Colorado football coach Deion Sanders has seemingly made the impossible possible just two games into his stint in Boulder. However, there’s at least one emerging possibility that Coach Prime has deemed impossible – moving to the NFL.
Sanders appeared on “The Rich Eisen Show” on Friday, where he was asked about NFL teams potentially inquiring about his services. Coach Prime shot down the idea with just five words (3:41 mark).
“I would never do that,” the Colorado coach told Eisen.
“I love college. I love that the young men are still impressionable. They’re not so financially wealthy that they can’t hear you. At the next level, some of these guys make so much money they can’t hear.”
Sanders said that it would be a much more difficult task to motivate men making upwards of 20 million dollars. The 56-year-old stated that he’s already anticipating the problems he would have if he was ever put in that position.
Sanders spoke of envisioning himself coaching an NFL game with a full 53-man roster, then coming out of the halftime break “with about 38” after a presumably stern reprimand in the locker room.
On the one hand, there are indeed coaches who appear better suited for the college ranks rather than the NFL. Alabama’s Nick Saban comes to mind as a high-profile example. More recently, Kliff Kingsbury and Urban Meyer flamed out of the NFL the past two seasons after moving on from successful NCAA coaching stints at Texas Tech and Ohio State, respectively.
Sanders has also proven himself to be stellar at the recruiting element of college football. Sanders’ recruiting efforts would be limited by a salary cap and his team owner’s pockets in the NFL. For what it’s worth, Sanders has so far been an expert troll against his college coaching rivals.
But on the other hand, Sanders may be selling himself short. If there’s any type of coach who NFL stars will think twice about tuning out, it’s a larger-than-life Hall of Famer with six First-Team All-Pro selections.
For now though, Sanders can enjoy his 2-0 start with Colorado without worrying too much about his future.