Athletes - Gale Sayers

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	Athletes - Gale Sayers

Gale Eugene Sayers (born May 30, 1943 in Wichita, Kansas), also known as "The Kansas Comet", was a professional football player in the National Football League who spent his entire career with the Chicago Bears.

Sayers, raised in Omaha, Nebraska, was an impressive 2-time All-American player at the University of Kansas and it showed in the NFL. He was NFL Rookie of the Year in 1965 and accomplished the amazing feat of being the only rookie at the time to score six touchdowns in a game (running flat-footed on an extremely muddy field in Chicago against the San Francisco 49ers) en route to scoring a record 22 touchdowns in his rookie year. In his second season, despite the attempts of defenses focused on him, Sayers led the league in rushing with 1,231 yards.

But in a game against the San Francisco 49ers in 1968, Sayers was chopped down by Kermit Alexander after receiving a pitch and tore ligaments in his right knee, ending his season prematurely. Soon he had surgery and rehabilition and made a successful comeback. In the 1969 season he led the league in rushing once again, but he lacked the speed he once had.

Once again, in 1970, Sayers suffered another knee injury, this time with his left knee. During his off time, he took classes at the University of New York to become a stock broker and became the first black stock broker in his company's history. After another rehabilitation period, he tried for a comeback, but was not successful. He was encouraged to retire, due to his loss of speed. His final game was in the preseason, where he was handed the ball three times, and fumbled twice.

Sayers retired from football during the 1971 campaign, and began a career as a CEO for a computer company. In 1977 he entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame and at halftime of a Monday Night Football game in 1994 he had his uniform number, 40, retired at Soldier Field in Chicago. On the same evening his contemporary Dick Butkus, a legendary Bears linebacker, was similarly honored.

His friendship with teammate Brian Piccolo, and Piccolo's struggle with the cancer that would eventually result in his death, became the subject of the legendary made-for-TV movie Brian's Song. The movie, in which Sayers was portrayed by Billy Dee Williams in the 1971 original and by Mekhi Phifer in the 2001 remake, was adapted from Sayers' telling of this story in his 1971 autobiography I Am Third. A notable aspect of Sayer's friendship with Piccolo, a caucasian, and the first film's depiction of their friendship, was its affect on race relations. Sayers and Piccolo were devoted friends and deeply respectful of and affectionate for each other. The 1971 film is also a notorious tear-jerker: many men of that era profess to crying when viewing the film, and many claim it is the only film ever to move them to tears.

Sayers was famous for a quote captured by NFL Films, in which he stated: "Just give me eighteen inches of daylight... that's all I need." Though his career statistics may at first seem unremarkable, his greatness is obvious when one discovers how short his career actually was. Due to injuries Sayers averaged less than ten games per season over a seven year career. Today Sayers is a successful public speaker, businessman, and philanthropist, and is also active as a National Football League alumnus. He is still the NFL's all-time leader in kickoff return yardage.

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Athletes - Gale Sayers

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