In 1999, on the cusp of breaking the NFL record for most rushing yards ever, 31-year-old Detroit Lions running back Barry Sanders sent a fax to his hometown newspaper, The Wichita Eagle, announcing his retirement. To this day, it remains one of the biggest “What Ifs” in all of professional sports. Why would a physically healthy athlete at the top of his game just up and retire the day before training camp was set to begin?
A new Amazon Prime documentary on the life and career of Barry Sanders entitled Bye Bye Barry attempts to answer the questions that fans have been pondering for nearly 25 years.
“We’ve all watched his highlights and wished he had played longer in the NFL, and wondered why he really retired so abruptly. We are thrilled to look back at his extraordinary career and get to better understand one of the biggest icons of the sport,” states Prime Video.
Promising to take an intimate and in detail look at Sanders’ unprecedented journey, the documentary hopes to tackle one of the greatest “mysteries” in sports history: Why did he retire when he did?
Bye Bye Barry is set to premiere on Prime Video on Nov. 21.
See the official trailer below.
