Deion Sanders
Dion Luwynn Sanders Sr., commonly known as Deion Sanders, is an American football coach and former player who is the head football coach at the University of Colorado Boulder. Nicknamed "Prime Time" and "Neon Deion", he played in the National Football League for 14 seasons with the Atlanta Falcons, San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Cowboys, Washington Redskins, and Baltimore Ravens. Sanders was also a baseball outfielder for nine seasons in Major League Baseball with the New York Yankees, Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, and San Francisco Giants. He won two Super Bowl titles and made one World Series appearance in 1992, making him the only athlete to play in both a Super Bowl and a World Series.
Sanders played college football for the Florida State Seminoles, winning the Jim Thorpe Award in 1988. He was selected by the Falcons fifth overall in the 1989 NFL draft. Primarily a cornerback, he received eight Pro Bowl and six first-team All-Pro selections. Sanders also made consecutive Super Bowl appearances in Super Bowl XXIX with the 49ers and Super Bowl XXX with the Cowboys, winning both. He was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame in 2011.
After retiring as a player, Sanders pursued a sports analyst and coaching career. He served as the head coach at Jackson State University from 2020 to 2022, leading them to two consecutive Celebration Bowl appearances and the first undefeated regular season in school history. Sanders was named the head football coach of Colorado in 2023.
Early life
Sanders was born on August 9, 1967, in Fort Myers, Florida, to Connie Sanders and Mims Sanders. His parents divorced when Sanders was two years old. Sanders was raised by his mother and her new husband, Willie Knight, whom Sanders credits with being influential in his life. He attended North Fort Myers High School, and was a letterman and All-State honoree in football, basketball and baseball. In 1985, Sanders was named to the Florida High School Association All-Century Team which selected the top 33 players in the 100-year history of high school football in the state.The Kansas City Royals selected Sanders out of North Fort Myers High School in the sixth round of the 1985 Major League Baseball draft. However, he did not sign with the Royals. Sanders decided to play with Florida State University instead of signing with the Kansas City Royals.
On the New Heights podcast, Sanders revealed his first name is spelled "Dion" but he started spelling it "Deion" when learning the nursery rhyme "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" as a child.
College career
Sanders enrolled at Florida State University and played three sports for the Florida State Seminoles: football, baseball, and track. Beginning in his freshman year, he started in the Seminoles' secondary, played outfield for the baseball team that finished fifth in the nation, and helped lead the track and field team to a conference championship.Under head coach Bobby Bowden, Sanders was a third-team All-American in 1986, and a two-time unanimous All-American cornerback in 1987 and 1988, intercepting 14 passes in his career, including three in bowl games, and managed to return one interception 100 yards for a touchdown, breaking Fred Biletnikoff's interception return record by one yard. He won the Jim Thorpe Award in 1988. He was also a standout punt returner for Florida State, leading the nation in 1988 with his punt return average, and breaking the school's record for career punt return yards. Sanders made an interception with five seconds left to seal Florida State's 13–7 win over Auburn in the 1989 Sugar Bowl during the 1988 postseason. Based on those accolades, his No. 2 jersey at Florida State was retired in 1995. He finished his career with 126 punt returns for 1,429 yards and three touchdowns, as well as 14 interceptions, returning them for 287 yards and three scores. At the end of his FSU career, Sanders' 14 interceptions was the second highest total in school history. Bowden would later state that Sanders was his "measuring stick for athletic ability".
File:Track team at FSU makes a victory lap - Tallahassee, Florida.jpg|thumb|right|From left to right, Arthur Blake, Dexter Carter, Sanders and Sammie Smith taking a victory lap around Mike Long Track after setting a Metro Conference record in the 4 × 100 meter relay during a meet in 1988
While playing baseball under head coach Mike Martin at Florida State, Sanders' batting average was.331 in 1986. He also compiled 27 stolen bases in 1987.
On May 16, 1987,, Sanders played in the conference semifinal baseball game against Southern Mississippi, ran a leg of a 4 × 100 relay, then returned to play in the baseball championship game against Cincinnati. Though Sanders' relay team did not place in the event, the FSU track team was the overall conference champion, and the baseball team won the conference title as well.
