In the final game of his rookie season in 1989, Barry Sanders the Detroit Lions ran for 158 yards to help his team beat the Atlanta Falcons, 31-24.
Sanders was resting on the sidelines in the final minutes when the bench was notified that he was 10 yards behind Christian Okoye of the Kansas City Chiefs in the battle for the NFL rushing title.
Sanders declined to go back into the game just to set a record.
"It's hard for me to go in and compete against numbers," he said last week. "To state the obvious, I compete against people. That's the thrill of the game, competing against the men on the other side of the ball. Once you conquer them, that's where you get your satisfaction. The yards are secondary."
Sanders went on to win the rushing title in 1990 but lost it the following three years to Emmitt Smith of the Dallas Cowboys.
With 1,831 yards going into tonight's game against the Miami Dolphins, Sanders has wrapped up another title, but he has no regrets about the one he let get away.
Tonight, he has a bigger target. He has a shot to join O. J. Simpson and Eric Dickerson as the only backs to rush for 2,000 yards in a season. He needs 169 yards.
But Sanders' philosophy hasn't changed. He wants a division title. If the Lions have the game wrapped up and he has 150 yards, he would be happy to come out, he said.
"It's not as important to get the yardage," Sanders said. "One hundred-fifty yards is sufficient for me in any game. With a big lead, I don't see a reason to go back into the game, especially if there's not that much time left on the clock. It isn't that important.
"The perfect scenario is to blow them out and be able to sit and watch the fourth quarter."
Since it's likely to be a close game, Sanders probably won't face that choice, but it's not surprising he feels that way.
In this era of trash talking, strutting athletes, Sanders is an exception to the rule. He doesn't even spike the ball. He hasn't been spoiled by success.
"It's not a false front," said Lions general manager Chuck Schmidt.
Sanders even said that there was no special satisfaction in ending Smith's reign as the top back.
"I'm surrounded by good people," he said. "It's not like I did it all by myself. It's not like running the 100-yard -- or playing tennis."
If Sanders isn't paying much attention to his yardage, the Dolphins are. They know containing Sanders is the key to stopping Detroit, but they can't overplay him and make it easy for quarterback Dave Krieg to complete passes.
"We can't get so involved with facing Barry Sanders that we don't go on the field looking to do our jobs," linebacker Brian Cox said.
The Bucs watch
Orioles owner Peter Angelos is making money for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and he doesn't even own them -- yet.
The Bucs drew 34,150 fans for their next-to-last home game against the Los Angeles Rams. When Angelos publicly pointed out that attendance figure, it started a drive that saw the Bucs draw their largest crowd of the season, 65,076, for yesterday's game against the Green Bay Packers.
Angelos, though, wasn't particularly impressed with the one-game showing.
"While it's commendable to accomplish that for one specific game, that doesn't tell you what kind of support that's present there on a game-by-game basis, a season-to-season basis and a decade-to-decade basis," he said.
"This isn't meant to be critical of the city or its people, but football doesn't occupy that level of importance to Tampa Bay residents that it does to Baltimore. The history and tradition are here."
Tampa, meanwhile, is claiming it will avoid the mistakes of Baltimore and St. Louis by guaranteeing 55,000 season tickets.
That means Tampa doesn't understand what the mistake was. The mistake was the lack of a new stadium. Baltimore, for example, offered the Colts a financial deal similar to the one they got in Indianapolis. The difference was that Indianapolis had a new stadium and Baltimore didn't.
St. Louis has corrected the mistake and is building a stadium that is likely to attract the Los Angeles Rams. Baltimore also has the funding for a new stadium, which enables Angelos to offer $200 million for the Bucs.
To correct its mistake, Tampa has to get a new stadium proposal together to support a purchase price that will match Angelos' number. Right now, all Tampa doing is studying a new stadium proposal.
Angelos also continues to fight the perception that he wants a battle. USA Today quoted ESPN's Chris Mortensen last week as saying Angelos is "willing to fight the NFL."
Said Angelos: "That's incorrect. As I've said repeatedly, I'm not looking for a confrontation."
He says he's trying to sell this as a good business deal for the NFL and for Baltimore.
In Tampa, they're still hoping the trustees might delay the sale to give the city more time, but Angelos believes the trustees are committed to selling in the next few weeks.
Moving to Baltimore?
The Los Angeles Rams apparently aren't moving to Baltimore, but their punter hopes he will be.
Tony Agnone, the agent for Sean Landeta, said that if the Bucs move to Baltimore, Landeta hopes to sign with the team. The Towson State alumnus is a free agent and isn't planning to go to St. Louis.
Although he was waived by the New York Giants midway through last season, Landeta has proved he still has a lot left. Landeta was leading the league in gross average at 44.7 yards a kick going into the final weekend of the season although he lost the NFC Pro Bowl berth to Reggie Roby of the Washington Redskins, who had the edge on him in net average, 36.3 to 35.3.
Landeta had to take a pay cut after being cut by the Giants and played for $425,000 this year but figures to get a raise next year.
The firing season
The holidays aren't usually a happy time for coaches on the hot seat. The firing season starts as soon as the regular season ends.
The first coach to go is likely to be Rich Kotite of the Philadelphia Eagles, as new owner Jeffrey Lurie puts his stamp on the team.
The surprising thing is that Kotite might not be unemployed very long. The Carolina Panthers are apparently interested in him.
General manager Bill Polian had success with a coach who had been fired by another team, Marv Levy, in Buffalo and appears ready to try that approach again.
What's unusual about this move is that the Panthers have 10,000 unsold permanent seat licenses, and Kotite wouldn't bring much ticket-selling glamour to the job. NationsBank, which helped guarantee those seats to help the city get the franchise, may wind up having to back that guarantee.
But since Joe Gibbs and Steve Spurrier aren't available, and Dennis Erickson appears headed to Seattle, the Panthers seem to have run out of name candidates.
Although Seattle flirted with Bill Walsh as its chief executive, he doesn't want to move to Seattle and it would be difficult to run a team on a part-time basis. That should open the door for Erickson.
Bad times in Buffalo
The fall of the Buffalo Bills means tough times are ahead for the franchise.
Their stadium of 80,091 is too big for the size of the market when the club isn't winning big.
In each of the previous six years, the Bills have led the league in attendance, ranging from a 619,714 in 1989 to 635,889 in 1991. This year, it dipped to 595,543 -- the lowest figure since 1987 -- and only 56,784 fans were on hand last Sunday.
Five of Buffalo's eight home games -- including the last three -- were blacked out because they weren't sellouts.
With such a big stadium, Buffalo fans can give up their season tickets and know they can get them back if the team starts winning big again. Or they can just go to the best three or four games.
They've also been spoiled by success.
"I can remember back in 1986 when we would get first downs, we'd get standing ovations," said center Kent Hull.
Those days are gone, and it's likely to get worse before it gets better.