The Deion Sanders Enterprise
Sanders Has Unleashed a Swagger in College Football Not Seen Since The 1980's Miami Hurricanes
I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with Deion Sanders. As a fan of football, I subscribe more to the “old school” model of teams and players; loudmouth players who talk big or act as if they’re better than everyone deserve to have the rug pulled out from under them. They put a target on their backs. Teams and players play up just to shut them up. Nothing makes me happier than seeing the vocally embellished humbled.
That almost never happened with Deion Sanders.
Deion is one of the BIGGEST loudmouths ever in sports. He hyped up and bragged more than a WWE wrestler at the Royal Rumble. He would talk the talk, with a huge strut in his step and the gold necklaces layered up. I’ve never seen a bigger peacock in all of television outside the NBC logo. To non-fans, they all worshipped his moxie and notoriety. To actual fans, you kinda hated him but were in awe of him all the same. He had the gift of gab that made him extremely entertaining to watch, and if he didn’t play for your team, you were just waiting for someone to show him up big time.
Again, that almost never happened.
Unlike most talkers, Deion could back it up. Big time. Prime time. He was the first cornerback I followed who’s numbers weren’t ever really great not because he wasn’t, but because QBs were petrified to throw his way.1 And when they did, odds were about even it would be completed or picked off by Neon Deion. The amount of space he could grant a receiver and then close in a second were mindblowing. Others talking smack at him would be befuddled when all he would do is intercept a ball, take it back highstepping into the end zone and then go back and say “Scoreboard” to his competitors. He was a force of nature. His athleticism was unrivaled. I haven’t seen anything like it since.
Playing both Baseball and Football, age and injury eventually slowed him. Being his greatest asset as a player, he faded, retired and became a regular TV personality. He still had the gift of gab. He was fine and successful as a talking head for football games. When he left that to go coach at a private high school and then college at Jackson State, I didn’t know what to expect. Jackson State, an historically black college with a great history of athletics, seemed like a good place to test out the Deion Sanders style of management. How’d he do? In his first half year taking over the program, he went 4-3. Over the next two years he went 23-3, undefeated in conference play. Seems he was pretty good. When he took over the Colorado Buffaloes stagnant program (they had won only one game a year ago) there was reason to give pause that Deion couldnt level up to the higher level. On his first day he cut most players from the program and brought in dozens of players, many from Jackson State and other HBCUs. His first game this year he crushed #17 ranked TCU. He was undefeated heading into this week's game v. potential College Football Playoff contender Oregon. It seemed to be working.
Deion Sanders’ Management Style
There are basically two ways to be successful in coaching competitive sports. You can be a master tactician, out-thinking and playing your opponent at four dimensional chess. Being a creative designer and play caller, putting you one step ahead from the competition. When most people think coaches, this is the image they usually have in mind.
Then there is the Ted Lasso coach; those that just elevate the level of play by sheer force of personality, and get their players to execute at a winning level. That’s Deion. He gets people excited. He inspires players. He demonstrates the success that comes with the hard work and athletic output. How? With that strut and swagger.
College sports, particularly football and basketball, have changed in the last few years with an influx of money to programs, coaches and players through name, image and likeness (NIL) royalties. Deion has turned the Colorado program into an NIL collossus and the players are strutting like Deion along for the ride. Coach Prime Jerseys. Prime Sunglasses. Colorado T-shirts and merchandise are the hottest sports items today. All that money funnels back into the program or player and coach pockets. It’s estimated they’ve made more money already through merchandise than they would through the payout of winning the Rose Bowl. The better they play, the more they win, the more they make, the higher they strut. When Oregon's coach accused Colorado of “…playing for [page]clicks, not wins,” he wasn't far off. Deion has all of his players believing in it and stepping up to make that extra effort and execute at an amazingly high level.
It really is something to watch play out in real time. I haven’t seen this level of sheer attitude in college sports since maybe the UNLV 1991 college basketball team, with Larry Johnson. They were the best team in college basketball and knew it, many say the best college basketball team ever. In college football, I dont think I’ve seen it since the mid-80s Miami Hurricanes, playing for the national championship every year, going from Jim Kelly, to Bernie Kosar, to Vinny Testverde to Steve Walsh. The bling, South Beach, and fact many thought several of these teams could compete with the worst pro teams were openly marveled.
But those teams had something that Deion doesn’t have yet; the overall talent on the team. Sanders has done well so far getting who he has to play up but have eked through victories the last couple weeks and now face a gauntlet of Top 25 ranked Pac-12 teams aiming to shut up Prime Time. It usually takes years to develop a program, recruit high level players on a national level and achieve consistent success. Deion has turned the corner and more high school recruits will want to play in Boulder, perhaps even turn it into a top 10 or even 5 program, but that’s years down the road. For this year at least, despite the change in attitude, he has them playing up but when the bubble pops with their first loss (which happened this last weekend with a throttling by #7 ranked Oregon, 42-6) and then their second happens do they still show that same fight? The sign of a winning program is how they respond to loss. Does some of that luster come off? Will all that strut and swagger ring hollow if and when they lose three in a row and Deion is faced with the scrutiny maybe he isn’t the second coming? Will the excitement in Colorado wane when expectations come crashing back to Earth? Maybe, maybe not.
It just hasn’t happened yet.
PurpleAmerica’s Cultural Corner
For those who weren’t around in the 90s, Deion Sanders was a marketing phenom, topped probably only by Michael Jordan. Here’s a Nike ad with Denis Leary.
It was so successful, they had a follow up…
Here he is in the M.C. Hammer video, “2 Legit 2 Quit.”
Here is in the 1991 Atlanta Falcons Team Video with the same name.
Here is a rap video with Deion Highlights
So needless to say, Deion Sanders was EVERYWHERE in the 90s.
PurpleAmerica’s Obscure Fact of the Day
So Deion Sanders’ 53 interceptions are outstanding. Do you know who has the most?
Paul Krause who played for the Redskins and the Vikings in the 60s and 70s. He had a total of 81 career interceptions. Emien Tunnell from the 1950s Giants teams is second with 79. Third is Rod Woodson, way back at 71.
PurpleAmerica’s Final Word on the Subject
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Footnotes and Fun Stuff
I know, I know. A lot of you out there are like “but he had soooo many interceptions. True, he had a lot, 53 in fact. But he is actually 24th all time in interceptions, largely because QBs avoided him like the plague. Such players as Dave Brown, Bobby Boyd and Pat Fischer all have more. He does have 9 interception returns for touchdowns, meaning almost 1 out of every 4 he intercepted he scored a TD on. One wonders how much more those numbers would be if QBs didnt fear him as much and actually threw to his side of the field.