Barry Sanders was one of the greatest running backs in NFL history, playing his entire career with the Detroit Lions, throughout the 1990s. But while his contemporary, Emmitt Smith, won three Super Bowls with that era’s loaded Dallas Cowboys teams, Sanders played for mostly mediocre Lions squads, and never got anywhere near a Super Bowl. He was known as quiet and humble, and not a big personality like so many NFL stars of his era.
And then, in 1999, Sanders suddenly retired at age 31, just days before training camp was to start. It was long suspected that Sanders’ retirement would be temporary, and that perhaps he was seeking to maneuver himself to a different team. But Sanders stayed retired and has mostly remained quiet for the ensuing 24 years, never pursuing a media career or having a huge visible presence in football circles. The last time I thought of him was in early-2020, when Garth Brooks appeared for a concert in Detroit wearing a Sanders #20 Lions jersey, and it was misinterpreted by some as a presidential endorsement of Bernie Sanders.
The Lions, meanwhile, stayed moribund, with Sanders’ career arc repeating itself with another Hall of Famer, Calvin Johnson, who played his entire career in Detroit while also never winning anything. This fall, that’s changed. The Lions are relevant again, with an 8-2 record, and a shot at winning their first playoff game since Sanders’ prime in 1992. And now Sanders has cooperated with a full-fledged documentary about his career, as well as his retirement.
The doc is called Bye Bye Barry, and debuted this week on Prime Video. Produced by NFL Films and directed by the trio of Paul Monusky, Micaela Powers, and Angela Torma, Bye Bye Barry expertly puts together game and media footage, with interviews of media figures like Dan Patrick and Detroit celebrities like Eminem and Jeff Daniels.
Sanders is interviewed on stage at Detroit’s Fox Theater, and later in England with his sons. Sanders continues his long streak of not saying anything especially memorable. But I’m a sucker for sports docs when athletes reminiscence about their careers with the children who were too young to have ever watched them play.
A big star of the old footage is Sanders’ late father, William, a Richard Williams-type who was much more outspoken and camera-seeking than his son. William’s seen inducting Barry at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and referring to his son as “the third-best running back in history,” behind Jim Brown and himself.
One thing that jumps out is that Sanders’ era was one in which offenses were very different from today, and NFL running backs were superstars in a way they no longer are. Today, it’s far from rare for a star running back’s career to be over at age 31, after an 11-year career. But the circumstances are very different. Rather than voluntary retirement, running backs like Ezekiel Elliott and Dalvin Cook are cut by their teams in their late-20s, because they’ve lost a step and are getting too expensive.
Why did Sanders step away? According to the film, it was a combination of burnout, worry following paralyzing injuries to teammates Mike Utley and Reggie Brown, and unhappiness with coach Bobby Ross’ offensive system, which replaced the more exciting run-and-shoot offense used by Detroit earlier in Sanders’ career.
Bye Bye Barry is being sold as an answer to the mystery of why Sanders retired. But it’s much more interesting as an exploration of the career of one of football’s most dominant stars.