** This is a damn shame. If he had stuck around he would have shattered the record. He's still the best ever in my eyes **
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- Former All-Pro running back Barry Sanders says he quit the NFL because he was exhausted and frustrated because the Detroit Lions' front office did not seem willing to build a winning team.
In a new book scheduled to be released next week, Sanders recalls openly sobbing on the sidelines on a rainy afternoon in Baltimore in 1998 because he knew it would be his last game.
It was the final game of another lousy season for the Lions, a meaningless 19-10 loss to the Ravens in which the running back from Wichita had a rare fumble.
"I was crying because I knew it was over,'' Sanders said in the book, "Barry Sanders: Now You See Him ... His Story in His Own Words,'' an as-told-to book written with longtime friend Mark McCormick of The Wichita Eagle.
As the clock ran out in Baltimore, he said, "It also ran out in my career. I decided they could go on without me.''
It would be months before Sanders shared that decision with the rest of the country in a brief retirement statement that only hinted at his true feelings. His retirement shocked the sports world because he was only 31 and on the verge of breaking Walter Payton's all-time NFL rushing record.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_y...ug=ap-lions-sandersexplains&prov=ap&type=lgns
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- Former All-Pro running back Barry Sanders says he quit the NFL because he was exhausted and frustrated because the Detroit Lions' front office did not seem willing to build a winning team.
In a new book scheduled to be released next week, Sanders recalls openly sobbing on the sidelines on a rainy afternoon in Baltimore in 1998 because he knew it would be his last game.
It was the final game of another lousy season for the Lions, a meaningless 19-10 loss to the Ravens in which the running back from Wichita had a rare fumble.
"I was crying because I knew it was over,'' Sanders said in the book, "Barry Sanders: Now You See Him ... His Story in His Own Words,'' an as-told-to book written with longtime friend Mark McCormick of The Wichita Eagle.
As the clock ran out in Baltimore, he said, "It also ran out in my career. I decided they could go on without me.''
It would be months before Sanders shared that decision with the rest of the country in a brief retirement statement that only hinted at his true feelings. His retirement shocked the sports world because he was only 31 and on the verge of breaking Walter Payton's all-time NFL rushing record.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_y...ug=ap-lions-sandersexplains&prov=ap&type=lgns
