Wide ranging and beautifully melodious, Marvin Gaye's singing voice has been revered for decades as one of history's finest.
Unfortunately for the Motown legend, he couldn't play football.
Lem Barney, on the other hand, could hold his own on the mic and was a Motown legend of another kind on the gridiron.
Having sung background on Gaye's fabled "What's Going On," Barney was also an all-time great Detroit Lion and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Barney, died on Saturday, the Pro Football Hall of Fame announced. He was 80.
Though Barney could carry a tune, the soundtrack of his greatest glory was on the gridiron.
He played 11 NFL seasons from 1967-1977, all of them with the Lions, ahead of being enshrined in Canton, Ohio, as a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 1992. Barney earned his induction as a member of the HOF All-Decade Team for the 1960s, a seven-time Pro Bowl pick, a two-time All-Pro selection and a member of Detroit's first "Pride of Lions" class in 2009. During his days in Detroit, he wore perhaps the franchise's most hallowed number, that of 20, which was later donned by running backs Billy Sims and Hall of Famer Barry Sanders before it was retired.
"Over the better part of five decades Lem devoted himself to the betterment of others," Pro Football Hall of Fame president and CEO Jim Porter said in a statement. "The Special Olympics, the United Way, the Easter Seals, the United Negro College Fund and the Boy Scouts of America are just some of the many organizations that benefitted from Lem giving back to his community unselfishly and with little fanfare. Lem was a regular in Canton during Enshrinement Week, and his consistent presence here welcoming new class members will be missed."
Taken 34th overall by the Lions in the 1967 NFL Draft, the second-round pick out of Jackson State was a hit in Detroit from the start. He turned in a rookie campaign that remains one of the finest in NFL chronicle and was justly voted 1967 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year. It was a brilliant beginning to a Hall of Fame career.
Barney, who played in 140 career games, would become the first Jackson State player inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Though small, it's a stellar group that also includes Walter Payton, enshrined a year after Barney, Jackie Slater and Robert Brazile.
A native of Gulfport, Mississippi, Barney was born on Sept. 8, 1945.
During his days at Jackson State, he was a ballhawk, turning in 26 career interceptions with a school-record 11 in one year. Those skills translated to the pro ranks in stunningly immediate fashion.
In his Defensive Rookie of the Year campaign, Barney posted an eye-popping 10 interceptions, leading the league in INTs, INT return yards (232) and interceptions returned for a score (three) -- the latter still tied for the most in NFL history by a rookie.
It was a foreshadowing of a career filled with game-breaking plays.
Barney stands as the only player in league history to score on a kick return, punt return, field goal return and INT return of 70 or more yards, per NFL Research. For his career, he had 56 interceptions -- with seven returned for scores and 17 fumble recoveries.
Despite his individual greatness, Barney found himself in the playoffs just once during his career, which came in a 10-4 1970 season. It was the only time the Lions turned in double-digit victories while he was playing. Detroit lost, 5-0, to the Dallas Cowboys in the Divisional Round.
From 1957, when the Lions won their last NFL Championship, to 1982 when Detroit made back-to-back postseasons, the '70 campaign stood as the franchise's lone playoff berth.
It was in 1970 that Gaye unsuccessfully tried out for the Lions. The following year, Barney and teammate Mel Farr sang background vocals on Gaye's timeless classic "What's Going On."
More than two decades after Barney's Hall of Fame enshrinement in Canton, Ohio, he sang the national anthem at the 2015 enshrinement ceremony.
For more than a decade in Detroit, it was Barney's stellar play that sang out.
He was a ballhawk and a playmaker, sparkling in his play no matter the struggles of his squad, playing -- and singing -- beautifully autumn after autumn.
