Advertisement

IN BRIEF : Sims Hoping for Detroit Comeback

Share
Associated Press

Former Detroit running back Billy Sims said he hopes to meet with Lions officials about coming back to the team next year.

Sims, 33, said Sunday that he is interested in playing one season to establish his value to Detroit, which lost 21-10 Sunday to Tampa Bay to end 1988 at 4-12.

Sims, a Heisman trophy winner, was the Lions’ No. 1 draft pick out of Oklahoma in 1980 and holds the team’s career rushing record with 5,106 yards. He was in the midst of his fifth season with the Lions when he suffered an apparently career-ending knee injury Oct. 21, 1984.

Advertisement

But Sims, a guest on “Sunday Sports Albom,” a WLLZ-FM radio show in Detroit hosted by Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom, said he thinks he can have an impact on the team because he’s been working out and is as fit as he was in 1983.

He didn’t say how much money he would want, but said: “Let them leave the check blank. Let me play for one season. If they think that I’ve had an impact and helped turn the team around, then let me fill in the figure.”

Sims said he will be in Detroit on Thursday and would request a meeting with Lions General Manager Russ Thomas and owner William Clay Ford.

Advertisement