and 2020 keeps getting worse. 
Gale Sayers, one of the most electric NFL players of the 1960s and early 1970s, has died. He was 77 years old.
The Pro Football Hall of Famer was a brilliant running back and returner who spent only seven years in the league, all with the Chicago Bears, from 1965 to 1971.
Nicknamed the “Kansas Comet” after a brilliant college career with the Jayhawks, Sayers had one of the NFL’s all-time best rookie seasons after entering the league as the fourth overall selection in the 1965 NFL draft.
Sayers set a league record that first season by scoring 22 touchdowns — including a record-tying six in a single game — and gained 2,272 all-purpose yards. He was named the NFL's Rookie of the Year and would earn four Pro Bowl appearances and five first-team All-Pro selections in his first five seasons.
“All those who love the game of football mourn the loss of one of the greatest to ever play this Game with the passing of Chicago Bears legend Gale Sayers,” Hall of Fame President & CEO David Baker said in a statement. “He was the very essence of a team player — quiet, unassuming and always ready to compliment a teammate for a key block. Gale was an extraordinary man who overcame a great deal of adversity during his NFL career and life.”
To this day Sayers is still the youngest ever Pro Football Hall Of Fame inductee at age 34, in 1977.
Sayers’ career hits abrupt end
In 1968, Sayers suffered a serious knee injury. Without the medical technology of today, he was never the same, though he reinvented himself and led the NFL in rushing in 1969 as he ran with power and toughness. After another serious knee injury in the preseason of 1970, he played in only four more games and rushed for just 90 more yards.
The greatness during Sayers’ relatively short run was undeniable, however. Sayers was the only player to make the NFL’s 75th anniversary team at two different positions, running back and kick returner. Only three other Pro Football Hall of Famers played fewer than Sayers’ 68 games. Sayers is the youngest player ever elected to the Hall of Fame.
Off the field, Sayers had a successful business career. Many casual fans might know Sayers through the 1971 movie “Brian’s Song,” which chronicled Sayers’ friendship with teammate Brian Piccolo, who died of cancer.
The movie, in which Sayers was played by Billy Dee Williams and Piccolo was played by James Caan, was based on parts of Sayers’ autobiography “I Am Third.”
The book’s title was a shortened version of his words: “The Lord is first, my friends are second, and I am third.”
In 2017, Sayers’ wife Ardie said her husband was suffering from dementia, which he was diagnosed with four years earlier. Ardie Sayers said doctors told her they believed football played a role in Gale’s dementia.
Gale Sayers, one of the most electric NFL players of the 1960s and early 1970s, has died. He was 77 years old.
The Pro Football Hall of Famer was a brilliant running back and returner who spent only seven years in the league, all with the Chicago Bears, from 1965 to 1971.
Nicknamed the “Kansas Comet” after a brilliant college career with the Jayhawks, Sayers had one of the NFL’s all-time best rookie seasons after entering the league as the fourth overall selection in the 1965 NFL draft.
Sayers set a league record that first season by scoring 22 touchdowns — including a record-tying six in a single game — and gained 2,272 all-purpose yards. He was named the NFL's Rookie of the Year and would earn four Pro Bowl appearances and five first-team All-Pro selections in his first five seasons.
“All those who love the game of football mourn the loss of one of the greatest to ever play this Game with the passing of Chicago Bears legend Gale Sayers,” Hall of Fame President & CEO David Baker said in a statement. “He was the very essence of a team player — quiet, unassuming and always ready to compliment a teammate for a key block. Gale was an extraordinary man who overcame a great deal of adversity during his NFL career and life.”
To this day Sayers is still the youngest ever Pro Football Hall Of Fame inductee at age 34, in 1977.
Sayers’ career hits abrupt end
In 1968, Sayers suffered a serious knee injury. Without the medical technology of today, he was never the same, though he reinvented himself and led the NFL in rushing in 1969 as he ran with power and toughness. After another serious knee injury in the preseason of 1970, he played in only four more games and rushed for just 90 more yards.
The greatness during Sayers’ relatively short run was undeniable, however. Sayers was the only player to make the NFL’s 75th anniversary team at two different positions, running back and kick returner. Only three other Pro Football Hall of Famers played fewer than Sayers’ 68 games. Sayers is the youngest player ever elected to the Hall of Fame.
Off the field, Sayers had a successful business career. Many casual fans might know Sayers through the 1971 movie “Brian’s Song,” which chronicled Sayers’ friendship with teammate Brian Piccolo, who died of cancer.
The movie, in which Sayers was played by Billy Dee Williams and Piccolo was played by James Caan, was based on parts of Sayers’ autobiography “I Am Third.”
The book’s title was a shortened version of his words: “The Lord is first, my friends are second, and I am third.”
In 2017, Sayers’ wife Ardie said her husband was suffering from dementia, which he was diagnosed with four years earlier. Ardie Sayers said doctors told her they believed football played a role in Gale’s dementia.
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