Deion "Prime Time" Sanders Pro Football Hall of Fame Speech

thank you lord I thank you Jesus I love you if it wasn't for God I wouldn't be here today so lord I thank you so if you could bear with me I'm going to run through a lot of thank-yous because unfortunately or fortunately I played for five teams it's not like I wanted to leave one but I had to so I got a lot of thank-yous coach C coach David hell of incapable coach capable who suffered a massive heart attack and it's excitement to get here was so vital in who I am what I am and where I am today coach Ron Hoover my high school coach for kicking me off the team my junior year although I'm the starting quarterback that taught me a valuable lesson but to this day I still wasn't insubordinate in that cafeteria I promise you I would I don't know what that lady was talking about senior coach Bobby Bowden the best college football coach ever Jimmy and Donna Calloway I love you because you love me like I'm your own Mickey and Diane and choose my defensive back coach at Florida State coach Andrews where are you you taught me everything I love you the two things that you told me I could be two persons at the same time you would yell at us scream at us then over time we get in the cafeteria how's the family how's everything going and you blessed me also you may need a punt returner that I am because you remember that drill that you had that you laid this mat out on the field and the punter would kick and everybody had to come and lay out and dive and try to block the punt and and and I don't even dive in pools I don't even do that but the guy before me right before me dole and the kicker kicked him and split his jaw wide open and I said coach I'll go back there return these punks so I want to thank you for allowing me to be that punt returner special people Jason Phillips who's the offensive coordinator at University of Houston but when we went at it against each other in Atlanta on the scout team he didn't have Sundays to play he had winces and Thirsty's and he went at my but we had a battle every day and I Love You Jay feel for that the snoop d-o-double-g thank you for coming my man q where you had Cuba I've been loving you since the early 90s baby thank you Jerry Jones taught me so much about family taught me so much about business taught me a lot about life do you understand this is the Hall of Fame I grew up on some of you guys I couldn't wait to just get a glimpse of that television and some of you guys to play against the Marino's the play against the Montana's Troy Aikman man him it smelled Mike Urban are you kidding me Jerry Rice Steve Young I got to play with this game taught me how to be a man this game taught me if I get knocked down I got to get my butt back up again this game taught me to some things in life you can't do to prematurely in football they call it offsides and life is just life throughout this game I've lost some people but throughout this game I've gained five wonderful beautiful kids diandra Deon junior shallow shador she'll of mine with all my team's Jersey's own I love you Thank You babies this game I appreciate this game so much because I thought about it as a child I wanted to do it and they told me that we would get compensated and paid for a game that always loved it I hear so many people say I would do this for free I would - as long as you're doing it for free so I admired this game i liked this game it told me how to be a man it taught me how to get up it taught me how to live and play with pain this game this game taught me so much about people it taught me so much about timing it taught me so much about focus dedication submitting oneself and sacrifices this game this game this game and I went into this game and I take this game because I made a promise that I needed this game to fulfill I said mama cuz I was tired of seeing her go to work and come home o tired and I said I'm gonna be rich one day mom I'm gonna make a lot of money and you would never have to work another day of your life my mama say that's fine but until the end you get that larmor I go I didn't cut that grass you is something inside of me mama that I never told you that I never could admit and I'm gonna share with all of you because now we're family I played for you team called the Fort Myers rebels and they blessed me they took me all over the country to play and expose me to things expose you to things and everybody on their team that parents own something and their parents were doctors a lawyer sort of chief of police it was that type of organization me and one of my friends were the only african-american kids that was on that team and it was a very affluent team and I was ashamed of my mom cuz my mama worked in the hospital she cleaned up the hospital she pushed the cart and I was ashamed of my mama Oh sacrificed loved me who protected me who gave me everything I want to make sure I was best dressed in school and I had everything that was late that came out I had it first I was shamed I'm a mama because where my friends in high school he saw her in a hospital one night pushing a cart and he came back and he clowned me he ridiculed me and he mocked me because of my mama so I made a pledge to myself then I don't care what it takes I don't care what it may take I'm not gonna do anything illegal but my mama would never have to work another day of a life I created this image this thing that you could imagine you could love him or hate him but he was proud dad I would pre wear hearse the quotes I would pre rehearse the sayings because I knew I had the substance I knew I had the goods I knew I had to work ethic but I needed to secure myself enough that my mama would never have to work another day of her life so throughout my whole career I understood there were gonna be stones because when you make it a difference it's gonna be hate us when you provoke and change its gonna be naysayers people don't condone what they've never seen and some of the stuff I tried to do they had never seen but when you talked about me media guess what behind you I saw my mama when you wrote about me when you nae saved me when you criticized me I saw right through your papers right through your TV and I saw my mama when you told me what I couldn't do when you told me what I didn't do when you told me what I would never be I saw my mama pushing that card when you told me I was too small I wasn't educated enough I saw my mama I don't know if you figured it out by now but I just gave you pram I just gave you the formula and who is really standing before you because I was trick-or-treating and it wasn't even Halloween because all the things you really thought I was and some of the things you didn't like you didn't love you didn't want to accept I was doing it for my mom I will leave you with this Hall of Famers I am so privileged and so thankful to be amongst you I thank you I love you Hall of Fame I tell you what I don't know what's going on in other tents but snoop Nellie cube you gonna do something we better go Teddy's thing oh I appreciate you I got one final thing because I like I like him but something's missing thank you and God bless

Channel: NFL

Views: 439,397

Keywords: sp:li=NFL, sp:st=football, sp:vl=en-US, Deion Sanders (American Football Player), Pro Football Hall Of Fame (Hall Of Fame), American Football (Sport), National Football League (Sports Association), Dallas Cowboys, Atlanta Falcons (Professional Sports Team)

Id: rwmTO_m8x8Y

Length: 10min 57sec (657 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 07 2015