If you had to pick one word to describe what the Hall of Fame symbolizes, it’d probably be something cliche like “greatness”. Grown men work their entire lives at perfecting their craft, and if they ever succeed, we call them great. It’s all pretty fleeting, though. That’s why the Hall of Fame exists--to help memorialize great players that might otherwise be forgotten.
Long Live Prime Time: 21 Highlights From Deion Sanders’ Hall Of Fame Career
Deion Sanders enters the Pro Football Hall of Fame this weekend. As one of the most entertaining athletes of his generation heads to Canton, let’s reflect on what made Prime Time so special.
But with greatness taking center stage at this weekend’s NFL Hall of Fame ceremonies, it’s important to make the distinction between greatness and genius.
Greatness is earned through a lifetime’s hard work; genius is innate. Greatness can take a thousand forms in football; genius encompasses the same qualities in all walks of life. Greatness ends; genius leaves an impact that lasts forever.
None of this abstract nonsense registered with me when I was growing up, but watching Deion Sanders play football, even if I couldn’t find the words, I sorta knew I was watching a genius. He was the first athlete that ever really captured my imagination, mostly because he was unlike anyone I’d ever seen.
Other players would sprint, but Deion would glide. And then next thing you knew, he’d be ten yards in front of the sprinters, high-stepping into the endzone. As for me, the 10 year-old sports fan, I loved him for the touchdowns and I loved him for the high-stepping, but most of all, I think I loved him because my conservative dad hated him and preferred his football stars to be more like the Redskins’ eternally selfless Darrell Green. And I knew that no matter how hard he argued that Deion was all flash, I’d always be right.
So, yeah: I couldn’t let Deion’s Hall of Fame induction pass without getting a little sentimental.
Since Deion left football, you’ll always hear coaches and fans say the same thing in the offseason: “If we can just get a ‘Shutdown Corner’...” It’s a term that was invented for Deion, but hasn’t really been applicable since. Sure, guys like Champ Bailey and Darrelle Revis can break up anything thrown their way, but Deion shut down half the field because offenses were scared.
“The quarterback is afraid to throw at Deion, and that frees the safety to cheat over to the opposite side,” an opposing wide receiver told Sports Illustrated back in the ‘90s. “You’ve got Deion by himself on one side, covering a single man, and you’ve got everybody else on the other side. That makes it tough to either pass or run to that side because everybody’s plugging it up and there’s nowhere to go.” A few of today’s corners may be dominant in coverage, but there’s nobody that does that.
He was one of the best football players we’ve ever seen, and as a personality, he was one of the most fascinating athletes of the past 25 years. People remember all the self-promotion, but what was really amazing about Deion was his self-awareness. Even if you hated him for it (a perfectly reasonable reaction), starting at 19 years old, Deion came up with a plan to promote himself and use his talent to get, and then spent the next 15 years doing exactly that. His swagger and marketing savvy may seem cliche in 2011, but in 1989, he was kind of a revolutionary.
Anyway, because not everybody remembers quite how incredible a character he was, and because this was a perfect excuse to spend an entire night going through old Sports Illustrated stories about my favorite athlete ever, here are 21 of my favorite Prime Time plays, stories, and quotes.
In no particular order...
1. When it all started as a Florida State freshman:
Then FSU Sports Information Director Wayne Hogan was trying to figure out whom to put on the panel in front of the media at a press conference leading into spring practice 1986. He had five sure stars already placed but needed another defensive player. ... Deion was going to be a great player, but he was so skinny and quiet that they just were not sure he could hold his own in front of a room full of Florida media.
They decided to go with Sanders. Hogan stood in the back of the cramped room straining to see over TV cameras and reporters as they let loose with questions for the Seminoles. The energy in the room just seemed to zoom when Sanders began to extol his virtues to the uninformed. He provided notebooks full of quotes in just three minutes including suggesting that he wanted to become the best defensive back – ever. (Via)
2. More highlights from FSU.
Sanders set records in Tallahassee for on-field trash talk. ... At halftime of a 59-0 victory at South Carolina, Sanders told the Gamecock fans they should ask for their money back. He showed up for the game against traditional rival Florida, at Tallahassee, last year in a tuxedo and a white stretch limo. Florida receivers, he once said, “must think I’m God.” He and Gator Ricky Nattiel—now a wide receiver for the Denver Broncos—engaged in a bitter competition that lasts to this day.
“If I see him in the pros, I’ll probably kill him,” says Sanders. Preparing for a punt return on the road at Clemson, he pointed and shouted over to the Tiger bench: “This one’s going back!” Then he toasted the defense, whirling 76 yards for the touchdown, after which he struck a long pose for the end zone fans and screamed, “How you like me now?” (Via)
3. This quote, before he signed with the Atlanta Falcons:
...he wouldn’t discuss the money he expected to be paid by the Falcons except to say, “It’s gonna be a lot of zeros in that contract. You’re gonna think it’s alphabet soup or something, all them zeroes in there.” (via)
4. His first game for the Falcons, he returned his first punt for a touchdown. You can see the play at the beginning of this video, and then it keeps going for the next six minutes and the next ten years.
5. He openly mocked tackling, meetings and practice, and it didn’t matter. Not a great example for everyone else, but it’s pretty incredible that he could make it work for his entire career.
