Originally posted by: BigJ
One of the greatest RBs that ever lived.
However, it was a messy situation with the Lions at the end, which made me lose some respect for him.
That wasn't all Barry's fault. Believe me, I am a Lions fan and even I fault the orginization. The GM at the time had a god complex. He treated his players like sh!t, and basically used Barry as a barganing chip. He knew regardless of his supporting cast, Barry would put asses in seats and sell merchandise. He also knew that Lions fans, being the rubes that we are would be happy just being .500 with a playoff game every now and then.
Barry knew as long as he was playing for Detroit, this would continue. After watching his friends and teammates get screwed over for years, along with the losing he had enough. He knew the GM was more interested in personal vendettas and ticket sales than winning championships.
We were real close in 91'. We were 1 game out of the superbowl, losing to Washington who then went on to defeat the Bills. Thats when the dessimation of the team began.
Anyway, enough with boring nostalga.
Here is a link to his autobiography. It was a pretty good read. He goes over quite a few things that were never outed in the media.