Gale Sayers Dead at 77: Where To Stream ‘Brian’s Song’

Football fans everywhere were saddened today to learn of the death of Hall of Fame running back Gale Sayers, a star for the Chicago Bears in the 1960s and ’70s. Sayers was a dominant force on the gridiron—a two-time All-American in college at the University of Kansas, he burst onto the NFL scene with a stunning Rookie of the Year performance in 1965, rushing for a then-NFL-record 22 touchdowns and a rookie-record 2,272 all-purpose yards. He earned Pro Bowl honors four times in his career and has been named to every incarnation of the NFL’s All-Time teams and the College Football Hall of Fame. 

Despite his many gridiron accomplishments, however, Sayers is most likely best and most fondly remembered by many fans for a television movie about his role in an unlikely friendship.

Originally released in 1971 as an ABC Movie of the Week, Brian’s Song depicted life and death of the Bears’ Brian Piccolo, Sayers’ complement in the Chicago backfield. Piccolo came into the league at the same time as Sayers, but his background, life, and outlook could not have been more different. Where Sayers was a highly-lauded college star, a top-five pick in the NFL Draft, Piccolo was an undrafted free agent. Sayers stepped immediately into a starting role, while Piccolo started on the Bears’ taxi squad, only seeing significant playing time when Sayers suffered a knee injury in 1968. They had differences in playing style, personality and attitude.

Their most notable difference, though, was race: Piccolo was white, and Sayers was Black.

While the NFL had integrated in 1946, there were still large gaps in the treatment and portrayal of white players and their Black counterparts. At the end of a tumultuous and trying decade for race relations in the United States, the Chicago Bears still segregated their players’ room assignments while traveling, a practice that only ended in 1969 at the urging of team captains. Rather than grouping players by race, they shifted to grouping by position group, and Sayers and Piccolo—the only integrated position group on the team—became roommates, and eventually friends.

Tragedy struck that same year when, suffering from breathing problems after a game, Piccolo sought medical treatment and was diagnosed with embryonal cell carcinoma, an aggressive cancer that would eventually spread to his liver and lead to his death in 1970 at the tragically-young age of 26. Sayers spoke lovingly of his teammate, his backfield counterpart and unlikely friend, noting while accepting an award shortly before Piccolo’s death that “I love Brian Piccolo, and I’d like all of you to love him, too. Tonight, when you hit your knees to pray, please ask God to love him, too.”

That speech would become immortalized by its television-movie dramatization, with future Star Wars star Billy Dee Williams playing Sayers and delivering the line word-for-word as a pivotal moment in the true-story retelling of the tragedy and the players’ unlikely friendship. The movie, which also featured Godfather star James Caan as Piccolo, was an instant hit, eventually making the jump from the small screen to theaters and even getting a less-well-known remake for ABC in 2001. It’s long been considered one of the greatest sports movies of all time, and it succeeds where the best sports films often do: by realizing that the actual sports are only a fraction of the story, a vehicle for telling a larger human story. 

Brian’s Song wasn’t really about the backfield exploits of Sayers or Piccolo or the Bears’ fortunes as a football team. It was a story of sports bringing together two people who might never have found themselves in a room together if not for their talents on the field—two people who eventually saw past their many differences to appreciate each other as human beings worthy of each others’ appreciation and even love. Generations of men who would never have been caught dead watching a tear-jerking story of a platonic male friendship cut tragically short found themselves reaching for the tissue box, sobbing like babies at Sayers’ real-life speech in Brian’s Song.

Sayers’ achievements didn’t end with his celebrated playing career. He was a successful business owner and active philanthropist, creating charities that supported adoption services and after-school programs for at-risk youth. He lived a full life that anyone should be proud to have lived.

Brian’s Song ends with a flashback, to Piccolo and Sayers jogging together. The film’s narrator, in one of the most memorable and tear-inducing lines of the movie, notes the friends and family Piccolo left behind, and says that “when they think of him, it’s not how he died that they remember, but rather how he lived. How he did live.” Sayers suffered from dementia in recent years, an ailment that his wife has stated was diagnosed as related to injuries suffered during his football care, and passed away today at the age of 73.

He will not be remembered for how he died, but rather how he lived. 

How he did live.

Scott Hines is an architect, blogger and internet user who lives in Louisville, Kentucky with his wife, two young children, and a small, loud dog.

Where to stream Brian's Song