A byproduct of social media is the constant need to declare our beliefs. We work to refine our thoughts on love, science, existence, afterlife and what really matters while we spin underneath this heat lamp. In that way, it just feels unfair that Deion Sanders has wedged himself into the mix. We simply don’t have the bandwidth.
I don’t know whether I believe in Sanders. I don’t know if it’s my job to decide whether I believe in him. Though I do believe that there is something of a dicey history of mortals who command belief in themselves from others, especially only after beating TCU without Tre Tomlinson, Max Duggan, Quentin Johnston, Derius Davis, Kendre Miller and Steve Avila, who are all off to the NFL. At least make Sanders conjure a banquet out of a few loaves and fishes first.
But here’s what I do believe about the Hall of Famer and six-time All-Pro: If he keeps winning, we won’t have a choice, and this kind of loud success, regardless of what level of football it’s occurring at, will eventually disrupt the NFL hiring process. I’m not saying Sanders will get an NFL coaching job, but I am saying that someone like him might get an NFL coaching job if Colorado runs the table. I’m saying owners who don’t understand why Sanders wouldn’t make sense for the NFL are going to start looking for the next Deion Sanders and find themselves on the receiving end of a bad hangover and a large buyout.
Greg Nelson/Sports Illustrated
Just when we thought we were out of it too, right? We saw just how easy it was for an owner to pivot from watching an NFL pregame show to, a few weeks later, having one of its panelists installed as a full-time head coach. Jeff Saturday is not an entirely fair comparison for Sanders, who cut his teeth at the FCS level before ascending to Division I, but it’s a realistic projection. How many owners will be willing to microwave that essential part of the process—actually learning how to coach—to expedite the desired result?
The ouster of Urban Meyer from the NFL was supposed to be the end of the I-Alone-Can-Fix-It coach at the professional level. An almost dictatorial approach full of narrative-conjuring and alternate-world creation; a personality with gravitational force, a complete absence—or, perhaps, in Sanders’s case, a beautiful erasure—of that self-awareness that stops you before walking the fine line between Winston Churchill and Michael Scott at Phyllis and Bob Vance’s wedding every time you get up in front of a room.
For the better, it seems the only true survivors and evolvers among NFL coaches are the ones who realize it is not about them in the slightest. Even Bill Belichick, who, for all I know, may go home every night to celebrate his own genius, has spent a career deflecting praise and requesting that everyone else in his purview do the same.
It is nearly impossible to get an entire professional football organization moving in the same direction. There are far too many moving pieces, far too many opportunities for one person to feel left out and jaded, far too many punch-in-the-face moments that render whatever motivational ploy that was laid out in front of the team the night before as grist for some dark comedy. If Sanders went 7–10 one season, his reel of pastoral speeches would begin to feel as empty as Jonathan Gannon’s bus metaphor.
After Meyer, after Jon Gruden commanding everyone to knock on wood, hell, after Joe Judge forcing the team to run wind sprints in the rain after a practice dustup like the District 4 playoffs were on the line and prom was a week away, we saw the vanishing of the traditional football hierarchy, the death of what had been put in place so many years ago by Bear Bryant.
Now, at the professional level, the only means of survival for a coach is some degree (or a large degree) of subservience and kowtowing to the talent. It’s cooperate or die.
I’m not saying Sanders isn’t doing that, too. His offensive coordinator, Sean Lewis, most certainly is, and, by designing an offense so complementary to his personnel, he has already grabbed the attention of some folks at the NFL level.
Players appreciate that. Belief comes from making them rich, getting them involved in the scheme and allowing them to feel like they aren’t just crushed aluminum under your tires. I am not convinced that players would need, or even tolerate, the superfluous elements. The entire Sanders experience.
It’s important owners realize that and reality-check themselves before it’s too late. The temptation will be there the longer Colorado keeps this up. Belief and common sense can coexist peacefully. The danger is when one is swapped out for the other altogether.
