“Every time he got the ball, it was like, he’s gonna score the touchdown.” – Eminem

Barry Sanders / Eminem

Detroit legend Eminem appears in the latest Amazon Prime Video’s documentary “Bye Bye Barry” about former American football player Barry Sanders, a running back who played for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League for 10 seasons.

Sanders led the league in rushing yards four times and in rushing touchdowns once, establishing himself as one of the most elusive runners in the history of the NFL with his quickness and agility, despite being only 5 ft 8 in tall and weighing 203 lbs.

In 1997, Barry Sanders rushed for 2,053 yards in the regular season and was awarded the NFL Most Valuable Player Award (MVP), alongside his second NFL Offensive Player of the Year Award. While still performing at a high level, Sanders unexpectedly retired from professional football in 1999, at the age of 31, and 1,457 yards short of breaking the NFL’s then all-time rushing record held by Walter Payton. He cited the Lions’ front office and declining team production as reasons for his retirement.

In one of the segment of the documentary, Eminem says: “I’ve seen every documentary on Barry Sanders that there is to see and I never walked away feeling like I knew why he walked away. Still to this day, everybody talks about he is the greatest running back that ever played the game and I know that he walked away at a time when he could have broken every single record there ever was and ever will be. So, why did he walk away?!” while his “Cinderella Man,” song from Recovery (2010) album playing in the background.

Then continued: “It just made him so much more likable that fact that he was that good, I’ve never seen somebody be that good in something and be so humble.”

You can watch the rest in the video below: