The upcoming NFC championship game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Detroit Lions does not currently offer a whole lot of intrigue respecting shared history of the two franchises, but that reality could have been completely different if 30 seasons ago two franchise legends had ended up on the same team.
Hall of Famers Joe Montana and Barry Sanders could have been teammates for the 1993 season if it weren’t for the doubts of Lions general manager Chuck Schmidt. At least, that’s how it was presented in a documentary about Sanders called “Bye Bye Barry” — which tries to get the story behind Sanders’ sudden fax machine retirement from football — that was released on Amazon Prime this past November.