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Gale Sayers, the Chicago Bears’ Hall of Fame running back, dies at 77
- Thread starter firepoint525
- Start date
Before his knee surgery, Gale Sayers was the best open field runner I ever saw. He was the equivalent of Michael Jordan on the football field. His moves were unbelievable. It's as though he had eyes in the back of his head and could dodge almost anyone who was trying to tackle him. Remember this was in the 1960s.
If you've never seen him you can watch some of his runs on you tube.
RIP!!
Had he not blown out his knee in 1968 and again in 1970, and finally an ankle injury in '72, he probably would have played at least into the mid '70s. Ironically, that would likely have prevented the Bears from drafting Walter Payton in 1975.
It was too bad that his legacy is that he was one of two Hall-of-Famers (along with Dick Butkus) on what was by then an increasingly bad Bear team. Some aging players from the 1963 NFL Championship, a few youngsters that got good later, during the Payton era, and a whole lot more that had no business in professional football.
Unfortunately, it was all those hits to the head that he had to endure, and nobody thought about in those days, that might have caused the dementia that finally killed him. He'd been in failing health for several years.
RIP, Kansas Comet.
I think the Bears best season during Sayers era was his first. They drafted Butkus, Sayers, and Dick Gordon in the 65 draft. Not bad.
Jack Concannon and Bobby Douglass were the starting quarterbacks for the Bears in the later years of his career. Neither deserved the job, but Halas never drafted a stud QB or traded for one.
Not so sure about that.
Trade #1: Technically, Sid Luckman was not drafted by the Bears, but it was collusion with Pittsburgh on Draft Day 1939 that got him there. He was drafted by the then-Pirates and immediately traded to the Bears. He practically invented the T-formation, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1965. He won 4 NFL Championships with the Bears in 1940, 1941, 1943, and 1946. A stud? One of the greatest.
Trade #2: Billy Wade was traded from the Rams to the Bears in 1961, and won the 1963 NFL Championship. He retired in 1966. A stud? I say so, although he was not enshrined in Canton. Had the Rams won a title or two while he was there (1954-60), he'd be in the Hall now.
Draft: The Bears drafted Jim McMahon in the 1st round in 1982. Mike Ditka may have made the selection, but Papa Bear had to approve it. He was a member of the 1985 Super Bowl winning team. A stud? Yes, and crazy, too. Unfortunately, he couldn't stay healthy, which kept him out of Canton.
IMO Jim McMahon was not HOF caliber. He only really had one good year and he wasn't entirely healthy that year. The rest of his career as you point out he couldn't stay healthy enough to play very much. When healthy he was good, but he was rarely healthy.
I was referring to the years that the Bears suffered with Concannon, Douglass, Virgil Carter and the like -- post-Wade, pre-McMahon. A decent QB would have made the Bears much more successful in the second half of Sayers' career. As it was, the team depended on its sturdy defense far too much. Sayers pretty much carried the offense on his back, but there's only so much a running back can do on his own to secure victories, especially when the passing game is not a threat.
Little different than what Walter Payton had to go through before Ditka became the coach. He had to deal with Gary Huff, "Slo-mo Bob" Avelini and Vince Evans as poor impersonations of quarterbacks before Jimmy Mac was drafted in '82.
But between Sayers and Payton, the Bears had to deal with Patriots castoff Carl Garrett in '73 and the immortal Ken Grandberry in '74 as their running backs. Combine those stiffs with the stellar coaching of Abe Gibron, and you have a recipe for disaster. Halas finally stepped aside (other than signing checks) and hired Jim Finks to run the team. Things slowly turned around after that, although they still had coaching issues until Ditka arrived.
I'd list all the bad Bear QBs I had to endure since Wade and Rudy Bukich retired, but there isn't enough room.
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