Last July, Colorado Buffaloes head football coach Deion Sanders held a press conference to disclose that he’d undergone surgery to remove a bladder tumor.
Dr. Janet Kukreja, the University of Colorado Cancer Center’s director of urological cancer, confirmed that Sanders was “cured of cancer.”
While sharing his diagnosis with the world, Sanders said: “Men, everybody, get checked out, because if it wasn’t for me getting tested for something else, they wouldn’t have stumbled upon this.”
Sanders, affectionately known as “Coach Prime,” is still staying on top of his health and shared an update after Colorado’s spring game at Folsom Field on Saturday.
“Colorado football coach Deion Sanders recently went to the hospital for another procedure to treat recurring issues with blood clots, but said he’s ‘good’ now and planning on sticking around Boulder this summer, unlike last year when he was recovering from bladder cancer,” Brent Schrotenboer reported for USA Today.
Sanders’ transparency around his faltering health is courageous, and it’s especially profound because he was once viewed as immortal.
Coaching at Colorado is the second time Sanders became a seminal figure in college football. First, he was a two-time All-American defensive back at Florida State, leading the Atlanta Falcons to select him No. 5 overall in the 1989 NFL Draft.
Sanders starred in MLB and the NFL simultaneously in the nineties. The six-time All-Pro won two Super Bowls as a cornerback, one with the San Francisco 49ers and one with the Dallas Cowboys.
In 1996, with the Cowboys, Sanders became the first NFL player to become a regular two-way starter in 34 years, per ESPN at the time. Sanders was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011.
Now, Sanders’ next mountain to climb is reviving the magic he brought to Boulder when the Buffaloes went 9-4 in 2024, with Shedeur Sanders at quarterback. Colorado went 3-9 last season.
“We’re going to make it better,” Sanders said on Saturday. “We already have with the staff as well as the players that are inside the locker room. I love it. I love that everyday grind of it.”
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