Deion Sanders

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Deion Sanders
Date of birth	August 9, 1967
Place of birth	Fort Myers, Florida
Position(s)	Cornerback
College	Florida State
NFL Draft	1989 / Round 1/ Pick 5
Pro Bowls	2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1994, 1993, 1992
Awards	1988 Jim Thorpe Award 1994 NFL Defensive Player of Year
Honors	2 Super Bowl rings NFL 1990s All-Decade Team Florida Sports Hall of Fame Florida State University Athletics Hall of Fame
Retired #s	Florida State's #2
Statistics	Pro Football Reference CBS.com DatabaseFootball
Team(s)
1989-1993 1994 1995-1999 2000 2004-2005	Atlanta Falcons San Francisco 49ers Dallas Cowboys Washington Redskins Baltimore Ravens

Deion Luwynn Sanders (born August 9, 1967 in Fort Myers, Florida) is an American former National Football League cornerback, Major League Baseball outfielder, and CBS Sports commentator.

Sanders, also known as Neon Deion and Prime Time, is considered one of the greatest and most versatile athletes in recent American sports history, much like Bo Jackson. In football, he is considered to be one of, if not the best, cover cornerbacks of all time.

1 College career
2 MLB career
3 NFL career
4 "Prime Time" persona
5 Other ventures
6 Trivia
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

[edit] College career

Sanders was a star in three sports for the Florida State Seminoles, participating in football, baseball, and track. Beginning 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. It was clear Sanders was an exceptional athlete on a national level.

At Florida State, under head coach Bobby Bowden, Sanders was a two time consensus All-American cornerback in 1987 and 1988, and a third team All-American in 1986, intercepting 14 passes in his career, including three in bowl games, and managed to return one interception 100 yards for a touchdown. He won the Jim Thorpe Award in 1988 and is widely considered to be the best cornerback to ever play college football. He was also a 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. His jersey at Florida State, #2, was retired in 1995, only the second jersey retired in school history (after Ron Simmons's #50 in 1988.).

While playing baseball under head coach Mike Martin, at Florida State, Sanders hit .331 in 1986; he was known more for base stealing, swiping 27 bags in 1987. Sanders would go on to be drafted while in college by the New York Yankees (it should be noted that he also was selected by the Kansas City Royals out of North Fort Myers High School, though he did not sign.)

Sanders also ran track during his years at Florida State. On one occasion, Sanders played the first game of a baseball double-header, ran a leg of a 4X100 relay, then returned to play another baseball game.

[edit] MLB career

**Deion Sanders**
Major League Baseball debut
Cincinnati Reds — No. 21
Outfielder
Bats: Switch	Throws: Left
May 31, 1989 for the New York Yankees
Selected MLB statistics (through 1995)
AVG	.263
HR	39
RBI	168
SB	186
SLG	.392
Teams
New York Yankees: (1989-1990) Atlanta Braves: (1991-1993) Cincinnati Reds: (1994-1995, 1997, 2001) San Francisco Giants: (1995)

Sanders played a nine-year, part-time baseball career, Sanders played 641 games with 4 teams. During his most productive year, 1992, he hit .304 for the Braves, and stole 26 bases in 97 games. During the 1989 season, he hit a home run and scored a touchdown in the NFL in the same week, the first player to do so. Sanders is the only man to have played in a MLB and NFL game during the same day- when in 1992 his Falcons played Miami and that same day he played for the Braves against Pittsburgh in an NLCS game [1], and he is also the only man to play in both a Super Bowl and World Series.

[edit] NFL career

[edit] Atlanta Falcons

Deion Sanders's professional football career started the same year as his baseball career, 1989. He was the fifth pick overall in the 1989 NFL Draft by the Atlanta Falcons, where he played until 1993. During his time there, he intercepted 24 passes, three for touchdowns. He also led the league in kickoff return yards (1,067), yards per return (26.7) and return touchdowns (2) in the 1992 season. During his stay in Atlanta, Sanders claimed that the Georgia Dome was the house that he built [2].

[edit] San Francisco 49ers

After five seasons of feeling like the only bright star in Atlanta and yearning for a Super Bowl championship, Deion signed on to play one season with the San Francisco 49ers, where he had arguably his best season as a professional football player, recording 6 interceptions and returning them for an NFL best 303 yards and 3 touchdowns. He was voted the 1994 NFL Defensive Player of the Year and recorded an interception in the 49ers 49-26 win over the San Diego Chargers in Super Bowl XXIX.

[edit] Dallas Cowboys

On September 9th, 1995, Deion Sanders signed a lucrative contract with the Dallas Cowboys (7 years, $35 million dollars with a $12.99 million dollar signing bonus) essentially making him at the time, the highest paid defensive player in the NFL. Arthroscopic surgery kept him sidelined until his debut in Week 9 against his former team, the Atlanta Falcons. He later went on to help the Cowboys win their unprecedented third Super Bowl title in four years with a win in Super Bowl XXX against the Pittsburgh Steelers, where he returned a punt for 11 yards and caught a 47-yard reception on offense, setting up Dallas' first touchdown of the game and a 27-17 victory. He is the only player in NFL history to catch a pass and make an interception in the Super Bowl. At the trophy presentation, Sanders stated, " I didn't even get to hold the trophy last year" in regards to his previous employer in San Francisco.

