Barry Sanders: The Most Exciting Lion of All

For ten seasons, Detroit Lions fans had a weekly reason to never leave their seats: Barry Sanders, perhaps the most electrifying running back the game has ever seen. Listed at just 5-foot-8, Sanders made tacklers miss in ways that still defy explanation — stop-on-a-dime cuts, impossible spins, sudden bursts.

A Heisman winner out of Oklahoma State, Sanders was the Lions’ first-round pick in 1989 and dazzled from his very first NFL carry. He then rushed for over 1,000 yards in every single one of his ten seasons — the first back ever to do that for an entire career — and made the Pro Bowl all ten years. In 1997 he ran for more than 2,000 yards and shared the league MVP award.

Then, in 1999, at just 31 and still near his peak, he abruptly retired, walking away less than 1,500 yards short of the all-time rushing record. Humble and quiet to the end, he remains the greatest player in Lions history.