A different era for sure. I can make this short and simple.
I believe the current common career average for running backs in the NFL is around 3 years. That’s just the modern statistics.
Barry Sanders played 10 seasons.
It just makes me chuckle, because Barry gave us a whole decade… and it wasn’t good enough.
It was an anomaly then as well. Very few players can play at an elite level for so long, especially RB. It was also wild he played for Detroit the entire time, but it happens. We’re witnessing something very similar with Derrick Henry right now. Adrian Peterson played 10 years in Minnesota before moving on. Both of those guys are also looked at as freaks that they played for so long as workhorses.
Right, freaks for sure.
That was joke with Joel Zumaya. We wanted to believe the Nolan Ryan theory.
Of course, Zumaya was built to blow his arm out in a few years and he did.
Nothing really shocking there.
So, honestly, I don’t find Barry retiring to be as confusing and shocking as a previous generation did.
The dust has settled a bit. 10 seasons at running back is more than fine. Barry was also amplified as being a weirdo… and he was a bit. Still, if you lose a passion for the game, at least Barry was honest about it.