Statistics
Professional baseball career
Drafts and minor leagues
Sanders had a nine-year, part-time baseball career, playing left and center field in 641 games with four teams. He was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the sixth round of the 1985 draft, but did not sign with them. The New York Yankees selected Sanders in the 30th round of the 1988 Major League Baseball draft, and he signed with the team on June 22. He batted.284 in 28 minor league games after signing.The Yankees invited Sanders to spring training in 1989. Assigned to wear no. 71 as a uniform number, Sanders requested a single digit number. The Yankees gave him no. 30, the lowest number available, which offended many veteran players on the team. Sanders opened the 1989 season with the Albany-Colonie Yankees of the Double–A Eastern League. Though Sanders planned to leave the Yankees in July to attend NFL training camp, he became embroiled in a contract dispute with the Falcons, and used the Yankees as leverage.
New York Yankees (1989–1990)
Sanders received a promotion to the major leagues, and spent the summer with the Columbus Clippers of the Triple–A International League. Sanders made his MLB debut on May 31, 1989.During the 1989 season, Sanders hit a home run and scored a touchdown in the NFL in the same week, becoming the only player ever to do so. Sanders is also the only person to play in both a Super Bowl and a World Series. Sanders and Bo Jackson were the preeminent multi-sport athletes of their time, but prior to the 1990 season, they had never squared off against each other in a professional game. That changed in 1990, when Jackson and Sanders met five times on the diamond—the most memorable of which came on July 17, in what was billed as "The Bo and Prime Time Show". After Bo Jackson's three-homer night, Sanders said, "He's one of the best athletes who ever put on a uniform." Sanders himself hit a dramatic inside-the-park home run in the same game that was unsuccessfully fielded by Jackson.
Sanders made the Yankees' Opening Day roster for the 1990 season. On May 22, 1990, Sanders became involved in a dispute with Chicago White Sox catcher Carlton Fisk. Sanders started by stepping up to the plate with one out and a runner on third, drawing a dollar sign in the dirt before the pitch and then failed to run to first base after hitting a routine pop fly to shortstop, trotting back to the dugout instead. The Yankee fans booed, and Fisk told Sanders to run the ball out and called Sanders a "piece of shit". Later in the game, Sanders told Fisk that "the days of slavery are over". Fisk was furious, later saying: "He comes up and wants to make it a racial issue, there's no racial issue involved. There is a right way and a wrong way to play this game."
By mid-July, Sanders expressed that he was unsure if he would remain with the Yankees or report to training camp for the upcoming NFL season. He requested a $1 million salary for the 1991 season, and the Yankees ended negotiations on a contract extension with Sanders. He left the team, finishing the 1990 season with a.158 batting average and three home runs in 57 games. In September 1990, the Yankees placed Sanders on waivers with the intention of giving him his release, as Yankees' general manager Gene Michael said that Sanders' football career was stunting his baseball development.
Atlanta Braves (1991–1994)
Sanders later signed with the Atlanta Braves for the 1991 MLB season. However, he was assigned to the Triple-A Richmond Braves in early May after losing playing time to Otis Nixon before returning to Atlanta in late June. On July 31, Sanders hit a key three-run homer to spark a comeback win against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the Braves' run to the National League West Division title. However, he left the Braves the very next day to report to the Atlanta Falcons because of a clause in his NFL contract and missed the postseason. Before the 1992 season, Sanders reworked his NFL deal, whereby he still reported to the Falcons for training camp in August, but was allowed to rejoin the Braves for the postseason.During the 1992 season, his best year in the majors, Sanders hit.304 for the team, stole 26 bases, and led the NL with 14 triples in 97 games. In four games of the 1992 World Series, Sanders batted.533 with four runs, eight hits, two doubles, and one RBI while playing with a broken bone in his foot. His batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, total bases and win probability added each led the team in the series. Despite Sanders' performance, the Braves ultimately lost to the Toronto Blue Jays in six games. In Game 3, he narrowly avoided being a victim of what would have been only the second triple play in World Series history. With Sanders on second base and Terry Pendleton on first, David Justice hit a deep fly ball to center field that Blue Jays center fielder Devon White unexpectedly caught with a leaping effort. Pendleton passed Sanders on the bases for the second out, but umpire Bob Davidson called Sanders safe after he scampered back to second base. Replays showed that Toronto third baseman Kelly Gruber tagged him on the heel before he returned to second.