Paying respects to the new Barry Sanders statue
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Barry Sanders statue outside Ford Field on Brush Street. Photo: Samuel Robinson/Axios
🤠Howdy, folks — it's Sam. I zipped over to Ford Field on my scooter the other night just to pay my respects to the Barry Sanders statue unveiled last month.
- My Lions fandom ended eight years ago when the team was robbed by a blown call in the 2014 NFC Wild Card game — but this year, like Joe, I'm back on the bandwagon.
The intrigue: My fan highlights include being at the game in 2009 when injured rookie Matt Stafford told the team's medical staff to "get the f--- off me" before heading back to the field to make a game-winning touchdown pass that beat the Cleveland Browns.
- And these baby pictures in a Barry Sanders jersey from 1998 are probably the best photos I've ever taken.
The big picture: While kids in Michigan today grow up hearing stories of Chauncey Billups, Miguel Cabrera or Calvin Johnson, we heard stories of Grant Hill, Cecil Fielder and Barry Sanders.
- I never watched Sanders play, but playing youth football in the early 2000s meant watching countless highlight videos with titles like Barry Sanders Top 50 Most Ridiculous Plays of All-Time.
Zoom in: The statue was completed by studio artists Omni Amrany and Lou Cella of Fine Art Studio Rotblatt Amrany, who have both worked on well-known sports statues like the iconic Michael Jordan tribute in Chicago, the Free Press reports.
Of note: The Lions (5-1) are in Baltimore on Sunday for a 1pm kickoff against the Ravens (4-2) on Fox.