How Deion Sanders is changing the future of college football at Jackson State
His personality as flamboyant as his football talent, Deion Sanders had two nicknames during his hall of fame NFL career: he was "Neon Deion" and "Prime Time." But for his latest gig, Sanders high stepped it to Mississippi and, at age 55, he is now the head football coach at Jackson State, a historically Black university or HBCU. Sanders' salary of $500,000 is less than 5% of what, one state over, Alabama pays its coach, Nick Saban. Yet, Jackson State might be the hottest program in America, poaching talented recruits and winning games in equal measure, powered by, yes, the style, but also the substance, of the man who now calls himself Coach Prime.
Deion Sanders had never coached in college when he agreed two years ago to try and rescue Jackson State from football irrelevance.
Jon Wertheim: Why are you here?
Deion Sanders: I truly believe with all my heart and soul that God called me collect (laugh) and I had to accept the charges…
Jon Wertheim: You picked up…You accepted the charges.
Deion Sanders: I had to accept the charges. But understanding when you accept those type of charges, it's gonna cost you something.
Jon Wertheim: What's it cost you?
Deion Sanders: Lotta sleep. But I can't say I don't love it. I love every durn minute of it.
It doesn't hurt that his team is durn good. The Jackson State Tigers are blazing through their HBCU football opponents: 11-2 last season, undefeated so far this season…
Watch the Tigers rack up points - led by Deion's son, quarterback Shedeur Sanders - and you wonder how they'd fare against the football elites, the so-called Power Five schools.
Sanders took the job at Jackson State three months after George Floyd's murder, timing, he says, that was no coincidence.
Deion Sanders: It was relevant because a lotta folks sit back on them, with Twitter fingers and talk about what they gonna do. And, and I wanted to go do it.
Jon Wertheim: Do what?
Deion Sanders: Change lives. Change the perspective of, of HBCU football. Make everyone step up to the plate and do what's right by these kids.
Ashley Robinson, Jackson State's athletic director, pursued rumors that Sanders might be interested in coaching; and offered him a job.
Jon Wertheim: What's been the impact here at Jackson State since he's arrived?
Ashley Robinson: Coach Prime was the biggest hire in college football. I'm talkin' about Power Five level. He's the biggest hire in college football.
Jon Wertheim: All of college football?
Ashley Robinson: All of college football, it's no, it's no other Deion Sanders.
Jon Wertheim: What's Deion Sanders worth to Jackson State?
Ashley Robinson: Hoo! I don't think I could put a number on that. I don't think it's enough zeroes, I mean, he's worth a lot.
The bump in attendance, buzz and commerce is especially welcome in a city marked by poverty. Deprivation that can be glimpsed just on the other side of the fence from the JSU football facility. The program was depressed as well. Time was, Jackson State produced four hall of fame NFL players, including running back Walter Payton; but when Sanders arrived, not one Jackson State player had been drafted in 12 years.
Jon Wertheim: What struck you about being here on this campus?
Deion Sanders: The need.
Jon Wertheim: What kinda needs are you sensing here?
Deion Sanders: You wanna start in alphabetical order or in numerical? (laughter)
Sanders was immediately confronted with the economic realities of HBCUs and with the social cleavages of Mississippi.
Jon Wertheim: What were the facilities like?
Deion Sanders: Horrible. (Laughs) And, and I'm sitting up there thinking, even to this day, how can a public high school in Texas look better than a college.
Jon Wertheim: Football facilities where you lived in Texas were better than this?
Deion Sanders: School. Forget the durn football facility. The whole durn school. That, that shouldn't be right.
Jackson State's old practice field was so shabby, when it rained the Tigers had to bus to a local high school. Coach Prime reached out not to a wealthy booster, but to Walmart, which built Jackson State a brand new practice field. Next, he had a new locker room built. The attention Sanders has brought to HBCU football has translated into a revenue spike for his league, the Southwestern Athletic Conference. Dr. Charles McClelland is the conference commissioner.
Jon Wertheim: Did you expect him to have this kind of impact on HBCUs when he came to Jackson State?
