It’s Wednesday, So Here’s Three More Reasons Barry Sanders is the ?

It’s Wednesday and Rondel Walker doesn’t commit for another 24 hours so I have three Barry Sanders things for you today. Three things that I noticed recently independent of one another that are all amazing and a reminder that we should not go too many Wednesdays without remembering how hysterically good Barry Sanders was at football (and apparently basketball!).

1. How about this Baby ‘Nique reverse (sort of) double-pump from the Hall-of-Famer? A quick scan of the deep web clarifies what was going on here.

Many were surprised to find out that Sanders participated in a dunk contest in the early 1990s. The dunk contest was put on by Foot Locker and featured stars from different sports outside of the NBA, including Deion Sanders, Ken Griffey Jr. and Mark Henry.

In the video, Sanders is able to dunk with relative ease.  Below is the double pump dunk, which excited Dick Vitale after Sanders displayed the ability to elevate and throw down with relative ease. The dunk was rated a 9.8! [SI]

Anyway, the dunk was amazing and I think we might need to start selling orange Foot Locker tanktops in our PFB Store.

1991 ~ That time @BarrySanders (#Lions) came in 2nd place in a dunk contest…he's 5'8"! #ThrowbackThursday pic.twitter.com/1bLrt6acRV

— History of Sports (@BeforeFamePics) June 2, 2016

2. We’ve been looking at Barry’s stats from Chuba’s perspective, but what if we looked at Chuba’s stats from Barry’s perspective? Think about how unbelievable Chuba has been this season and how many times your jaw has dropped at a cut he’s made or a gallop he’s gone on. Now think about somebody having 1.5x as many TDs and 1.2x as many yards as him through the first eight games of the year. Now think about that player putting up 1,150 in his last four games (that’s what Barry did from this point forward in 1988). Here are their stats through eight games.

3. This article on SB Nation was tremendous. It was the deepest dive on Barry’s time with the Lions and why so many TDs were stolen from him. This about long runs not resulting in TDs was probably the part I enjoyed the most.

His proficiency at picking up huge chunks of yardage manifested itself with 15 career rushing touchdowns of at least 50 yards. At the time that was most ever, though Adrian Peterson has since one-upped him.

However, he unleashed mammoth runs so frequently, he even monopolized the idea of such plays not resulting in scores. Take October 1994, for instance. During a Week 5 game in Tampa, Sanders got loose for an 85-yard carry before Bucs DB Charles Dimry finally corralled him out of bounds:

Two games later vs. the Bears, Sanders bounced it outside, turned on the jets, and went 84 yards, but without finding paydirt:

How unusual is that? From that point forward, for another 20 years through the 2013 season, there were another 37 carries in the NFL that went for over 80 yards … and every last one of them resulted in a touchdown. [SB Nation]

The whole thing is wonky and awesome, and you should definitely give it a read.

So yeah, it’s Wednesday, Barry is the GOAT. No more evidence is needed but those three pieces above are a nice reminder.