NFL Hall of Famer Barry Sanders kept it quiet for nearly a year, but ahead of the release of a new documentary this weekend, the Detroit Lions legend finally opened up about the terrifying health scare he faced in 2024.
The legendary running back suffered a heart attack that changed his life and outlook.
Barry Sanders’ 2024 Health Crisis
Last June, Sanders issued a brief statement to fans around Father’s Day weekend, referring to a “health scare.” But in a recent one-on-one interview with CBS Sports, the 56-year-old revealed the full truth, he had suffered a heart attack while attending a college recruiting trip with his son.
“I thought it was like heartburn, but it just kind of persisted,” Sanders said in The Making of a Heart Attack, a documentary that premieres Saturday at 1 p.m. ET on A&E. Sanders felt a burning sensation in his chest and chose to cut the trip short. He drove himself to the ER, where doctors quickly confirmed elevated enzyme levels and ordered a heart catheter procedure.
The test revealed that Sanders had indeed experienced a heart attack, an outcome he says he never even considered. “It just never entered my mind,” he said. “I’m learning through this process that there aren’t necessarily any warning signs.”
Sanders’ story is more than a cautionary tale, it’s now the centerpiece of a national awareness campaign. In the documentary, he joins four others who’ve also survived heart attacks or strokes to unpack the warning signs and aftermath of life-threatening heart disease.
Sanders now encourages people to get tested for LDL cholesterol and to recognize that heart disease doesn’t always come with a warning or affect people who fit a typical profile. “There was just a certain ignorance I had about things like that,” Sanders admitted. “But all of it has been a learning process.”
Nearly a year removed from the scare, Sanders says his health has improved thanks to medication, diet changes, and something he used to scoff at, walking. “There’s a thing called a heart healthy workout,” he said. “You’re just getting your heart rate up a little … and that’s just really good for your heart.”
The Lions legend says the support from fans moved him just as much as the health scare itself. “It really warmed my heart,” Sanders said. “To know that so many fans cared that much, it meant a lot to me.”
Sanders, who rushed for over 15,000 yards in his 10 NFL seasons and famously retired at 31, is now trying to use his platform to inspire in a new way, off the field, and from the heart.