Deion Sanders knows better than anybody the amount of scrutiny you can face as a high-profile figure in the sports world these days. The 58-year-old Hall of Fame cornerback has been the Colorado Buffaloes’ head coach over the past three seasons, leading a program that had struggled in recent times and helping mold them into a winner. The Buffaloes went to a bowl game during the 2024 season after a 9-4 season, marking their first winning year and bowl game appearance since the 2016 season.
Shedeur Sanders — Deion’s son — was at the forefront of that season as the team’s starting quarterback. After being projected as a first-round draft pick — if not one of the top picks — Shedeur fell down draft boards all the way to the fifth round to the Cleveland Browns.
Shedeur entered the 2025 season as the Browns’ third quarterback behind the likes of Joe Flacco and Dillon Gabriel. However, he eventually gained the starting job and ended the year as the starting quarterback, finishing the season with seven touchdowns against 10 interceptions while going 3-4 as the starting quarterback.
“Well, of course, I’m his dad,” said Sanders “No, I haven’t spoken to him (said Sanders, sarcastically). I’m just dad. Of course, man. He’s gonna face haters like he’s always had. He’s not gonna face anything new that he hasn’t faced in the entirety of his life. He’s always been up against the eight ball. He’s always been really undervalued, not really appreciated like he should, and he always comes through. He likes when odds are stacked up against him.”
Shedeur didn’t have a perfect season, but considering the Browns were one of the worst teams in the NFL — he took over the team when they were just 2-8 on the year — he played pretty solid.
The 24-year-old entered this offseason engaged in a quarterback competition with Deshaun Watson, who was the starting quarterback prior to suffering a torn Achilles injury. The Browns just traded reigning Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett, which means expectations won’t be high once again. However, if Sanders can cement himself as the full-time starter by winning the job over Watson, we could see tremendous strides from the young quarterback in his second season.
Deion Sanders partners with Depend for bladder bancer awareness during Men’s Health Month
Courtesy of Deion Sanders and Depend
While Sanders will be concentrated on trying to rebound the Buffaloes after their disappointing 3-9 seasons, he’s partnering once again with Depend for Men’s Health Month to launch the “Prime Wake Up Call” campaign. The initiative encourages men to stop delaying health screenings for early detection with bladder cancer. Sanders himself dealt with invasive bladder cancer last year before surgery removed any threat of cancer.
“It’s Men’s Health Month, we gotta take action, man,” said Sanders. “Early detection really saved my life tremendously. But we gotta take action as men to to make sure we get in there and get detected. We sometimes shy away from going to the doctors, laying on the table, and getting done what we need done, because we’re men, where the bravado ends up in us, and we don’t understand. Lay your butt down and get you a check up to make sure we’re straight. Thank God I was going in there for something else, and the detection helped me out tremendously, saved my life.”
He said the partnership doesn’t just hit close to home for him and his family, but people everywhere. Sanders said he meets people all of the time that has dealt with bladder cancer and is glad that he’s speaking up about detecting it early.
“Not only people close to me, I mean people all over,” said Sanders. “We just did Good Morning America and one guy was on the set. He said he was just diagnosed not too long ago, and thank God someone is out there speaking out and sounding the trumpets and making sure men feel a bit of normalcy when it comes to that. Because this happens every day. There’s a multitude of diagnoses every day, and it’s not a life sentence. You can deal with it, you can overcome it, and all that adversity.”
One of the notable things about this partnership is that Sanders is on the cover of the Depend Real Fit Packaging for the first time.
“I’m happy about that, I’m elated about that,” said Sanders about being on the cover. “It’s a little bragging rights between me and my kids. We talk junk, and I talk all the time, ‘Go to Walmart and see your daddy.’ Stuff like that. I like that. My mom is tremendously elated because she uses the product as well as certain family members, so I’m happy about it.”
Deion Sanders knows better than anybody the amount of scrutiny you can face as a high-profile figure in the sports world these days. The 58-year-old Hall of Fame cornerback has been the Colorado Buffaloes’ head coach over the past three seasons, leading a program that had struggled in recent times and helping mold them into a winner.
