SAYERS WAS THE GOAT OF ELUSIVE BACKS…..BET YOUR LIFE ON IT
Jim Brown……Barry Sanders……..and there was a man named GAYLE SAYERS, from Kansas. I was the lucky man that was able to view Gayle Sayers in person on a football field playing his position of running back and his specialty of returning kickoffs and punts. I was blessed to watch him on TV playing with my 2nd favorite team, the Chicago Bears.
In my lifetime, I would rank Mr. Sayers with tho greats that I mentioned above. And as for the history of professional football, the same.
Sayers was the second greatest back of the time he was in the NFL in the 1960’s. He had the greatest moves in NFL history this side of Barry. In ranking the all-time greatest runners of my early years (1950-1990) I have him third, just behind Brown and Sanders. Sayers played seven seasons, two in which he was hurt with severe injuries. Give me Sayers during his time and you had all you needed. The youngest man to be voted into the NFL Hall-of-Fame, Sayers was a generational player. So was Brown. So was Sanders.
Sad that the man who loved Brian Piccolo is gone but not sorry as they are reunited in Heaven.
RIP Gayle Sayers. Rock Chalk Jayhawk. Go Bears!
Feature photo: Complex.com
I would actually rank Sayers higher than Brown. For his size and all around back, he could do more with a football than Jim Brown.
That is YOUR rank. I totally respect it. The one thing I will give you is that when they both played and when Sayers was not hurt, they both were the most dangerous runners, offensive players in the league, including all the quarterbacks….the defense was keyed on stopping either one as they could and would give their team a chance to score every time they touched the ball. When I was young, at that time, early 60s, I would have said they were equal in their impact on a game. But Jimmy Brown, in my opinion, is the greatest player in football history, any position, any league, professional or amateur, and that is not changing for me (you never know when another Jim comes along). Brown was better because he was much the durable player, was just as fast, bigger, stronger, and could run through the defense as well as run around a defender…..you can see I am a Jim Brown apologist. Hell, he was bigger than most of the guys trying to tackle him…..a monster. Sayers, to me, was a glider and as fast as Superman.