Sayers’ greatness didn’t need longevity for validation

Published Sept. 23, 2020

The greatness of Gale Sayers wasn’t just what he did on the football field. It was that we didn’t need to see too much of it before we knew that he was generational.

Sayers, who passed away at age 77 after battling dementia, was like hockey’s Bobby Orr: We longed to see more, but when it was over, their place among their respective game’s all-time greats was forever secure. We knew that no one that came after them would ever knock them out of that pantheon of the creme de la creme.

But man, it would have been nice to see more.

The year 2020 continues to be unkind. Just in the NFL, we’ve lost Sayers and legendary safety Larry Wilson within a week.

Sayers, perhaps fittingly, was a rookie the same year (1965) that one of his all-time brethren runners, Jim Brown, was in his…