RayClay

Just reading about the NFLPA and league trying to do something about a real issue which no one cares about, helping former players get decent health care.

Ditka or somebody mentioned hall of famer Gale Sayer and I'm thinking, "he was injured, how did he get the stats for the HOF?

Answer: He didn't. Chicago media and having somebody on his team die with a tear jerking movie about him was enough.

Sayers didn't die. He had knee injuries like many running backs. Became the CEO of a computer company (probably should have gone into public relations based on this fraud).

Funny thing is, I saw Sayers. He was wonderful to watch and a huge talent, but like many (200 lbs.) lighter running backs, it seems he didn't have the durability.

Did he have a Hall of fame career? Not even close. He didn't have half a HOF career.

Two (2) thousand yard seasons, 4956 total yards. That's it!

http://www.pro-football-reference.co...s/SayeGa00.htm

Dillon and Curtis Martin get in twice each by these standards, not to mention the unexceptional Tiki Barber.

Sorry Chitown, this guy plays in Detroit or someplace with no movie and he's just a local warm memory and trivia question.

The line to whack RayClay starts here, but I am right.

__________________

patriot lifer

from http://www.profootballhof.com/hof/me...?player_id=188

Gale Eugene Sayers. . .Kansas All-America. . .Exceptional break-away runner. . .Scored rookie record 22 TDs, 132 points, 1965. . .Led NFL rushers, 1966, 1969. . .Named all-time NFL halfback, 1969. . . All-NFL five straight years. . .Player of Game in three Pro Bowls. . .Career totals: 9,435 combined net yards, 4,956 yards rushing, 336 points. . . NFL lifetime kickoff return leader. . .Born May 30, 1943, in Wichita, Kansas

i guess we'll have to take the writers' words for it.

RayClay

Word for what? I saw Gale Sayers when he played. I don't dispute he was a outstanding runner and great to watch.

Are you saying because the writer used the word "excrutiating" when describing his knee injury that it was different than knee injuries other promising running backs have suffered?

By the way, you truncated a stat. He was the NFL kickoff return leader when he retired, he retired a long time ago.

The actual quote "At the time of his retirement he was the NFL's all-time leader in kickoff returns"

__________________

FloridaHerb

Maybe so, but that movie was so sad.....

Thanks, now I've got that crappy song in my head!

upstater1

Probably because he was the best running back the game had ever seen.

You're right. He didn't do it over a long career. But there may be a place in Canton for the guy who is the answer to this question: If you had to choose a RB for one game, jut one game, who would it be?

Gale Sayers
.....
.....
.....
.....
Then Jim Brown, Earl Campbell, OJ Simpson, Eric Dickerson.

I'd say that Emmitt Smith and Walter Payton are a little bit below these top 5.

DarrylS

Would take Jim Brown any day, big, mean, fast, strictly north south and hit like a mule... he was the greatest RB of all time, no one else is close.. he quit at his prime to pursue other things...

__________________
"Being the best doesn't mean you always win. It just means you win more than anyone else".. tweet from Kurt Warner to Tom Brady.

patchick

He plays in Detroit, he gets taken out in redzone situations.

I have no problem with Sayers in the Hall. Sometimes I think we get obsessed with career totals and end up rewarding guys who were merely good but stuck around for ever. I'll take greatness, even if it was over all too soon.

RayClay

Sorry, I'm not choosing a 198 lb. running back for one game no matter how pretty he runs.

The answer to that question is Jim Brown easily and I'd go with Earl and OJ before Sayers also.

By the way, he didn't do it over a short career either.

Here's Jim Brown's stats. Please pull out any 3,4 or 5 year period where Sayers was the greater running back.

I assume you're judgment is solely based on watching both of them run, but remember, I did also.

__________________

upstater1

Yes, I saw them both. But sayers had a total effect on the game. He was what Reggie Bush was supposed to be but isn't. Kind of a Randy Moss effect. I'd certainly take Brown over the course of a season, but I think Sayers was electrifying for one game the way Randy Moss is.

RayClay

You make an excellent point and Sayers was an outstanding (though light, I'm sorry but light running backs don't last long in the NFL) running back and great to watch.

What does that do to standards though?

Sayers, pretty runner, CEO, wonderful guy nice movie=hall.

Dillon: snarling, nasty, tough plays with the bones in his leg coming apart (2005) and hops through games on one leg.=no hall. The press doesn't like him.

Robert Edwards. Looked good, horrible injury. Excrutiating pain, torturous recovery (adjectives courtesy of NFL hall of fame article on Sayers). If he looked as good as Sayers could we project him to the Hall?

__________________