Amazon Studios and Prime Video announced that Bye Bye Barry, a firsthand account of the life story of former National Football League running back Barry Sanders, will premiere on Nov. 21. The documentary will be released exclusively on Prime Video and available in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide. The company released a teaser trailer along with the announcement, outlining how it will tell the story of the dynamic Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee and six-time first-team All-Pro selection.
“Barry Sanders is the best running back to ever play,” Matt Newman, head of Prime Video original sports content, said in a statement. “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.”
Sanders won the Heisman Trophy with Oklahoma State in 1988 and went on to have a stellar NFL career with the Detroit Lions. Throughout his professional career, he was named the Rookie of the Year in 1989 and the league’s Most Valuable Player award-winner in 1997. Additionally, he was a four-time rushing champion, attaining more than 1,000 yards in the category each season, and reached 10 Pro Bowls.
Sanders’ retirement from the game of football, however, was sudden and unexpected at the age of 31, leaving people guessing what was going on. In fact, he faxed an announcement disclosing his decision to his hometown newspaper, passing up the chance to hold a press conference or participate in a one-on-one interview. The Prime Video documentary covers this facet of his career and looks to give viewers more clarity about what was behind the choice.
“Watching Barry Sanders play running back was to witness a mystery,” Angela Torma, NFL Films senior producer and co-director/co-producer of the film, said in a statement. “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.”
The documentary is presented by Prime Video Sports and classified as an NFL Films production. This project is executive produced by Patrick Kelleher, Ross Ketover, Ken Rodgers and Brian Rolapp of NFL Films, and it is also co-directed by Paul Monusky, Micaela Powers and the aforementioned Torma. Aside from interviews with Sanders and his family members, the program also contains interviews with Tim Allen, Bill Belichick, Jeff Daniels, Eminem, Kevin Glover, Jemele Hill, Calvin Johnson, Herman Moore, Dan Patrick, Rodney Peete, Jalen Rose, Emmitt Smith and Chris Spielman.
