On July 27, 1999, Detroit Lions‘ RB Barry Sanders shocked the world by announcing he was retiring from the game of football.
Sanders, who was still just 31 years of age when he announced he was stepping away from the NFL, was on the verge of passing Walter Payton as he league’s all-time leading rusher.
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But that did not matter to him.
Now, 20 years later, it remains a mystery as to exactly why Barry decided to hang up his cleats.
Well, according to one former Lions’ running back, who never played with Sanders, the reason for Barry walking away when he did was pretty obvious.
That player is Greg Hill.
Hill, who was signed by the Lions just before the 1999 season started, shared his thoughts as to why Sanders retired when he did with Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press.
Hill went a step further and said he believes Croom is why Sanders retired, though he admittedly has never talked to Sanders about that.
“You god damn right (I think he’s one of the greatest running backs ever),” Hill said. “And now I actually think he greater cause that dude was under Sylvester Croom and he did all that.
“The dude that helped run Barry out of Detroit was Sylvester Croom, the offensive coordinator. And he was pissed off because they went and got him instead of some guys that they could have gotten as offensive coordinator and that was a frustrating ordeal because that was like the third or fourth or fifth or sixth time that a move had been made with the Detroit Lions, not thinking about the benefits of Barry or not thinking about the benefits of your offense or whatever and he had just gotten to the point to where the dude was just like, ‘Look, y’all can’t get it right so you’re not going to let me go so I need to just walk away.’ And he never said that, (but) that was it.”
Whether or not Croom was the main reason Barry retired when he did, we may never know. That being said, it had to be frustrating for the best running back ever to suit up.
