Best NFL Players of All Time: Gale Sayers. Ranking the Top Players in History. Place a bet on an NFL football game now.

Best NFL Players of All Time: Gale Sayers

Gale Sayers would not even be in the top rankings of many sportswriters’ lists of the best players in NFL history. I apologize for being so direct, but those folks are just uninformed.

Sayers had a brief career—shorter than that of Earl Campbell. Sayers signed a contract with the NFL in 1965 and left at the end of the 1971 campaign. Knee problems destroyed his career. But he was a comet who dazzled the NFL with incredible sprinting abilities that would have made him the greatest of his generation.

Maybe Barry Sanders was more elusive and Jim Brown had greater all-around talent. Sayers might have won that competition, though, if you had put all three of them in the same training camp and forced to assign one of them to a task.

The Bears of Chicago When George Halas watched Sayers’ college films from Kansas in 1965, he realized he had something exceptional and decided to draft him. For the most part, Halas was the driving force behind the NFL’s founding 45 years ago. His barnstorming trip with Red Grange in 1925 helped establish pro football’s lack of legitimacy and set the NFL on its path to become the most prosperous sports league in history. Glancing at Sayers, Halas likened him to Grange.

The analogy could not have been more accurate. In his prime, Grange could run as quickly as a hiccup and would just pop into the secondary whenever he had daylight. Sayers made history as a rookie quarterback on December 12, 1965, four decades after the Galloping Ghost made his Bears debut. He did so by scoring six touchdowns in a single game on a soggy afternoon against the San Francisco 49ers.

336 all-purpose yards were his total in the 61–20 victory. When Sayers talked about what he needed to succeed on the field, NFL Films was able to get the inside scoop on him and basically capture his soul. Sayers spoke the words, “Just give me eighteen inches of daylight,” without even flinching. “That is all I require.”

Sayers’s six-touchdown effort against Halas’s Bears in 1929—tying a record set by Ernie Nevers of the Chicago Cardinals—was especially noteworthy because it took place on a field that was in appalling condition due to rain. The majority of the players were stumbling, which made it difficult to tackle Sayers. Sayers, though, seems at ease on the muddy field for some reason. Sayers’ touchdown runs were at 21, 7, 50, and 1 yards. In addition, he scored on an 85-yard punt return and an 80-yard screen pass reception.

Sayers remarked, “I never thought about the weather or the state of the eld.” “I merely considered carrying out my duties. If I could, I wanted to sprint with the ball and score. Every time I looked up that day, there was a lane leading to the end zone.

Sayers led the league in total touchdowns as a rookie, even though the Bears’ offensive line was subpar during that period. He was the talk of the field every time he on the field. Sayers seemed unaffected by the additional attention. Sayers clarified, “I don’t care how many defensive players are trying to key on me.” “They can only field 11 men, and every one of them can see me.” They need to confront me, and that’s the problem.

Halas found it fascinating that Sayers could start, accelerate to full speed, stop, and cut with such ease. “Gale recognizes daylight,” Halas remarked. When he spots a gap, the ordinary back will attempt to force his way through. However, Gale automatically takes off in the correct direction if the hole is even slightly plugged. And he usually freezes the defense because he moves so quickly and decisively.

Sayers, like Barry Sanders, was not always able to justify his actions. However, he could clarify his strategy. Sayers clarified, “If they believe they know where I am going, that’s fine.” “But I won’t be there at that precise moment when they get to where they believe I will be.”

Defensive back Kermit Alexander struck Sayers in the right knee during a 1968 game against the San Francisco 49ers, causing Sayers to tear ligaments in the first of two catastrophic knee injuries. If the event had occurred a few generations later, Sayers would have recovered from his injuries through arthroscopic surgery and been almost back to his pre-damage state.

Sayers didn’t return until 1969, by which time his injuries had reduced him to more of a power running back than a special player with the ability to run like the wind and find defensive openings.

Despite the setback, Sayers didn’t give up or lament that he had lost his special skill. Instead, he knocked tacklers over and hit them with surprising ferocity as he ran for 1,032 yards and eight touchdowns.

Sayers was making the adjustment from speed back to power back, and he was handling it well. After he tore ligaments in his left knee during a 1970 preseason game, his career came to an end. He made an effort to recover, but he was unable to perform as well as he had before the accident.

Sayers ended up needing to retire after the 1971 season with a career total of 4,956 running yards, averaging 5.0 yards per carry, and 39 rushing touchdowns. Nine more touchdowns came from his receiving position; six came from kickoff returns and two from punt returns.

Even when the Bears instructed him to throw the option ball, he completed it for a score. Sayers knew that ailments prevented him from accomplishing more on the football field, but there was nothing he couldn’t do there. If given the chance, Sayers stated, “I would have played for many more years.” “I believe if I had been able to run as well as I could have when I first came up, my numbers would have been much more memorable.”

Sayers was spot on in his evaluation, no question about it.

Best NFL Players of All Time: Gale Sayers Stats

Regular Season

Year	Age	Tm	Pos	No.	G	GS	Att	Yds	TD	Lng	Y/A	Y/G	A/G	Rec	Yds	Y/R	TD	Lng	R/G	Y/G	Touch	Y/Tch	YScm	RRTD	Fmb	AV
1965	22	CHI	HB	40	14	12	166	867	14	61	5.2	61.9	11.9	29	507	17.5	6	80	2.1	36.2	195	7	1374	20	9	18
1966	23	CHI	HB	40	14	13	229	1231	8	58	5.4	87.9	16.4	34	447	13.1	2	80	2.4	31.9	263	6.4	1678	10	2	17
1967	24	CHI	HB	40	13	13	186	880	7	70	4.7	67.7	14.3	16	126	7.9	1	32	1.2	9.7	202	5	1006	8	8	12
1968	25	CHI	RB	40	9	9	138	856	2	63	6.2	95.1	15.3	15	117	7.8	0	21	1.7	13	153	6.4	973	2	7	8
1969	26	CHI	RB	40	14	14	236	1032	8	28	4.4	73.7	16.9	17	116	6.8	0	25	1.2	8.3	253	4.5	1148	8	7	10
1970	27	CHI	RB	40	2	2	23	52	0	15	2.3	26	11.5	1	-6	-6	0	-6	0.5	-3	24	1.9	46	0	1	0
1971	28	CHI	RB	40	2	2	13	38	0	9	2.9	19	6.5				0				13	2.9	38	0	0	0
Career					68	65	991	4956	39	70	5	72.9	14.6	112	1307	11.7	9	80	1.6	19.2	1103	5.7	6263	48	34	65

 

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