From Jeff Pearlman’s book on the ‘90s Cowboys, Boys Will Be Boys:
For all his Jim Thorpe-esque skills, Sanders was sleeping-dog lazy. In practices, he went all out every third or fourth play and refused to wear shoulder pads because, he would say, “I’m not gonna tackle anyone anyway.” ... Seeing that the Cowboys defensive back meetings lasted significantly longer than they had in Atlanta or San Francisco, Sanders took a page out of the Barry Bonds playbook by investing in a black leather executive’s chair and rolling it into the conference room.
Sanders was a feather-duster. When he tackled, it was with the gusto of a 90 year-old woman. “One time a running back ran a sweep toward him, and Deion dove halfhearted into the turf,” says Case. “We’re watching film the next day, razzing him pretty good. As serious as he could be, he said, ‘I saw that dude coming and I had to make a business decision.’”
6. Asked if Deion Sanders wasn’t physical, Michael Irvin told NFL Network, “You never heard a wide receiver say they can out-physical Deion.” When it mattered, Deion was as physical as he needed to be. And mind you, that’s coming from one of the most physical receivers ever.
7. He’s the one who introduced the Tomahawk Chop to Atlanta.
8. During the Braves World Series in 1992, he hit .533 with 4 runs, 8 hits, 2 doubles, and 1 RBI while playing with a broken bone in his foot. And then...
10. Chiefs LB and Deion’s close friend, Derrick Thomas, when asked about “Prime Time”:
“He was not always this cool Deion Sanders. He was a nerd. He was the ROTC commander in high school. He was a nerd! Deion, I love you and I’m sorry for telling everybody this, but you were a nerd.” (via)
11. Deion, himself, when asked about Prime Time.
“I learned the system in college. How do you think defensive backs get attention? How do you think Jim McMahon made so many millions? They don’t pay nobody to be humble. Some people will come out to see me do well. Some people will come out to see me get run over. But love me or hate me, they’re going to come out. I’m a businessman now, and the product is me. Prime Time. I’m the first defensive back to make a million dollars a year. Set a record for a bonus. Cash up front.”
“But the true me?” says Sanders. “You think Michael Jackson sit in that room wearing that white glove all day long? No he don’t. You think Eddie Murphy go around cursing everybody out 24 hours a day? No he don’t.” (via)
12. But even if his persona was all about marketing, the things Deion did on the field were still some of the coolest plays I’ve ever seen in football. Exhibit A: The Andre-Rison fight/pick-six.
13. Less swaggerific: He loved fishing. Sometimes that meant fishing at practice. So, still kinda swaggerific.
Sanders, who spent his last three days before camp fishing in Florida, brought a rowboat to practice, and during extended breaks he paddled out to the middle of a small lake across from the field and cast his line. (via)
14. Seriously, the only time he got arrested during his career came when he was caught fishing on private property. And it led to what’s probably the most cheerful mug shot of all time.
15. Again from Boys Will Be Boys:
On one of his early days with the team, Sanders ran into Alundis Brice, who just so happened to wear uniform no. 21, Sander’s digits of choice, at a Dallas-based BMW dealer. The rookie defensive back had long wanted to own a BMW 325i, and he was here to make it a reality. “Brice, what are you doing?” asked Sanders.
“I’m gonna buy this car tomorrow,” he said. “But first I have to call my agent and set it up.”
“It’s your first sports car?” asked Sanders.
“Yup.”
“Are you gonna pay cash for it?” Sanders asked.
“Yup.”
Sanders nodded and drove off.
The next morning, Brice reported to Valley Ranch and was dismayed to to spot his dream car--a brand new metallic blue 325i with all the trimmings--parked in the players’ lot. “I can’t believe this,” he said. “Somebody bought my car.”
When he approached his locker, Brice noticed the keys on his stool alongside a note from Sanders. It read: NOW GIVE ME MY DAMN JERSEY.
16. After finding religion, he posed for this ESPN Magazine cover without an ounce of irony.
17. His cameo in Celtic Pride isn’t on YouTube, but his commercial with Mos Def is.
18. Deion’s female companion for road trips with the Cincinnati Reds:
Although he is apart from his family, Sanders does not pedal home to an empty apartment each night. He has a companion who has already achieved a measure of fame in Cincinnati because she accompanies him on the road, sharing his hotel room and even sitting on his lap on team flights. “She doesn’t go down with the baggage,” he says. “She stays with me.”
Where else would you put a one-year-old Himalayan Persian cat? Sanders is obviously secure in his manhood because he is not afraid to keep company with a kitty, even if it makes him look like a long-lost Gabor sister. His furry white friend is named Duchess ... “I can trust her,” he says. “She ain’t going to lie to me, she ain’t going to cheat on me. I know she’ll be waiting for me when I get home.” (via)
19. “Look good, play good. Play good, eat good. Eat good, die good.” - Deion Sanders
20. “Football is just one big show... and there’s nothing like it in the world” - Deion Sanders
21. Here’s Emmitt Smith remembering an old Giants game on NFL Network.
Another amazing thing that I recall... Kevin Mathis got in the game late in the game as Deion’s replacement. Quarterback kept throwing a couple out routes to our sideline.
And Deion was on the sideline yellin at Kevin, “Little fella, little fella! It’s coming to ya.”
So he finally he said, “Little fella, hey come here...”
Pulled him off the field, he got on the football field.
They tried the same old route, and he jumped right in front of it, took it back about 60 yards to the touchdown, came back to the sideline, and said, “Now that’s how you do it.”
But then, no matter how hard they tried, nobody could ever do it quite like Prime Time.
For more reminsicing, check out these stories:
And this book’s fantastic:
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