ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio and His Bizarre Logic on Barry Sanders
ESPN, NFL November 12th. 2007, 12:22pm
We say Barry Sanders and you say … ‘well, the first time I saw him, my mouth hung open with the permanent expression of disbelief.’ Or perhaps, ‘he had the footwork of Baryshnikov, and was a deft impresario along the lines of Walter Payton.’ His football resume is more impressive than Derek Jeter’s dating history: Heisman Trophy, Hall of Fame, an NFL-record 14 straight 100-yard games, third-leading rusher in NFL history (and he would been first if he hadn’t abrupty retired at 30). These are just some of the reasons that we feel justified in calling Sal Paolantonio a fool. In his words: “The research that we did on Sanders, it’s pretty convincing when you read the chapter, that he was really a product of that cozy climate control Silverdome. Nice carpet for easy stop on a dime maneuvering, 72 degrees, Detroit faithful keeping the defensive line of balance but you put him outdoors.”
We have to ask … is he just saying this for attention, or can he really believe that because Sanders played indoors, his numbers are tainted? If that’s true, then please shove Edge James behind that incredible Cowboys o-line of the 90s and let’s see what he does.
ESPN analyst explains why ex-Lion Barry Sanders is overrated (Free Press)
36 Responses to “ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio and His Bizarre Logic on Barry Sanders”
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November 12th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
I’m no statistician, but I’m pretty sure that 4 isn’t a large enough sample to draw conclusions from.
November 12th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
Granted playing on turf helped Barry, but he still would have been great if he played on grass most of his career.
November 12th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
Sal’s an idiot. Barry’s o-line was substandard most of the time. Not only was Mike Utley paralyzed, Eric Andolsek was killed while mowing the lawn near the road outside his home. The Lions were forced to replace these two guys with lesser talents, yet Barry continued to run on, and on, and on……..
Tell Sal to drop the pipe, NOW.
November 12th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
I’m old. In my 60’s old. I’ve seen Jim Brown, Gale Sayers, OJ in person and on TV (black and white & color). Picking the best is difficult, but Barry Sanders was a one man show, on not very good Lions teams. To call him overrated is assinine.
Sal is just trying to sell books, at the expense of Barry’s reputation. He should be ashamed, but he’ll get the pub he desperately wanted. I wouldn’t buy the book to wipe my ass with.
November 12th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
I mean he does have a point, Sanders did have one bad playoff game, and it was outdoors. How can you even refute that?
I am eagerly awaiting the boys over at FireJoeMorgan.com to read this book, or even that interview and justifiably roat him.
November 12th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
He finishes that article by pointing out that he has Brett Favre as an overrated quarterback. It’s probably fair to say that Sal is in the business of saying really stupid things in order to sell a really pointless (and clearly wrong) book.
November 12th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Ask Tampa Bay Buc fans of the early 90s how he did on their field when he torched them
November 12th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
Dude is just trying to sell books. I loved watching Barry Sanders play when I was a kid. He was by far my favorite player not in a purple uniform.
November 12th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
just come out and say you want to have sex with jeter.
November 12th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
i just dont understand how anyone could realistically say that barry sanders, one of the greatest NCAA and NFL rushers of all time, is overrated. emmitt smith on the other hand…
November 12th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
when barry sanders and thurman thomas were at oklahoma state, that dup was the best college running back tandem ever
maroney and barber at minnesota was another great tandem that i think a lot of people do not know about
you wouldnt hear Sal say Mcnabb is overrated though would ya
Mcnabb is the most overrated player in the league
November 12th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
If I recall correctly, he didn’t do so bad in college, which was primarily played on grass…
Dumbest. Statement. Ever.
November 12th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
So wait? Why does it look like he took Jayson Stark’s book about over/underrated in baseball, slapped his mug on it, and sold it as a football book? Way to go, assbag! I could probably listen to an argument on basically anyone being overrated, but certainly not Barry.
November 12th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Would it be possible to have a weekly review of Matthew Berry’s fantasy advice and the player stats? I know this is done periodically, but I think a running tally on his idiotic advice would be entertaining.
November 12th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Barry Sanders should be held to a higher level of greatness based upon his achievements with such a horrid o-line. Imagine if his o-line was half-ass.
I take this book and the baseball book and laugh.
November 12th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Someone should tell Sal to just stick to being outside Eagles’ offices and interviewing the punter and trainers.
Last I checked, Sanders had to play once a year in Green Bay and in Chicago (both open air, hostile environments). Did that affect the way he played or his success?
Sanders did it on the road and at home, in the heat and in the cold. God knows how bad his Lions teams would have been without him.
November 12th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
I read a blog entry a few weeks ago that broke down Sanders’ playoff games and really defended the running back for the lack of carries he got in those games. It was also an indictement of Paolantonio’s stupidity. On top of the shoddy offensive line, there was a yearly quarterback carousel in Detroit, which allowed opponents to stack the box against Sanders.
November 12th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Berry cursed my team this week. He loved half of my team them and every single one sucked. I barely broke 50 points.
November 12th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Sounds like Sal’s been hanging around with Andy Reid’s kids
November 12th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
This sounds like something Skip Bayless would come up and try to defend with a straight face.
And speaking of First Take personalities (I was admittedly struggling for something to watch this morning), how about hitting the treadmill there, Dana Jacobson? Christ that chick is getting wide. What happened to the good old days when chicks were hired based upon their hotness?
November 12th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
Good line on Reid’s kids.
