Deion Sanders’ emotions, honesty about cancer a victory to start college football season

When Colorado head football coach Deion Sanders played in the NFL, it was widely understood that every time he touched the football, he could end up in the end zone. On Monday in Boulder, we might have seen the best return of Prime Time’s career.

Dressed in denim overalls, a white crewneck T-shirt and a cowboy hat, Sanders took to the podium for arguably the most important press conference of his life. He told the world that he was cancer-free after having his bladder removed after doctors discovered a tumor, but literally could no longer hold his urine. He encouraged people to get checked, detailed the specific data points of his health journey and urged folks to take their lives seriously.

Just when everyone thought and speculated that the hater hype machine that has had multiple attacks was going to go up by a score or two, Prime took it the other way with a flourish — not dissimilar to when he once went 93 yards to the house as a member of the San Francisco 49ers against the Atlanta Falcons, dancing and jawing all the way. Except this time, his walk is a limp and his words are the words of Jesus.

“But this wasn’t easy men; everybody get checked out, because if it wasn’t for me getting tested for something else, they wouldn’t have stumbled up on this,” Sanders said. “And make sure you go to get the right care. Because without wonderful people like this, I probably wouldn’t be sitting here today because it grew so expeditiously, I could say.”

The same crowd who said that Prime would skip from Colorado to the pros with his sons? Still wrong and there were many. The folks who said that once his sons were done in Boulder there was no way Sanders would still want to be involved? Incorrect, again. And once he took a leave of absence from team activities in the spring, the vultures started circling Folsom Field, presuming that after he retired both his son Shedeur and Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter’s numbers for the Buffaloes, Prime would have a convenient out to leave. Nope.

His commitment to faith, nevermind his program, effectively saved his life. On an Instagram post from Sunday, in a decidedly emotional tone he talked about having to come up with a will, something he was doing for the first time. After that, it was clear to me that this was far more serious than whether or not a Big 12 title would be in Colorado’s near future, or who the coach was.

“And right now I’m still dealing with going to the bathroom,” Sanders said, somewhat sheepishly but with his same confidence. “It is a whole life change and I’m going to be transparent. I can’t pee like I used to pee. It is totally different. And she [Dr. Janet Kukreja, director of urologic oncology at CU Cancer Center] not only is a blessing, but she provided other persons that have gone through what I’ve gone through so that I could talk to them and get some solace and understand what I’m facing, not just from a doctor but from another individual.

“I mean, thank God. Now I depend on Depends, if you know what I mean. I truly depend on Depends. I cannot control my bladder. I get up and go to the bathroom already four or five times a night, but then I’m sitting up there waking up like my grandson. We in the same thing.”

Pretty darn honest from a person who many people say is there just to take advantage of the system and build his personal brand. Although I can imagine a couple of pretty hilarious commercials based on the scene he expects on his sidelines this year.

“[My grandson and I] got the same problem right now. We going through the same trials and tribulations. We kind of see who has the heaviest bag at the end of the night. It is ridiculous, but I’m making a joke out of it. But it’s real. So if you see port-a-potty on the sideline, it is real. Okay? I’m just telling you right now, you’re going to see it. You’re going to see it at practice, you’re going to see one because it is unbelievable.”

It’s worth noting as well, that college football is well known for leaders of men who meet their makers soon after their careers end. Paul “Bear” Bryant, of legendary Alabama fame, said once he retired and coached his last game in the 1982 Liberty Bowl, that he’d likely “croak in a week.” It took a month.

For Joe Paterno at Penn State, he died just three months after he was fired from the university for his part in one of the worst scandals in college football history. For Mike Leach — the quirky and loquacious innovator of the Air Raid offense — in his last coaching stint at Mississippi State he was sent to the hospital on a Sunday in December. He died on a Tuesday. He didn’t even make their bowl game, and he was 61. Deion is 57.

But his peers recognize how serious this was, no doubt. Pro Football Hall of Famer and cancer survivor Randy Moss called Sanders every other day during his darkest hours for the moral support Prime didn’t know he was missing.

Sanders has had 14 surgeries since he began coaching at Jackson State in 2020 and he currently has eight total toes. The idea that Prime is somehow only about the spotlight and not about coaching football continues to be one of the most absurd viewpoints out there about his goals. Reminder: as a member of both the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame, the idea of health failing you not super-soon after your playing days are done is not a novel concept.

He was flanked by his doctors, whom he thanked profusely and perhaps the most-tense moment came when after revealing his diagnosis said tenderly, but kindly. “You can clap. It’s okay.”

To be real, this probably hit me as a Black man and new dad as much as anything he’s ever done from a football standpoint. Maybe some people don’t understand our community’s mistrust of doctors or reticence to get checked. The basic idea being that if you go into the hospital, you might not come out. Trust us, we know.

“Please get yourself checked out, especially African American men,” Prime said. “We don’t like going to the doctors. We don’t like nothing to do with a doctor. You know that. I’m not just talking to the brothers, I’m talking to my Caucasian brothers, my Hispanic brothers, my Asian brothers, my everybody, and my sisters. All y’all get checked out because it could have been a whole another gathering if I hadn’t.

“I’m thankful. It’s been a tremendous journey. It has been tough. I think I dropped 25 pounds. I was like Atlanta Falcons Prime at one point.”

Prime not only is out, but being very earnest about his day-to-day life and what he expects of his team. It might not be the biggest victory of his life, and it cost him his bladder, but it is clearly a large W to start the season.

“We’re only in the beginning of it,” he said about his life and condition. “We’ve already stacked up one win.”