Love him or dislike him, Deion Sanders isn’t slowing down

• Ryan McGee, ESPN

  • Senior WriterSep 29, 2023, 07:00 AM ET Close Senior writer for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com
  • 2-time Sports Emmy winner
  • 2010, 2014 NMPA Author of the Year

STONE, Col.– Deion Sanders does not need to coach football.It’s real.

He does not. He has deposit and did long prior to he signed his present $6-million-per-year agreement with the University of Colorado. If he desired, he might return to being a tv analyst. He might write another book. He might star in another reality show. He might simulate every other living sports legend and cash in on souvenirs reveals every weekend, signing Falcons, Niners, Cowboys, Braves and Yankees jerseys, one of his 6 Sports Illustrated covers or maybe one of the CDs recorded with MC Hammer back in the day.But instead, he has actually picked to keep raking on what is possibly the most hard and definitely the most nonstop round-the-clock-and-calendar job in collegiate athletics, the head coach of a publicly backed state flagship FBS Power 5 university football program.

“People ask me all the time, ‘How you doing, man?’ and my response is easy,” the 56-year old College Football Hall of Famer explains. “I’m doing great. I simply ain’t sleeping since in this job there’s no time at all for sleep.”

In only one month on the sidelines at Colorado, Sanders has not only functioned as de facto CEO of an almost $51 million corporation (that was prior to his arrival, the 2023 numbers will be much larger than that) he has ended up being the front porch salesperson of a $21 billion university, been involved in one really public spat with a competing coach (and nearly pressed into another), stimulated a nearly 900 percent boost in Buffaloes merchandise sales and created the greatest college football television rankings for ABC in six years.Call him Prime-time show. Call him Neon Deion. Call him Coach Prime. No matter what nickname you choose, names and catch phrases on tee shirts( Sanders obtained 5 hallmarks just today )have all end up being bit more than garnish for this newest version of the guy who energized Florida State as a three-sport professional athlete in the 1980’s and put the exact same charge into the NFL and MLB in the ’90s. Now, almost two decades after hanging up his cleats for great, he is the face of college football in 2023. The male who might have capitalized NIL like perhaps no other prior to or given that. The male who could have teleported onto any lineup of his picking via the transfer portal. Now, he is the guy who is assisting today’s kids navigate it all. Prime-time show at precisely the best time.Editor’s Picks 2 Related Oh, by the method, his team is likewise 3-1. Even with a totally overhauled roster, that is an incredible about-face for a program that won

just one game and was ESPN’s runaway Bottom 10 champion one year back. Nevertheless, after a spectacular 3-0 start, that “1”was dropped like an anvil on Wile E. Coyote’s head last weekend. A 42-6 loss at Oregon right away herded the Buffs out of the Leading 25 and generated those who have been barking at Sanders because the days of big hair and Zubaz.”When I came out the womb I was booed,” Sanders stated Tuesday when asked how he handles haters.”I do not have a message for detractors. I don’t take my time to react and to defend myself. Why would I do that? I’m offering you a microphone if I’m doing that. I’m offering you solace that you remain in my life. I don’t care. I really do not. It’s been that method all my life, so you would think that I’m used to it. I’m not new to this, I’m real to this. And I’m going to keep going. So, I’m good with that, male. I’m great with that. This is a comfy location for me. “Now, for you children out there, it seems like you’re owed a description. You have most likely invested the last month, at the very least that last quote, wondering,” Why are my parents and grandparents so developed– great and bad– about this dude coaching at Colorado?”The response can be found a few paragraphs back. Sanders as a Seminole was the man who stood face mask to deal with mask with Jimmy Johnson’s Miami Hurricanes and didn’t blink. He when dug in his heels at the base of Clemson’s Hill like Captain America dealing with the whole Thanos army, slapping his chest pad and teasing the Tigers as they touched Howard’s Rock and ran toward him … then broke off a 77-yard punt return for a TD in downpour. He won conference championships in baseball and track on the exact same day.He played in the Super Bowl and the World Series, the only guy to do so. He gathered two Super Bowl rings, eight Pro Bowl welcomes and an NFL Defensive Player of

the Year award. He did certainly tape an album with MC Hammer(download”Must Be The Cash, “believe me) and made cameos on everything from Moesha to Walker, Texas Ranger. He was the voice of Sega Genesis football. And everybody’s Sunday night on the sofa was invested viewing a program that shared his name, NFL Prime Time, on ESPN when Chris Berman and Tom Jackson would narrate the video of every Sanders interception, pick-six, kick return and TD catch (yes, he played both ways from time to time)with a chant of” Prime Time … Prime-time Show … PRIME-TIME TELEVISION!”So, yeah, Gen Z, what your elders are trying to inform you, whether they are high stepping through the living-room or pointing a middle finger at College GameDay in Boulder, is that Deion Sanders somehow went viral prior to the web was a thing, when that term still just used to diseases. Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports And now, Sanders finds himself battling his own medical conditions. His toes were currently mangled from all those years running up and down sidelines and baselines. In September 2021, after a regular procedure to

