Is Gale Sayers an overrated "legend"?

[Micah Prescott]

Everyone knows Gale as a Hall of Fame legend, one of the greatest RBs to play the game. It's just really hard to look at his numbers and justify him as such though. He had a short career that ended early to a knee injury.

Gale only started 65 games and amassed 4,956 rushing yards (160th all time) with 39 rushing TDs (139th all time)

For reference Josh Jacobs currently has 5,545 rushing yards and 46 rushing TDs in 72 starts, he's just 26 years old. I don't think anyone thinks of Josh as a Hall of Famer (right now anyway) and Jacobs also plays during a time that is much less run heavy and against much bigger defenders.

Gale was also a great return man, with 8 total return TDs. But I am not sure that makes up for his short career and lack luster numbers.

[Worm Guts]

It was a different game back then, less games and less yards accumulated in those games. He was a 5 time first team all-pro, led the league in rushing twice along with being the best kick returner.
Terrell Davis made the Hall on 3 great seasons.

[Micah Prescott]

The 2 seasons that Gale led the NFL in rushing he had 1,231 yards and 1,032 yards.

Going back to Josh Jacobs because I already used him for comparison, Josh had 1,643 rushing yards last season.

I understand that it was a different game back then, but the reality is that Jacobs (and 159 others) have already out produced Gale, and I don't think there is anyone who would rank Jacobs ahead of Gale on an all-time list. Which just doesn't paint a very realistic picture IMO.

[bluejerseyjinx]

They only played 14 regular season games back then unlike the 17 that are played today. I'm positive his all time numbers would be much higher had he played those extra 21 games during his 7 year career.

[bluejerseyjinx]

IMHO I thought Sayers was Better than Walter Payton.

[Mr B]

Everyone knows Gale as a Hall of Fame legend, one of the greatest RBs to play the game. It's just really hard to look at his numbers and justify him as such though. He had a short career that ended early to a knee injury.

Gale only started 65 games and amassed 4,956 rushing yards (160th all time) with 39 rushing TDs (139th all time)

For reference Josh Jacobs currently has 5,545 rushing yards and 46 rushing TDs in 72 starts, he's just 26 years old. I don't think anyone thinks of Josh as a Hall of Famer (right now anyway) and Jacobs also plays during a time that is much less run heavy and against much bigger defenders.

Gale was also a great return man, with 8 total return TDs. But I am not sure that makes up for his short career and lack luster numbers.

Context matters when evaluating the old school players. Gales Sayers was Barry Sanders before Barry Sanders. He was art in motion. NO ONE had ever seen a runner like him at the time. His career ended by an injury that’s pretty common now, still serious but common.

[hermes]

comparing across eras is so complicated. better to just let players exist in their own times

in 50 years someone on this site might ask "is patrick mahomes overrated? why did bjj think he was such a big deal?"
because in 50 years even the mediocre qbs are throwing for 7500 yards a season

[QB_Eagles]

No, because he stood out so much from his peers, he didn't need the numbers from longevity.

[Micah Prescott]

IMHO I thought Sayers was Better than Walter Payton.

Seriously how? Like how is it even possible one could think this? Even just isolating their prime years I can't understand this.

Payton had 9 season with more than 1,231 rushing yards (Gale's best season)

Payton had 4,538 receiving yards, that production alone basically matches Gale's rushing. Never mind that Payton had 16,000+ rushing yards almost 4X Gale's career.

[Worm Guts]

IMHO I thought Sayers was Better than Walter Payton.

Seriously how? Like how is it even possible one could think this? Even just isolating their prime years I can't understand this.

Payton had 9 season with more than 1,231 rushing yards (Gale's best season)

Payton had 4,538 receiving yards, that production alone basically matches Gale's rushing. Never mind that Payton had 16,000+ rushing yards almost 4X Gale's career.

Gale Sayers led the league in rushing twice, Payton only once. You can't just look at production without consideration to the time they were playing.

[Micah Prescott]

IMHO I thought Sayers was Better than Walter Payton.

Seriously how? Like how is it even possible one could think this? Even just isolating their prime years I can't understand this.

Payton had 9 season with more than 1,231 rushing yards (Gale's best season)

Payton had 4,538 receiving yards, that production alone basically matches Gale's rushing. Never mind that Payton had 16,000+ rushing yards almost 4X Gale's career.

Gale Sayers led the league in rushing twice, Payton only once. You can't just look at production without consideration to the time they were playing.

First off their eras were not that far apart, there was just 4 years between their careers. But second that is more indicative of how others were running more so than them IMO. Gale led the NFL with just 1,032 rushing yards one year. I mean I think we can agree that there was a lack of competition that year and not a case of "the era was bad for runners".

[Worm Guts]

Seriously how? Like how is it even possible one could think this? Even just isolating their prime years I can't understand this.

Payton had 9 season with more than 1,231 rushing yards (Gale's best season)

Payton had 4,538 receiving yards, that production alone basically matches Gale's rushing. Never mind that Payton had 16,000+ rushing yards almost 4X Gale's career.

Gale Sayers led the league in rushing twice, Payton only once. You can't just look at production without consideration to the time they were playing.

