Al “Bubba” Bakers doesn’t look like someone who would be prone to tears. The former Lions defensive standout stands at 6-foot-8 and still carries his 290 pounds like a former athlete. But the freshly recognized single-season sack champ couldn’t hold back the tears at his 23 sacks in 1978 finally getting the credit it so longly has deserved.
The long-overdue recognition for his amazing rookie season in Detroit in 1978 moved Baker to tears.
Baker broke it down on the Around the NFL podcast.
“For some reason, and I’m not kidding you, without any prompting, tears just started running down my eyes,” Baker said. “And my wife was inside, I opened up the patio doors. And my wife, first thing she said was, ‘What’s wrong?’ And I said, nothing’s wrong and I said come look at this. And, you know, we hugged and then I lost about an hour and a half, two hours. My daughter called. It was really emotional for my family. I guess at 6-foot-8, 290 pounds, that doesn’t sound really tough, but, we were all crying.”
Baker continued,
“You know somebody tells you you’re a sack leader and what do you do, you start crying. And I guess it’s because none of us really sat around like some players and, ‘We want this and we want that.’ We hadn’t thought about it for at least, for at least, I’m not kidding you, 20 years.”
Here’s hoping the NFL officially recognizes the meticulous research of its own game film and properly honors Baker with the overdue record. That would be cause for more happy tears.