repair those old injuries, a much even worse condition was discovered, blood circulation problems that caused the amputation of 2 toes and the elimination of some leg muscle tissue to limit the flow damage. He had actually simply begun his 2nd season as head coach at Jackson State, an HBCU in Jackson, Mississippi, and was forced to miss out on three games. When television electronic cameras aired the images of an unexpectedly old-looking Neon Deion, stuck in a health center bed with a full gray beard, it was downright shocking to those who had actually experienced him at the height of his athletic superpowers.For Sanders, it was also revelatory. “When your body breaks down, it is a truth check like no other,”he recalled in December 2022, days after accepting the Colorado task.”For anyone, it is a reality check. But for me, who as a more youthful man made my whole world from what this body could do, that was more than a reality check. That was a vulnerability check. As you age, you know you have to rely more on the muscle of the mind, however when your other muscles don’t work for you any longer, the need to work that mind muscle, you recognize you need to get on with that. Start impacting lives with that. “That he had taken the task at Jackson State was currently a step nobody saw coming, described by Sanders just as”a gather call from God of which I had no choice but to accept the charges.”His first Tigers group went 3-2 in the pandemic-shortened spring schedule of 2021. The next two years it went 23-3 with a set of Event Bowl looks.” What I will constantly remember about Deion at Jackson State is him out there cutting the turf on his own mower that he brought from house,”recalls Emmitt Smith, who bet Sanders in college as a Florida Gator and with him as a Dallas Cowboys teammate.”That’s him, guy. I think it is easy to focus on Prime-time show and the show and the soundbites, however you don’t get to where he has actually lacked working so hard. I know what individuals saw him do at an HBCU made individuals believe, should I have gone there? I know I did. And I understand Deion did. Now brand-new kids will.”Smith, and almost every other former colleague of No. 21, love to discuss the Deion Sanders evolution. See: The infamous story about Sanders when he got here in Dallas in 1995, as explained by Jeff Pearlman in his 2008 book “Boys Will Be Kids.” Sanders annoyed defensive organizer Dave Campo their very first time together in a position conference room by indicating the video screen and saying, “Hey, Coach, I got that dude right there. Wherever he goes, I go. All that Cover 2 things you’re talking about, y’ all work that out.”That person who was once adverse movie research study, now keeps real-time spreadsheets on just how much time his players invest watching film. He explained that on Tuesday, within the context of a question about freshman corner Cormani McClain’s absence of playing time, in spite of being Colorado’s most-ballyhooed offseason signee, a luxury prospect who turned from Miami. Colorado fans soak in the Enthusiasts ‘win over Nebraska after storming Folsom Field. Ron Chenoy/USA TODAY Sports “Study and prepare. Be on time for meetings, show up to the dern meetings, “Sanders stated.’Comprehend the scheme. Understand what we are doing as a plan, want to play this game, desire to play this game, desire to be the very best in this game, at practice, in the film room and on your own time. You do understand I check film time from each player so I can see who’s preparing? That’s not practically Cormani. If I do not see that, you would be a fool to put somebody out there who’s not prepared. Can’t do it, won’t do it. “Once again, it’s Sanders, so social media and local sports talk radio instantly became a tug of war in between those ripping the coach for calling a kid out publicly (and not for the very first time)and those who praised Sanders for calling out a first-class and doing so without worry of pushing away prospective future signees.The truth is McClain might have to play against No. 8 USC on Saturday since Colorado’s secondary is banged up. The current to suffer is likewise a Sanders. The middle of Deion’s five

children, security Shilo Sanders needed to be hospitalized due to urinating blood upon the team’s return home from Oregon. More youthful bro Shedeur is the group’s quarterback, little sister Shelomi is on the Colorado women’s basketball group, and they are all documented by huge bro Deion Jr., the male behind the camera of all those viral Colorado

athletic department social media posts this season. “Even though we got the’L’ (versus Oregon)I don’t consider it a loss when I get to see my sons not only use the field, I get to see my boy movie everything and edit it and put it out and make people insecure around the nation about their personnels, and then I get to see my child been available in my workplace and sleep on the sofa,”Sanders said Tuesday.”I’m living a terrific double life here as a father and coach. I’m loving every minute of it.”So, what does a 56-year-old lifelong lightning arrester teach to a house and locker room filled with Gen Z’ers who are

new to all the sound that constantly rolls over Colorado football like, well, a boulder? It’s the luxury tax one should pay when they end up being the brand-new Georgetown Hoyas, Fab Five or– sorry FSU fans– The U.” It’s not about them, it has to do with us, all over we go, “he discussed Tuesday. “Even in your families you’re going to have critics, cynics, you have doubters even in your dern household. You guys are all shaking your heads, like,’Yeah, my aunt, she ain’t no good, ‘and,’Yeah, my sister, she’s ignorant.’You understand I’m informing the fact. Since it’s going to resemble that. God would constantly permit someone to be in your path that has a contempt or dislike for you. It depends on you to keep going.”And there it is. Our answer. Due to the fact that, no, Deion Sanders does not need to coach football.

Honestly, Prime Time wouldn’t have actually wished to. He wasn’t client enough. We discovered that during a few of his pre-coaching academic and company failings.But this is Coach Prime. The one with the grey hairs, the bad feet, the continuous cautionary tales and all those tag line. Neon Deion made errors. Coach Prime wants to ensure these kids, especially his own, don’t do the same. You can love Deion Sanders. You can hate Deion Sanders. Plenty do, always have and always will. However his efforts are inarguably exceptional, his words are always truthful and the college football world is a hell of a lot more fascinating with him in it. He understands that. That’s why he can’t walk away.Also, winning football games is still enjoyable. “I don’t stop. I keep going. I don’t have drop in me. Not whatsoever, man.

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