Gale Sayers
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BriansSong
12. Brian's Song (1971) is an ABC Movie of the Week that recounts the details of the life of Brian Piccolo (played by James Caan), a Wake Forest University football player stricken with terminal cancer after turning pro, told through his friendship with Chicago Bears running back, teammate and Pro Football Hall of Famer Gale Sayers (Billy Dee Williams). Piccolo's and Sayers's sharply differing temperaments and racial backgrounds made them unlikely to become as close friends as they did, including becoming the first interracial roommates in the history of the National Football League, and the film chronicles the evolution of their friendship. Critics have called the movie one of the finest telefilms ever made. A 2005 readers poll taken by Entertainment Weekly ranked 'Brian's Song' seventh in its list of the top "guy-cry" films ever made. The movie is based on Sayers' account of his friendship with Piccolo and coping with Piccolo's illness in Sayers' autobiography, I Am Third
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FILE - In this July 11, 2014, file photo, former Chicago Bears NFL football player Gale Sayers throws out a ceremonial first pitch before a baseball game between the Chicago Cubs and Atlanta Braves, in Chicago. Relatives of Pro Football Hall of Famer Gale Sayers say the Bears legend has been diagnosed with dementia. His wife, Ardythe Sayers, tells The Kansas City Star that her 73-year-old husband was diagnosed four years ago and she blames Sayers’ football career. He played for the Bears from 1965-71 after setting records at the University of Kansas.(AP Photo/Andrew A. Nelles)
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Gale Sayers, football player for the Chicago Bears, 1970. (AP Photo)
