USAT: Cowboys Wire audio clip

USAT: Cowboys Wire

Mar 10, 2022

Deion Sanders turned 2021 on its head. Before it was over, though, the year had retaliated to knock the six-time All-Pro flat. And it took a piece of him that the electrifying Hall of Famer will never get back. - The former Cowboys cornerback has revealed that he had two toes on his left foot amputated in the fall after a frighteningly close call with blood clots that followed an earlier surgery. - Sanders, 54, underwent a procedure in September for a dislocated toe and an inflamed nerve. He came back to the sideline as head coach at Jackson State University using a golf cart, crutches, and a push scooter. But his toes did not seem to be healing properly, so he returned to the doctor. - The prognosis couldn’t have been more dire. - “They were talking about the amputation of toes,” Sanders explained in an episode of his Coach Prime series on Barstool Sports. “Then they were talking about the amputation of my leg from the knee down. Then they were trying to ensure I had life.” - Sanders was wheeled into surgery once again, taking him away from his Tigers team just as they were orchestrating a dramatic reversal of fortune on the field. - Sanders had taken the head coaching position there in 2020. It was the latest stop in a one-of-a-kind sporting career, one that saw him become the only athlete ever to play in both a Super Bowl and a World Series. After 14 stellar seasons in the NFL- including five with the Cowboys- and nine years of part-time play in Major League Baseball, Sanders took to the airwaves as an analyst for CBS Sports and NFL Network. - After getting into coaching as his sons rose through the ranks of youth football, Sanders was hired by Jackson State in the Southwestern Athletic Conference of the FCS. His sons Shilo and Shedeur currently play for the school. - Sanders’s Tigers went just 4-3 in an abbreviated 2020 season that was delayed until spring 2021 due to COVID. In the school’s regularly scheduled fall season, though, the program blossomed. They went 9-0 in conference play and 11-2 overall en route to a conference title. - Along the way, Sanders catapulted the school into the national spotlight, even flipping the nation’s number one high school recruit from his own alma mater of Florida State to Jackson State. In the process, the attention Sanders brought to the Tigers trickled out to HBCUs across the country. By January of this year, HBCUs even had their own scouting combine- attended by all 32 NFL teams- in an effort to create a wider path to the pros for deserving players from the often lesser-known institutions. - But much of that remarkable revolution happened while Sanders himself was confined to a hospital bed. - The eight-time Pro Bowler was diagnosed with a femoral arterial blood clot, a life-threatening condition. He was admitted to the intensive care unit. A check into his family medical history uncovered blood clots suffered by several of Sanders’s relatives. In one case, it had been fatal. - Sanders himself developed compartment syndrome, a dangerous swelling of the affected leg. Doctors had to perform emergency surgery, flaying open his leg to drain fluid from it. A series of follow-up procedures ended with the amputation of the big toe and second toe on the former speedster’s left foot. - “The hardest thing of it all was to look down there,” Sanders said, “and see that and understand that once upon a time you was this type of athlete and this, and you don’t even know if you’re going to walk because all you feel is pain.” - - I told y’all we were gonna show it all in this documentary and that’s what this is. I got to warn ya This ain’t a pretty sight! I may have lost a couple soldiers in the battle but I never lost my faith in God! @barstoolsports @SMAC pic.twitter.com/dkjD83IAnL - — COACH PRIME (@DeionSanders) March 8, 2022 - - - Over three weeks in the hospital. A total of eight surgeries. And a couple of lost “soldiers,” as Sanders called them. - Cameras were there to document his release from doctors’ care and his return home to begin the frequently humbling work of physical recovery. One of the most gifted athletes the world has ever seen suddenly couldn’t get himself dressed. - “The devil wanted to mess with my mobility,” Sanders said, “But he couldn’t mess with my ability.” - Ability is something Sanders has certainly never lacked. So for the ex-Cowboy who once scored an NFL touchdown and hit a major league home run in the same week, getting himself back up to 100% on eight toes instead of ten is just his next challenge to overcome. - “It’s been a long journey. And nights in the hospital get very long,” Sanders shared. “But I’m on the road back. And when I tell you what God has in store, you have no idea. And I know my God. There’s no way he would have ever allowed me to go through what I’ve gone through not to get to what we’re about to get to.” - - List - - News: Carson Wentz returns to Cowboys lives, Cooper subject of trade talks - - - - - - - - List - - Day 4 winners, losers as DBs close out 2022 combine, Texas boys dominate - - - - - - - - List - - Cowboys trade back, go OL in latest NFL Wire mock draft - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Email - - - - - Sign up - - - - - - - - Like this article? - Sign up for the Cowboys Wire email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning - - - - An error has occured - - - Please re-enter your email address. - - - - - - Thanks for signing up! - - - You'll now receive the top Cowboys Wire stories each day directly in your inbox.

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Mar 17, 2022