Green: Sanders' skills matched only by his character

Back then, the Lions, no matter how rocky their seasons were, played their best football on Thanksgiving. Those games became part of the holiday mystique, part of the tradition of this frequently frustrated NFL franchise.

There remains the eternal vision of Charlie Sanders outleaping defensive backs from the Oakland Raiders and the Kansas City Chiefs. This was early in the years after the pro football merger. And the Lions welcomed the teams absorbed from the merger with the American Football League — Kansas City and Oakland — to enliven the TV intrigue for a national audience.

And Charlie would be star of the show.

He would sort of wobble back to the huddle, limping a bit, dragging his body along. And then quickly, he would be in the end zone and Greg Landry, the quarterback, would lob his forward pass. And Charlie would vault upward and grab it, memorable footage. Part of the NFL's rich history.

"You know, whenever I'm in trouble, I look for Charlie," Landry told me back in those days, 1970 and 1971.

These would be gloomy, gray, November Thursdays, in Tiger Stadium — the grass turned brown long before. The fans, so many of them, would be bundled in blankets, nipping at their flasks, warding off the first bitter cold of the Michigan winter.

And Charlie would give them their first good cheers of the holiday season.

He was a player for the people — a true legendary member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Charlie is gone now. He is gone after a valiant, lengthy fight with that devilish cancer. Died Thursday. Of course, it would be a Thursday.

He revealed everything about his character eight years ago when he was enshrined in the Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

"I am not that self-proclaimed Hall of Famer who desired to be in sports," Charlie said as he thanked the multitudes of families and friends who influenced him from North Carolina boyhood.

"I am a guy that liked a challenge, and challenged myself with the understanding that winning is finishing."

Leaping catches were his style, but going over the middle, into a combat zone, were his challenges — throughout the 1970s. He was a perennial All-Pro in those seasons and selected by the NFL as its tight end on the Team of the Decade.

Intense focus

Charlie added wit to his wisdom.

He foremost enemy was Dick Butkus, the nastiest linebacker ever and perhaps the best ever. Sanders vs. Butkus turned the Lions vs. the Bears games into classics.

Charlie would dodge out — and Butkus would do what he always did. He would try to tie Charlie up. And when Butkus did, he'd poke his fingers as gouging weapons through Charlie's facemask and into his eyes.

One day, in the early 1970s, the press asked Charlie about his reaction to Butkus' deliberate attempts to injure him.

"Ah, he's just a maladjusted kid," Charlie deadpanned.

Charlie Sanders on a pass route was an athlete with intense focus on just spotting the ball and catching it, warding off Butkus on certain difficult plays. He explained his focus to Mike O'Hara, the Lions beat writer for The Detroit News for a quarter-century.

"The level of concentration," he told O'Hara, "I would actually lose sight of where I was and what I was doing and focus on the end result — catching the ball."

Leaping into history

Those were fun seasons, the Lions fighting to make the playoffs, succeeding in 1970 after the unforgettable victory over the Raiders on Thanksgiving Day.

This was George Blanda's amazing victory season as a pro football ancient, quarterbacking and placekicking the Raiders to victory after victory in late-game fashion.

But this Thanksgiving Thursday, the Raiders stormed into Detroit and the spongy field football field of well-worn Tiger Stadium. Quickly it was 14-0 in favor of Oakland.

And the Lions noticed the Raiders players joking and grinning and preening on the sidelines. The rival teams had benches adjoining at Tiger Stadium, and the Lions, several told me later, turned livid.

And Landry turned to Charlie.

Charlie leaped and caught a 20-yard pass that tied the game at 14-14 in the second quarter. In the fourth quarter, Charlie leaped in front of a defender in the far end zone near the left-field wall and caught a six-yard pass that broke the tie. The Lions won the game, 28-14.

Next year, Thanksgiving again, Charlie's leap — straight up — and a marvelous, tumbling catch featured in the 32-21 victory over the Chiefs.

All these years later, these are individual plays that influenced team games that remain etched in the memory. Good memories.

Charlie's play — and his style, his friendship, his love of his adopted hometown Detroit, his love of family, his character, his humor — all were elements that turned a Carolina lad into an unforgettable human being.

Jerry Green is a retired Detroit News sports columnist.