First off their eras were not that far apart, there was just 4 years between their careers. But second that is more indicative of how others were running more so than them IMO. Gale led the NFL with just 1,032 rushing yards one year. I mean I think we can agree that there was a lack of competition that year and not a case of "the era was bad for runners".

It was before my time, so I don’t know the cause, but if you look at the league leaders for rushing during Sayers era, there were generally only 1-2 guys over 1,000. As a rookie, Sayers was 2nd in the league in rushing with less than 900 yards. So yeah I think you need to take the era into consideration.

[Micah Prescott]

Gale Sayers led the league in rushing twice, Payton only once. You can't just look at production without consideration to the time they were playing.

First off their eras were not that far apart, there was just 4 years between their careers. But second that is more indicative of how others were running more so than them IMO. Gale led the NFL with just 1,032 rushing yards one year. I mean I think we can agree that there was a lack of competition that year and not a case of "the era was bad for runners".

It was before my time, so I don’t know the cause, but if you look at the league leaders for rushing during Sayers era, there were generally only 1-2 guys over 1,000. As a rookie, Sayers was 2nd in the league in rushing with less than 900 yards. So yeah I think you need to take the era into consideration.

I don't think it was the era or the game. The years before Gale entered the league we can see Jim Brown's dominance and seasons he ran for 1,800+ and 1,500+ and 1,400+ yards.

Then after Gale we can see that OJ Simpson came in and ran for 2,000 and had other huge seasons. And Payton and Earl came in and had massive rushing years as well.

To me it looks like Gale's short career just squeezed into a time between Brown and OJ were there was simply not much elite running talent around.

[Otis Driftwood]

No. He’s not overrated. What he accomplished in essentially 5 seasons stands the test of time and his 6 TD game against the Niners in his rookie season stands as one of the greatest individual games in the history of the league. He could have had 7… Halas didn’t want him injured.

Numbers without context are just that - numbers. There was no one like him before he came along. He played (along with Dick Butkis) on a bunch of awful teams that never even made the playoffs. And to this day he still tied for 4th on the all time Average Yards per Carry list for a career (not counting current players still on rosters).

Not overrated. Not one bit.

[Worm Guts]

First off their eras were not that far apart, there was just 4 years between their careers. But second that is more indicative of how others were running more so than them IMO. Gale led the NFL with just 1,032 rushing yards one year. I mean I think we can agree that there was a lack of competition that year and not a case of "the era was bad for runners".

It was before my time, so I don’t know the cause, but if you look at the league leaders for rushing during Sayers era, there were generally only 1-2 guys over 1,000. As a rookie, Sayers was 2nd in the league in rushing with less than 900 yards. So yeah I think you need to take the era into consideration.

I don't think it was the era or the game. The years before Gale entered the league we can see Jim Brown's dominance and seasons he ran for 1,800+ and 1,500+ and 1,400+ yards.

Then after Gale we can see that OJ Simpson came in and ran for 2,000 and had other huge seasons. And Payton and Earl came in and had massive rushing years as well.

To me it looks like Gale's short career just squeezed into a time between Brown and OJ were there was simply not much elite running talent around.

It was somewhat if you were only having 1 or 2 1,000 yard rushers per season. Pretty mediocre runners top that number now.

Sure, you still had the workhorses like Brown, but they were outliers. Sayers averaged 5.0 ypc, which was way above average at the time and not much different than OJ or Brown. He just didn't carry the ball as much. He was a 5 time first team All-Pro, which says during his peak he was always considered one of the top 2 backs in the league.

[Micah Prescott]

I mean the 14 game seasons is definitely real context that would have direct impact on numbers.

OJ ran for 2000 yards in 14 games. That is just unreal.

[Otis Driftwood]

I mean the 14 game seasons is definitely real context that would have direct impact on numbers.

OJ ran for 2000 yards in 14 games. That is just unreal.

That was a magical season. And his 143 YPG average that season will probably never be broken. For those of us who are old enough to have watched… just a special season.

[RaoulDuke79]

I mean the 14 game seasons is definitely real context that would have direct impact on numbers.

OJ ran for 2000 yards in 14 games. That is just unreal.

That was a magical season. And his 143 YPG average that season will probably never be broken. For those of us who are old enough to have watched… just a special season.

Yea - he really killed it that season, but I wasn't there to witness it...







...I will see myself out now.

[Micah Prescott]

I mean the 14 game seasons is definitely real context that would have direct impact on numbers.

OJ ran for 2000 yards in 14 games. That is just unreal.

That was a magical season. And his 143 YPG average that season will probably never be broken. For those of us who are old enough to have watched… just a special season.

Yea - he really killed it that season, but I wasn't there to witness it...







...I will see myself out now.

[Otis Driftwood]

I mean the 14 game seasons is definitely real context that would have direct impact on numbers.

OJ ran for 2000 yards in 14 games. That is just unreal.

That was a magical season. And his 143 YPG average that season will probably never be broken. For those of us who are old enough to have watched… just a special season.

Yea - he really killed it that season, but I wasn't there to witness it...







...I will see myself out now.