Dr. Charles McClelland: I did not, and I often say this. I've been around stars before. This is the first time that I've been around a super star. And I really didn't realize the difference…
Jon Wertheim: What, what do you mean by that?
Dr. Charles McClelland: Well, you know, a super star can enter any room, can enter any board room Coach Prime is a business person. Coach Prime has opened up doors for the Southwestern Athletic Conference that we could not get into.
Pepsi, American Airlines, Procter & Gamble all are new sponsors of Jackson State or the conference. Call it the Prime effect. But for all the flash, Sanders is defiantly old school, even by football standards. What other head coach brings his own lawn mower to the practice facility?
Deion Sanders: I may tell you once, yeah (claps), you know that grass needs to be cut on Thursday. Okay? Now, if you don't cut it, I'm going to go do it.
Jon Wertheim: That's you in a nutshell right there.
Deion Sanders: I, I can't -it's unfathomable to me to understand that you don't wanna do your job and you gettin' compensated for it. That's not the generation I came from.
Also unfathomable to Sanders: how the city of Jackson hasn't been able to provide clean water consistently or sometimes any water at all. At one point, a documentary team caught him bathing out of necessity in a hotel swimming pool near the stadium.
Jon Wertheim: The water crisis here was a national story. Tell me specifically how that impacted your program these last few months.
Deion Sanders: Forget our program. It impacted the whole durn city. I'm not into politics but I am into people. And I just feel as though our people should be taken care of a lot better.
Jon Wertheim: Just to be clear in wealthier areas they, they did all right with their water. I wonder if there isn't some parallels between HBCUs and resources.
Deion Sanders: Shoot, you, you know darn well there's a parallel with HBCUs and resources. Underserved and overlooked.
Jon Wertheim: What do you do about that?
Deion Sanders: You're here. That's what I do about that.
As if the water crisis weren't enough, last season Sanders was hospitalized with life-threatening blood clots that had formed in his leg.
Jon Wertheim: Did you have any idea at the time how serious this was?
Deion Sanders: No, none whatsoever.
Sanders had to endure nine surgeries. Two of his toes were amputated, a chunk of his leg was removed. He spent 23 days in the hospital and when he returned to his team, he needed help moving around.
Twice a day, his damaged leg is rubbed to get the blood flowing. A towering athlete in American sports, who once darted and dashed into the end zone, who played in two Super Bowls and one World Series. We didn't mention that? Yeah, he played Major League Baseball, too. That man may never run again.
Deion Sanders: I had my turn. Now, I'm helping someone else dominate theirs.
Though Sanders now limps noticeably and struggles to stand for an entire practice, his ambition persists.
The entrenched college football powers are getting nervous. It's one thing for Sanders to recruit his sons, Shilo, a defensive back, and Shedeur, the star quarterback. But heads really swiveled last winter when Travis Hunter, considered the top-ranked recruit in the country, switched his commitment to Jackson State from Florida State—where, ironically, Sanders starred in the 1980s.
Jon Wertheim: What changed your mind?
Travis Hunter: Uh, Coach Prime. He just let me know how big of an impact I can have on the people and that's one of the things I wanted to do. I wanted to shine a light on, on our people and shine a light on HBCUs.
Jon Wertheim: 'Our people' you mean…
Travis Hunter: Yeah, African Americans.
Deion Sanders: What he was gonna do was normal. That's been done. Big-time recruit goin' to a big-time school. But a big-time recruit chooses to go to Jackson State? Oh, that changes the trajectory of so many other kids. Now, they're sayin', hmmm, if it's good enough for Travis to go there and play, it may be good enough for me. So, that's a game-changing decision that he made for so many.
Jon Wertheim: Disruption?
Deion Sanders: That's it.
There is an undercurrent here: if the top recruits, who are predominantly African American, get a taste of the full hbcu football experience: in stadiums packed with people who look like them. It could be a powerful pull, just listen to Shedeur, Deion's son, immediately after a lopsided home win last month.
