Legendary Chicago Bears running back Gale Sayers died Wednesday, according to a statement from the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was 77.

As Steve Sabol, late cofounder of NFL Films, puts it in this hour of NFL Icons, “We have a library of 100 million feet of football film dating back to 1894.

But the great legacy lesson of Gale Sayers — who died in 2020 — remains his life’s impact. Specifically, his racial boundaries-breaking bond with his Chicago Bears teammate Brian Piccolo, a ...