On Wednesday, Amazon released a trailer for the upcoming Barry Sanders documentary Bye Bye Barry, premiering November 21 on Prime Video.
And here’s Prime Video’s synopsis of the doc, an NFL Films production co-directed by Paul Monusky, Micaela Powers, and Angela Torma.
No one has ever run with a football like Barry Sanders. He moved like Michael Jordan. He had the power of a prizefighter. And he revolutionized the sport while playing on a team that was often overmatched. By the end of his rookie year in Detroit, anyone who saw his elusive style recognized this was a groundbreaking performer. Ten years into his Hall-of-Fame career, it was only a matter of time before he broke Walter Payton’s record for most career rushing yards. But in his prime, at the peak of his game, Sanders did the unthinkable. At age 31, in the summer of 1999, he walked away from the game, never to return. Few retirements have ever been so shocking. And none done with more intrigue.
“Barry Sanders is the best running back to ever play,” said Matt Newman, head of Prime Video Original sports content. “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.”
Instead of holding a massive press conference at the Lions’ facility, or conducting a one-on-one interview, Sanders faxed the announcement to his hometown paper in Wichita, Kansas and took a solitary trip. He caught a flight to England and walked around London, leaving the world to guess why he left. And a continent away, everyone did speculate. His team, the city of Detroit, and the entire sports community all had theories on why an immortal would simply walk away from the game. But no one ever had a satisfying answer. Until now.
“Watching Barry Sanders play running back was to witness a mystery,” said Angela Torma of NFL Films, co-director and co-producer of the film. “But Sanders’ career ended with a much bigger mystery: Why did one of the greatest running backs of all time walk away in his prime, on the cusp of breaking the league’s all-time rushing record? In Bye Bye Barry, we discover the reasoning for his retirement, and why it still reverberates so strongly across the sports landscape today.”
Twenty-four years after the shocking decision to walk away from the sport, NFL Films joined the 55-year-old Sanders and his four sons on a trip back to England to explore his career, revisit his upbringing, and share his joys and heartbreaks. Sanders and his boys visit the most famous landmarks in London to tackle one of the greatest mysteries in sports history: Why did he retire when he did? Fans across the NFL landscape have waited a long time for closure. Now, they’ll finally get the conclusive account on why Barry Sanders said “bye bye” to the NFL.
The trailer seems to check the “historical footage” box I always look for in docs, but given the involvement of NFL Films, that isn’t a surprise.
The list of interviewees is also impressive, consisting of Sanders and his family and various luminaries from both the Lions and the Detroit area. Those interviewed include Eminem, Jeff Daniels, Tim Allen, Emmitt Smith, Calvin Johnson, Herman Moore, Rodney Peete, Chris Spielman, Kevin Glover, Jalen Rose, Jemele Hill, Dan Patrick, and Bill Belichick.
Over the last few weeks and months, Bye Bye Barry has been getting plenty of promotion on Prime Video. But until Wednesday, we hadn’t gotten a longer look at the project. While a two-minute trailer isn’t nearly enough to make a judgment on Bye Bye Barry, it does shine more of a light on what the film will look like and adds to our optimism going into it.
Bye Bye Barry will be available to stream on Prime Video on Tuesday, November 21, days before it streams the NFL’s Dolphins-Jets game on Black Friday.
About Joe Lucia
I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.