Deion Sanders
*Deion Sanders was born on this date in 1967. He is a Black former professional athlete, sports analyst, and coach.
Deion Luwynn Sanders Sr. was born in Fort Myers, Florida. He is one of the rare successful professional two-sport athletes. He is a current college football coach. He attended North Fort Myers High School in North Fort Myers and was a letterman and All-State football, basketball, and baseball honoree. The Kansas City Royals selected Sanders out of North Fort Myers High School in the sixth round of the 1985 Major League Baseball draft. He did not sign with the team.
He played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons. Sanders was also a baseball outfielder in Major League Baseball (MLB). He won two Super Bowl titles and made one World Series appearance in 1992, making him the only athlete to play in a Super Bowl and a World Series. He was named to eight Pro Bowls during his career and received first-team All-Pro honors six times. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame in 2011.
Following his athletic career, Sanders became an analyst for CBS Sports, NFL Network, and Barstool Sports. He was also the offensive coordinator for the Trinity Christian School – Cedar Hill football team, which his sons attended from 2017 until 2020, when Jackson State hired him. Sanders founded the Prime Prep Academy charter school in 2012, where he coached until the school closed in 2015 due to financial insolvency. Additionally, he starred in the show Deion Family Playbook, which debuted in 2014.
He is often considered one of the most talented NFL players ever. In 2020, he became the head football coach at Jackson State University. In his first season in spring 2021, abbreviated and delayed from its normally intended fall 2020 schedule due to COVID-19 disruptions, he led the Tigers to a 4–3 record, with one win by forfeit.
In the fall 2021 season, Sanders led the Tigers to the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) title and a program record of 11 wins; also named the recipient of the fall 2021 Eddie Robinson Award as the season's top FCS head coach. Sanders notably flipped the recruitment of defensive back Travis Hunter, the number one overall recruit in the 2022 class. Hunter initially committed to Sanders's alma mater Florida State. Near the end of the 2022 season, Sanders was named the head football coach at Colorado.
