Informative Essay On Deion Luwynn Sanders

Jim Thorpe Award, 1988; NFL Defensive Player of the Year, 1994; eight-time Pro Bowl selection; six-time first-team All-Pro; inducted into Pro Football Hall of Fame, 2011.

Born Deion Luwynn Sanders on August 9, 1967, in Fort Myers, FL; son of Constance Knight; married Carolyn Chambers (divorced); married Pilar Biggers (a model and actress), 1999; children: (first marriage) Diondra and Deion Jr.; (second marriage) three. Education: Attended Florida State University, 1985-88. Addresses: Office--c/o Pro Football Hall of Fame, 2121 George Halas, Canton, OH 44708.

Deion Sanders is among the most celebrated, and controversial, professional athletes in modern American sports. Known for his blazing speed, Sanders remains best known as a Hall-of-Fame NFL cornerback, who won Super Bowl titles with both the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys. At the same time, Sanders enjoyed a long and

respectable baseball career, most notably as an outfielder for the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds. Sanders is the only man in history to participate in both a Super Bowl and a World Series, and the the first athlete ever to hit a home run in a professional baseball game and score a touchdown in a professional football game in the same week. Even as he garnered accolades for his talent and versatility, however, Sanders achieved equal notoriety for his outsized personality, rankling opponents, members of the press, and fans with his cocky self-assurance and confrontational style. In fact, Sanders earned his nickname, "Prime Time," when he was still in high school. The name summed up his goal: to be a "prime time" athlete, at once famous, wealthy, and universally admired. Furthermore, Sanders's uninhibited drive for fame led him to adorn himself with gold and bright clothes, and drive a fleet of expensive cars, behavior that led to occasional quarrels with those who made an issue of his ostentatious behavior.

Yet Sanders was never one to apologize for his mode of dress or his opinions. From the day he left Florida State University as the fifth player selected in the 1989 NFL draft, he cut a controversial swath across two sports. "Hey, all my life I be the man," he declared in Sports Illustrated. "I mean, I've been in the spotlight at every level. It's just a bigger spotlight. I learned the system in college. How do you think defensive backs get attention? . . . They don't pay nobody to be humble. Some people will come out to see me do well. Some people will come out to see me get run over. But love me or hate me, they're going to come out. I'm a businessman now, and the product is me. Prime Time."

Displayed Early Athletic Prowess

Deion Luwynn Sanders was born in Fort Myers, Florida, on August 9, 1967.

Raised in a poor section of the city, Sanders found escape in his drive for athletic success. "It would've been easy for me to sell drugs," he remarked in Esquire. "But I had practice. My friends who didn't have practice, they went straight to the streets and never left." Sanders began playing football with a Pop Warner youth league team at the age of eight, and he eventually played football, basketball, and baseball in high school.

Throughout these years, Sanders developed a rigorous work ethic to complement his indomitable will to excel. "Let me tell you something," Sanders told Esquire. "The best athletes in the world end up at home on the corner. Oh you bet they do. I call them Idas." He elaborated: "'If I'da done this, I'd be here today.' 'If I'da practiced a little harder, damn, I'd be a superstar.' They'll be standing on that corner till they die telling you all the things they woulda done. I see 'em all the time. Guys who were as fast as me when we were

kids."

During his high school years, Sanders received crucial guidance from an unlikely source: a drug dealer whom he described only as his "uncle." In fact, this glamorous, jewelry-laden man was instrumental in convincing Sanders to stay away from drugs entirely. In fact, Sanders did not smoke or drink as a teenager. "See, in my hometown, [drug dealing] was the community job," Sanders recalled in Sports Illustrated. "You graduated from high school to the streets and became a drug dealer." Sanders added that he was trying to show youngsters that one can earn the flashy jewelry and trappings of wealth without breaking the law. "Kids from the streets . . . look up to drug dealers," he said. "But I'm showing them something else. . . . I'm proving you can do it on the right side."

Elevated His Game on National Stage

Sanders was heavily recruited out of high school. In the end, he elected to attend Florida State University. Although a left-handed option quarterback in high school, Sanders converted to defense and special teams on the college level. "Anybody can play wide receiver," Sanders asserted in Sports Illustrated. "I wanted to be special." He wanted to be so special, in fact, that when he first arrived at the Florida State campus in Tallahassee, he was driving a car with "Prime Time" emblazoned on the front license plate. Although this cockiness alienated some people, Sanders began to earn respect on the field almost immediately. By the time he had played out his career at Florida State, he had scored six touchdowns on punt or interception returns and was named an All-American two times. In his final year of collegiate ball, he led the country in yardage for punt returns with a 15.2 yard average, en route to earning the Jim Thorpe Award as the best defensive back in the nation.

Sanders also achieved new heights for audacity, both on and off the field. During the halftime show of a blowout victory against South Carolina University, he began shouting directly at the South Carolina fans, suggesting that they ought to ask for their money back. Another time, he prepared for a punt return by announcing to the Clemson Tiger bench: "This one's going back!" He proceeded to run 76 yards for a touchdown, then struck a long pose in the end zone. Most galling of all for his opponents, Sanders performed this feat at Clemson's home field, in front of a hostile crowd.

What ultimately caught the eye of sportswriters and professional scouts, however, was Sanders's sheer ability. Sports Illustrated reporter Albert Kim called the cocky cornerback "one of the best defensive back prospects pro scouts have ever seen." Football, however, was not the only sport Sanders conquered in college. He also played baseball, helping Florida State to a fifth-place finish in the 1987 college World Series, and ran the 400-meter for the university track team. His highest personal achievement, however, came in the 1987 Fiesta Bowl, in which he helped lead Florida State to victory over Nebraska 31-28. That year, Florida State finished the season ranked second in the nation behind the perennial power, Miami University, due in no small part to the play of the team's electrifying cornerback and returner.

At the same time, Sanders attracted attention from professional baseball scouts, and in 1988 he was drafted by the New York Yankees. A year later, while playing in the minors, he was selected by the Atlanta Falcons with the fifth overall pick of the 1989 NFL draft. Sanders immediately assumed a bold negotiating stance toward the Falcons. After the draft, Atlanta offered Sanders $400,000; he countered by