company without consumers is nothing

Without the fans, he wouldnt have made as much money as he did.
Fans don't write the check. Maybe indirectly fans can influence, but they aren't what pays football players directly.

 

[flight23air]

Barry woulda broke my moms ankles and she aint got no ankles.

 

[am 1 fiend]

From some of the replies in here, it's obvious the ignorant have come out to play. A majority of you cats talking slick have only seen highlight films yetcontinue to talk out of your##$@

. To the original poster, there was a very interesting episode he did for HBO's real sports. It covered exactly why hequit the game, the guy is an enigma. His own family and friends were shocked of his announcement to walk away, but also said that Barry was just the type ofperson to do that. He doesn't worship sports like everyone here. He has a completely different perspective on life, he just happened to play footballreally really well.

 

[worldbeefreeg]

greatest running back of all time. Never had any talent around him. He is what Reggie Bush has the talent to be. He was undefinable as a runner because hecould do so many things.

 

[am 1 fiend]

Originally Posted by worldbeefreeg

greatest running back of all time. Never had any talent around him. He is what Reggie Bush has the talent to be. He was undefinable as a runner because he could do so many things.

I am probably one of the biggest Reggie Bush supporters, there is no way in hell you can compare these two at all. Reggie has amazing talent, but he he noton Barry's level at all, nor does he have the potential to be.