Chicago Bears: 15 greatest running backs of all time
By Ryan Heckman
player. 57. . RB. (1965-71). Gale Sayers. 2
When you talk about superstars retiring early in today’s game, the name Gale Sayers has to at least come to mind a bit. Playing a shorter amount of time than most fans would have liked to see, Sayers made the most of his years in the NFL.
He did it all. Sayers returned kicks and punts, caught passes and of course ran the football. He even attempted 18 passes during his seven seasons with the Bears.
The “Kansas Comet” was so far ahead of his time. Looking at today’s NFL, he would have thrived more so than many of his peers back in the 1960s. Versatility is the name of the game today, and Sayers was indeed versatile.
Get this: In 68 career games with the Bears, Sayers scored a total of 56 touchdowns. Eight of them came on returns, nine of them were through the air and the other 39 came on the ground.
Not many may know this, but in his first two seasons with the Bears, Sayers was one of the best pass-catching backs the league had seen. In his rookie season, Sayers caught 29 balls for a whopping 507 yards and six scores — that’s an average of 17.5 yards per reception, as a running back.
In his second season, Sayers caught 34 passes and again put up an impressive average of 13.1 yards per reception.
Sayers was and still is one of the best all-around backs this league has ever seen. One can only imagine what he would have done had he played a few more years, but his career got him into both the College Football Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.