The thrill was gone, Barry Sanders recalls in explaining his seemingly abrupt retirement from the Lions and the NFL back in 1999.
"I had had enough," the Hall of Fame running back says in a documentary airing Wednesday night, Dave Birkett reports in the Detroit Free Press. "I had played the game long enough and that real drive and determination and enjoyment of the game had left. . . . I was glad to get out of there."
His decision to bolt on the eve of training camp was't made hastily, Birkett quotes Sanders as saying in the retrospective, titled "Barry Sanders: A Football Life." The one-hour film will be shown at 8 p.m. Dec. 5 on the NFL Network.
Sanders, who ranks third on the NFL's all-time rushing list, said he all but made up his mind to leave seven months earlier before his final game as a Lion, then "struggled" with that choice all off-season.
"I didn't hate the Lions. . . . Had things been different with the team I don't know if I would have made the same decision. Had we been coming off a Super Bowl victory or a deep run into the playoffs, I don't know."