[edit] Washington Redskins

After 5 seasons with the Cowboys, he later was acquired by the Washington Redskins and played one season before unceremoniously retiring in 2001.

[edit] Baltimore Ravens

In 2004, lured back to football by Ravens cornerback Corey Fuller and linebacker Ray Lewis, Sanders announced that he was going to end his retirement. He signed a 1-year deal reportedly worth $1.5 million with the Baltimore Ravens to be a nickelback. Sanders chose to wear the number 37, which matched his age at the time, to preemptively let people know that he was well aware of his relative senior status for an NFL player (additionally, the number 21 used by Sanders throughout his career, was already in use on the Ravens by Chris McAlister). On October 24, Sanders scored his ninth career touchdown on an interception return against the Buffalo Bills, moving him into a tie for second place behind Rod Woodson (12) all-time in that category.

In January 2006, Sanders once again retired unceremoniously from the NFL.

[edit] Legacy

During his 14-year NFL career, the All-Pro Deion Sanders was among the most feared pass defenders to ever play the game. He had such a reputation, that most opposing offensive coordinators always accounted for and game planned around. He was widely known to shut down half of the field, causing most quarterbacks to not even look in his direction. Often times, Deion felt bored on an island alone with a receiver that he even started baiting quarterbacks to throw his way. Those bold gunslingers that did test him, usually ended up regretting it in the shape of six points going back the other way. Although critics argued that his tackling was poor and he was not much of a factor in run support, they could not deny that his unparalleled closing speed (evidenced by his 4.17 second 40-yard dash time) and athleticism enabled him to blanket the best receivers while playing one of the NFL's toughest positions. Sanders was once quoted as saying, " You show me a corner that can tackle, and I'll show you one that can't cover". He is widely regarded as the standard to which all other cornerbacks are measured.

When he wasn't busy shutting down opposing receivers, Sanders occasionally lined up with his team's offense. Sanders was so versatile, that he was a threat to score every time he touched the ball. To better utilize him and keep opposing teams aware of the "big play", he also returned kicks and played wide receiver (mostly as a decoy to keep defenses honest of his blazing speed). During the 1996 season, Sanders skipped baseball and his traditional two-sport persona by concentrating strictly on football and attended the first NFL training camp of his career to better familiarize himself with the nuances of the wide receiver position. He became the first two-way starter in the NFL since Chuck Bednarik for the first half of the season due to Michael Irvin serving a five game suspension for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy.

All told, Sanders intercepted 53 passes for 1,331 yards (a 25.1 yards per return average), recovered 4 fumbles for 15 yards, returned 155 kickoffs for 3,523 yards, gained 2,199 yards on 212 punt returns, and even caught 60 passes for 784 yards. Sanders amassed 7,838 all-purpose yards scored 22 touchdowns: 9 interception returns, 6 punt returns, 3 kickoff returns, 3 receiving, and 1 fumble recovery. His 19 defensive and return touchdowns are an NFL record. He was selected to eight Pro Bowls in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999. He was also awarded the NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award in 1994.

College Football News named Sanders #8 in its list of 100 Greatest College Football Players of All-Time.
The Sporting News named Sanders #37 in their Top 100 Football Players of the Century released in 1999.
ESPN named Sanders #74 in its list of the 100 Great Athletes of the Century released in 1999.

[edit] NFL teams

[edit] "Prime Time" persona

Sanders will mostly be remembered sporting his famous "do-rag" and for his "High-Stepping" into the endzone followed by his excessive touchdown dance celebrations. At the same time Sanders will also be remembered for his alternate ego, Prime Time. A marketing ploy every bit as much as a different personality. Sanders felt he deserved bigger contracts in the same range as NFL quarterbacks and he used Prime Time to his every advantage to get this. At one point, he was the highest paid defensive player in the league when he was lured away from the San Francisco 49ers to sign a 7 year, $35 million dollar contract with the Dallas Cowboys (it was essentially 5 years, but was given a 7 year length for an easier cap hit and the signing bonus was $12,999,999.99, 1 cent under 13.0 million due to superstition by Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.) As he took on the Prime Time persona, he was easily one of the most visible and outspoken football players to ever take the field.

Even though he was widely known as a loud, egotistical, flashy prima donna, scorned for his infrequent tackling, Sanders' ability to shut down one side of the field and an opponents' number one receiver could not be denied. Off the field, Sanders was known for being a quiet, reserved individual who was surprisingly a good teammate and avid student of the game, a complete polar opposite of his more popular alter ego.