Jon Wetheim: Tens of thousands of fans, tailgate, band. What's it like playing a home game like this?
Shedeur Sanders: Man, it's amazing. You see – you see all these people, it's just real love there. Just playing at home, in Jackson, they needed us to pull it through.
HBCUs are starting to think big and dream big.
Jon Wertheim: You were a good high school football player. You said you…
Deion Sanders: I was, I was a great high school player.
Jon Wertheim: You were a great high school football player. (laughs) You said you weren't, weren't considering HBCUs.
Deion Sanders: They never recruited me. That's why I never considered HBCU, HBCUs just started recruiting the four- and five-star players just recently because they never thought they, they could get them. Now, they believe.
But can HBCUs compete with schools where players' lockers are designed like first-class airplane cabins and rehab facilities feature underwater treadmills?
Jon Wertheim: Kid gets hurt here, there's no hydrotherapy pool?
Deion Sanders: No. You-- you better get in the pool with a fan and that's about it.
Jon Wertheim: That-- that's how you do (LAUGH) hydrotherapy here--
Deion Sanders: That's about it. Put a little fan in there with a little battery. Hope you don't get electrocuted. (LAUGH)
JSU's entire football budget is only $4 million.
Jon Wertheim: Ohio State, Alabama fifteen times that.
Deion Sanders: Yeah. And we came down to the final two, us and Alabama for this big lineman that we almost had a few days ago.
Jon Wertheim: How does that make you feel?
Deion Sanders: It makes me feel good because we were right there neck to neck with Alabama. And we broke (laugh). So, so what if? So y- what if? And I'm hopin' a political figure or someone, some billionaire out there sayin', you know, what? I'm gonna bet on Prime, man. Let me go help that program, because I just wanna see what it would be like if he had the resources these other schools would have.
The cinematic version of the story has Coach Prime sticking it out at Jackson State, as the program grows on par with those of the Power Five. The reality: it may not be long before he takes his gold whistle to a school that doesn't need to beg for resources.
Jon Wertheim: What happens when a Power 5 school says give us a number and we'll make it work?
Deion Sanders: I'm gonna have to entertain it.
Jon Wertheim: You are?
Deion Sanders: Yes. I'm gonna have to entertain it. Straight up. I'd be a fool not to.
Sanders says he needs to look after his assistants who are wildly underpaid by college football standards. He has ruled out one bigger leap.
Jon Wertheim: You don't wanna coach in the NFL.
Deion Sanders: Not one bit.
Jon Wertheim: Why not?
Deion Sanders: It's hard for me to coach a person that makes a lotta money that does not truly love the game that blessed me. And I don't wanna go to jail (laugh)
Jon Wertheim: What are you goin' to jail for?
Deion Sanders: Because I'm goin' to jump on somebody. (laughs) I will come out at halftime with half the team.
Jon Wertheim: It's that offensive to you…
Deion Sanders: We're going, we'll go in and half the team will come back out at halftime. Yeah…
Jon Wertheim: If you had a bunch of guys doggin' it, it's that offensive to you…
Deion Sanders: I couldn't do it. I just challenged a walk on, I said, 'Dude, you're a walk-on. You're supposed to be tryin' to get my attention and you chillin? I say, you're gonna be a walk off if you do that one more time. Not a walk-on. You'll be a walk-off.
What's the significance of winning to Deion Sanders? Let's just say Vince Lombardi never put it quite like this.
Deion Sanders: I gotta win in every facet of life. That's what winning is. And we… That's our natural odor. We don't even use cologne (claps). Baby we a winner. We smell like winning around here. When you saw us on the practice field you walked and you… when we first met, you, you could feel that you shook the hand of a winner. You felt that. I know durn well you had to call somebody, say, hey, man, I just met Coach Prime, baby. Something about him, something. He's magnetic. I'm gonna win. But not only win, I'm gonna dominate. That's what I do. That's who I am.
Produced by Draggan Mihailovich. Associate producer, Emily Cameron. Broadcast associate, Elizabeth Germino. Edited by Matthew Lev.