Deion Sanders: The 60 Minutes Interview

his personality is flamboyant as his football Talent Deion Sanders had two nicknames during his Hall of Fame NFL career he was neon Dion in prime time but for his latest gig Sanders High stepped it to Mississippi and at age 55 he's now the head football coach at Jackson State in historically black University or HBCU Sanders salary of five hundred thousand dollars is less than five percent 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 the story will continue in a moment [Applause] I've never coached in college when he agreed two years ago to try and rescue Jackson State from football irrelevance why are you here I truly believe with all my heart and soul that God called me collect and I had to accept the church I have to accept the charges but understanding when you accept those type of charges is going to cost you something what's it cost you a lot of sleep but I can't say I don't love it I love every darn minute of it it doesn't hurt that his team is darn 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 Dion's son quarterback Shadow Sanders and you wonder how they'd fare against the football Elites the so-called power five schools switch Sanders took the job at Jackson State three months after George Floyd's murder timing he says that was no coincidence it was relevant because a lot of folks sit back on the Twitter fingers and talk about what they're going to do and and I wanted to go do it do what change lives change the perspective 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 what's been the impact here at Jackson State since he's arrived Coach Brown was the biggest hire in college football I'm talking about power five level he's the biggest hire in college all of college football all the college football it's no there's no other Deion Sanders what's Deion Sanders worth the Jackson State I don't think I can put a number on I don't think it's enough zeros I mean he's worth a whole lot the bump in the tendons 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 what struck you about being here on this campus to me what kind of needs are you sensing here you want to start an alphabetical order or a numerical [Laughter] Sanders was immediately confronted with the economic realities of hbcus and with the social cleavages of Mississippi what were the facilities like horrible and I'm sitting up to thinking even to this day how can a public high school in Texas look better than a a college football facilities where you lived in Texas were better than this school forget the Durham football facility the whole during school that that shouldn't be right Jackson State's old practice field was so shabby when it rained that Tigers had to bust 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 McClellan is the conference commissioner did you expect him to have this kind of an impact on hbcus when he came to Jackson State 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 superstar and I really did not realize what do you mean by that well you know a superstar can enter any room can enter any boardroom 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 lawnmower to The Practice Facility I may tell you once hey you know that grass need to be cut on Thursday okay now if you don't cut it I'm gonna go do it that's even a nutshell right there I can't it's unfathomable to me to understand that you don't want to do your job and you're getting compensated for that's not the generation I came from we don't have water um therefore we don't have ice which 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 the Water Crisis here was a national story tell me specifically how that impacted your program these last few months forget our program it impacted the whole darn City I'm not into politics but I am in the people and I've this feel as though our people should be taking care of a lot better just be clear in wealthier areas they did all right with their water I wonder if there isn't some parallels between hbcus and uh resources shoot you you know darn well as a parallel with hbcus and resources underserved and overlooked what do you do about that 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 did you have any idea at the time how serious this was no not 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 everything's going good man twice a day his damaged leg is rubbed to get the blood flowing a towering athlete in American Sports who once started and dashed into the end zone who played in two Super Bowls in one World Series we didn't mention that yeah he played Major League Baseball too that man may never run again I had my turn now I'm helping someone else dominate theirs those sanders now Glimpse noticeably and struggles to stand for an entire practice his ambition persists full speed by the ball do not stop until you hit his whistle the entrenched college football powers are getting nervous it's one thing for Sanders to recruit his sons Shiloh a defensive back and chidur the Star Quarterback but his 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 Sandra starred in the 1980s what changed your mind uh goes wrong you just let me know how big of an impact I can't have on the people and that's one of the things I want to do I wanted to shine the light on on our people and shine on hbcus our people you mean yeah African Americans what he was going to do was normal it has been done Big Time recruit going to Big Time school but a big time recruit chooses to go to Jackson State oh that changes their trajectory of so many other kids now they're saying hmm 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 disruption 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 Shadow Dion's son immediately after a lopsided home win last month tens of thousands of fans tailgate band a man is amazing people it's just it's really lovely and just playing at home with Jackson they needed us to pull it through hbcus are starting to think big and dream big you're a good high school football player I said that would look great great High School football player you said you weren't considering hbcus it didn't never recruited me that's why I never considered HBCU hbcus just start recruiting the four and five star players just recently because they never thought 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 kid gets hurt here there's no hydrotherapy pool no you you better get in the pool with a fan and that's about it that's how you do hydrotherapy here it's about it but put a little fan in there with a little battery hope you don't get electrocuted gsu's entire football budget is only four million dollars Ohio State Alabama 15 times that yeah and we came down to the final two Us in Alabama for this big lineman that that we almost had a few days ago how does that make you feel it makes me feel good because we were right there neck to neck without Alabama and we broke so what if what if and I'm hoping a political figure of someone some billionaire out there saying you know what I'm a bet on Prime man let me go help that program because I just want to 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 what happens when a power five School says give us a number we'll make it work I'm going out to entertain it you are yes I'm gonna have to entertain it straight up why would be a fool not to Sandra says he needs to look after his assistants who are wildly underpaid by college football standards what's up man Sanders has ruled out one bigger leap you don't want to coach in the NFL not one bit why not it's hard for me to coach a person that makes a lot of money that does not truly love the game that blessed me and I don't want to go to jail what do you go to jail for because I'm gonna jump on somebody I will come out at halftime with half the team it's that effective we'll go in and have the team will come back out at halftime if you had a bunch of guys dogging it it's exactly do it I just challenged a walk when I say do you walk on you're supposed to be trying to get my attention and you chilling I said you're gonna be a walk-off if you do that one more time not a walk or you'll be able to walk off what's the significance of winning to Deion Sanders let's just say Vince Lombardi never put it quite like this 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 baby we will win we smell like winning around him you know when you saw us on the practice field you 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 during well you had to call somebody to say hey man I said that goes Prime baby something about him something so he's magnetic I'm gonna win but not only when I'm gonna dominate that's what I do that's who I am

Channel: 60 Minutes

Views: 2,155,992

Keywords: 60 Minutes, CBS News, Deion Sanders, Jackson State University, HBCU, College Football

Id: Jz1YfvAw5Ow

Length: 13min 13sec (793 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 17 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/mlavan]

That leg is a jarring image. Like holy shit.

[u/TakeThePoints]

He’s not SWAC…I’m SWAC

[u/mikebailey]

Dude has had a lot of controversy recently for someone who ultimately seems like a good person, hope the 60 minutes goes well. Not just the SWAC but also accusing media of code switching in an interview.