Chicago Bears: Five All-Time Greatest Running Backs
Number Two: Gale Sayers
Gale Sayers may not have some of the best numbers when it comes to all-time backs, but he is a Bears’ legend who deserves the number two slot on this list.
Selected by the Bears with the fourth overall pick in the 1965 NFL Draft (one pick after fellow Bears’ great Dick Butkus), Sayers took the league by storm right away, carrying the ball 166 times for 867 yards (5.2 YPC average) and 14 touchdowns as a rookie. Sayers also chipped in with 29 receptions for 507 yards and six receiving scores. He also dominated as a returner, adding two more scores, finishing with an impressive 22 combined touchdowns as a rookie.
Sayers continued to dominate the next season, finishing with a NFL-best 1,231 yards on the ground, and a 5.4 yards per carry average. Sayers started to run into some issues in 1968, when he tore his knee in week nine of the season. He was leading the league in rushing at the time of the injury, but he had to under-go surgery which forced him out for the rest of the season.
With medicine not being quite what it is today, Sayers never really got back to his old self. He was still a good player, but his incredible speed and quickness was simply not there. Sayers was still faster than most, but it was not at another level like it was in the first three years of his career.
Despite the injury, Sayers came back in 1969 and led the league in rushing again. However this time, it was on a league-leading 236 carries, which made for only a 4.4 yards per carry average. Sayers deserves credit for being a workhorse for that season, but he clearly was not the same player.
Sayers struggled through the next two years, before calling it quits after the 1971 season. He finished his career with 4,956 rushing yards, which is the fifth most in franchise history. That being said, Sayers’ career 5.0 yards per carry average is better than all of the players ahead of him on the list.
Sayers had the talent to be one of the greatest players of all-time. While injuries never let him reach his true potential, there is no denying his obvious place in Bears’ history. On many franchise lists, Sayers would have been number one.
Next: Number One