Would fully embrace the Matthew Berry ‘advice’ column. In fact … if someone wants to take on this challenge, please email me. It could become a regular thing. Just a lot of work for me, you know, having the real job and doing the blog and having a life. For next season, DEFINITELY
November 12th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Correct me if I’m wrong, but Detroit wasn’t the only team that had astro turf at their home stadium. Not to mention, Sanders played 50% of his games at other teams’ stadiums. He’s just trying to sell books – ESPN and its people are sticking to the “go out on a limb and say something completely crazy” formula in leui of showing highlights. I guess if it aint broke, don’t fix it.
November 12th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
Sal Pal has officially hit Jim Grey level hatred in my opinion. What a fluffer. Yeah and Sal Pal probably thinks Jim Brown was a sissy too. These “reporters” get away wuth a little too much these days. What ever happened to calling out massive loads of BS. Fuck Sal.
November 12th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
In my new book “Ridiculous Statements and Theories” I go as far as to say the Barry Sanders would not have been half the player he was without Wayne Fontes and he only put up his statistics because he was fast and had the ability to make cuts and allude defenders…if not for that he was shit.
November 12th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
You can be great and still be overrated. If the general consensus casts you as the greatest player, and you’re really only one of the greatest, you are arguably overrated.
Take an example from baseball. Joe DiMaggio was an unquestionably great player, a deserving enshrinee in the Hall of Fame. But many people talk about him as if he was the greatest player ever, or one of the five or six greatest players ever. He simply wasn’t (Ruth, Williams, Bonds, Mays, Cobb, Aaron– all better, just off the top of my head), even accounting for time missed due to military service. So, Joe DiMaggio is a Hall of Famer, but he’s still overrated.
November 12th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Note: That’s not a comment on Sanders and whether he is actually overrated. On that, I plead ignorance. I would definitely want to see his road stats in something other than four playoff games.
November 12th, 2007 at 3:49 pm
Dude- by placing this idiotic interview on your site, you are, in fact endorsing SALPAL (kinda like Paypal)point of view.
Obie Trice = “sit in the can, you never ran, like barry san”
November 12th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Sal probably thinks Wilbert Montgomery was the greatest running back of all time.
November 12th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
I hear alot of Sanders fans fall back on that tired excuse of him not having the advantage that Smith had with the O Line, as if anyone could run behind that line. However there’s a few things people tend to miss: 1. The 90’s Cowboys second Super Bowl was won after an 0-2 start because Emmitt was holding out. 2. Smith conistantly faced 8 or 9 man fronts while Sanders ran out of a run and shoot offense where there were often extra defensive backs at the expense of the DL and LB’s. You put Smith in a run and shoot where he was 100 times the receiver than Barry, and where he wouldn’t have to worry about as many DL’s and LB’s, he would have wound up with 200 TDS and alot more yards.
November 12th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
Sanders didn’t even stay in on goaline offense.
November 12th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
I’m sorry, but Sanders is definitely better than Emmitt…he doesn’t attempt to kill my brain cells on a weekly basis like Smith does.
November 12th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
To all those who buy the myth of Detroit’s horrible O-line: Do the names “Lomas Brown” or “Kevin Glover” mean anything to you? They should, they had nine Pro Bowls between the two of them between 1991-1998.
And frankly, outside of the outdoor thing, Salpal makes a decent point. (See also: Music & The Beatles)
November 12th, 2007 at 11:07 pm
I think Barry was a bit overrated for a different reason, though for a different reason.
He racked up a lot of yardage, but much of it was on long runs. He would have like 12 carries for -7 yards and then bust one for 80. His big play threat can’t be denied, but they could never balance an offense around him because he wasn’t getting the consistent 4-5 yards from a normal running back. A lot of great plays but a lot of 2nd and 3rd and longs that stalled the offense as well.
November 13th, 2007 at 3:23 am
So… I guess the fact that they played on AstroTurf and in the dome didn’t help any of the defenses that he was playing, because we all know those non-human defensive players are faster and cut better on natural grass…
and i just wanted to throw a few names out there:
Bob Gagliano, Rodney Peete, Erik Kramer, Dave Krieg, Scott Mitchell, and Charlie Batch.
If you were wondering who all those fellas are, they are now your local community’s insurance salesmen, plumbers, etc. but were the artists formerly known as Detroit Lions quaterbacks. All these guys started at one point or another whill Barry played.
I know I’d be very scared of putting more guys in the box against that group of sniper QBs.
November 13th, 2007 at 10:06 am
Krieg was a Pro Bowl QB, Kramer led them to the NFC Championship game in a run and shoot, Mitchell threw for big numbers a few years in Detroit. He also had Herman Moore, Brett Perriman, and Johnnie Morton on the field at the same time as receivers.
November 13th, 2007 at 10:44 am
Darrell, you must be kidding. I’ll give you Mitchell throwing for big numbers for 2 years and Herman Moore having one real big year. Those are flukes really. But the Krieg and Kramer arguments are completely garbage.
Krieg was a Pro Bowler in ‘84, ‘88, and ‘89… interesting argument you have considering he didnt play with the Lions until 1994 and only for that one season.
Kramer leading them to the NFC Championship… you must be joking. Brad Johnson and Trent Dilfer have won Super Bowls in the NFL, but that by NO MEANS meakes them good quaterbacks.
Either way Barry never had a franchise QB (even Mitchell only lasted from ‘94 to ‘97 when Chuckles Batch took over).
Thanks for playing, that was fun.