[edit] Other ventures

In January 2004, Sanders was hired as an assistant coach to the Dallas Fury, a women's professional basketball team in the National Women's Basketball League, even though Sanders had never played organized basketball either in college or the professional level, although he had originally been dubbed "Prime Time" due to his prowress as a basketball player in high school [3].

After retiring from the NFL, Sanders worked as a sports pre-game commentator for CBS' The NFL Today until 2004, when contract negotiations failed. He was replaced by Shannon Sharpe.

Sanders frequently made guest appearances on ESPN, especially on the ESPN Radio Dallas affiliate, and briefly hosted a show called The New American Sportsman. He also hosted the 2002 Miss America pageant.

Sanders also was co-host of the 2004 GMA Music Awards broadcast, taped in late April 2004, slated for an airing on UPN in May 2004. When negotiations with fellow Viacom property CBS failed (see above) two weeks before the broadcast, and he signed a deal with ESPN, UPN promptly cancelled the broadcast, and the show aired on the i Network in December 2004 (both UPN and CBS are now owned by CBS Corporation).

On September 2, 2005, in response to the terrible after-effects of Hurricane Katrina, Sanders challenged all professional athletes in the four major sports to donate $1,000 each to relief efforts, hoping to raise between $1.5 to $3 million total. Sanders said "Through unity, we can touch thousands...I have friends and relatives that feel this pain. Help in any way you can." Sanders has adopted a high school running back, Noel Devine, who is one of the top recruits in 2007. Sanders was advised to and said, "He doesn't have parents; they died. God put this young man in my heart. This is not about sports. This is about a kid's life."

In April 2006, Sanders became an owner of the Austin Wranglers, an Arena Football League team[4].

Deion currently works as a host with Rich Eisen and Steve Mariucci for the NFL GameDay show on the NFL Network.

[edit] Trivia

Sanders has been married twice. Carolyn Chambers with whom he has two children (Deiondra and Deion Jr.) and Pilar Biggers (Shilo).

Sanders, known for his custom-made showy suits and flashy jewelry, frequently capitalized on his image. On December 26, 1994 Sanders released Prime Time, a rap album on Bust It Records that featured the minor hit "Must Be The Money." "Prime Time Keeps on Tickin'" was also released as a single. He also appeared in MC Hammer's "Too Legit to Quit" music video.

During his spectacular 1994 season with San Francisco, Sanders bought himself a black Lamborghini Diablo stating "A present from me, to me."

Later it was revealed in his book, that both Super Bowl victories with San Francisco and Dallas along with the Lamborghini still made him feel "empty."

Following his first Super Bowl victory with the San Francisco 49ers, he was the host of Saturday Night Live, broadcast on February 18, 1995.

He endorsed his own video game for the Sega Genesis console titled Prime Time NFL Football Starring Deion Sanders.

Sanders has been in numerous television commercials for Nike, Pepsi, Burger King, Pizza Hut, and American Express. He was most notable as the Road Runner in a Pepsi ad and in a Pizza Hut commercial where he responds to Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones questions with "both!!", including the question "What's it gonna take, 15...20 million?" [5].

In 2005 the fast-food Burger King chain, computer generated their famous "King" character over Deion's image when he intercepted a pass against the Buffalo Bills and raced for a touchdown eventually doing his customary "Deion shuffle" in the endzone.

He made a brief cameo appearance on the TV show Living Single and as a potential kidnap victim at the end of the movie Celtic Pride.

While he wore the number 21 for the majority of his football career, he wore the number 2, his college football number, in practice.

He was known to lay out his entire uniform on the floor prior to games.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones gave Sanders a custom-made Mercedes golf cart to get around training camp.

At one point, the gates guarding his Plano, Texas home had the words "Prime Time" emblazoned on each one.

He became a born-again Christian after his attempted suicide in 1997.

Sanders is also left handed

Legendary MLB catcher Carlton Fisk, made a scene during a game at Yankee Stadium when Sanders offended him by stepping up to the plate and drawing a dollar sign in the dirt before the pitch. He claimed Sanders was "playing the game the wrong way" and tarnished the game of baseball. The infamous incident was later recounted by Fisk on both ESPN Classic and a CNBC interview with Tim Russert.

Current Falcons cornerback DeAngelo Hall idolizes Sanders and seems to only allow himself to be mentored or take advice from Sanders himself. He even wears the number 21 and is as flashy and confident as the original Prime Time ever was. Sanders even goes so far as to call him "Prime Time Jr." when he recaps Atlanta Falcon highlights as a co-host on NFL GameDay.

He is a spokesman for AT&T and is their host when he tours the homes of numerous athletes across the country. This can be seen at www.seehowtheylive.com

[edit] See also

Featured athlete on Fox Sports Net's Beyond the Glory.

[edit] References

Deion Sanders with J.M. Black. Power, Money & Sex: How Success Almost Ruined My Life. World Publishing 1998.

[edit] External links

[6]Football statistics
Baseball Reference

National Football League | NFL's 1990s All-Decade Team