Deion Sanders went from zero to hero in blockbuster NFL debut after brutal error
Players up and down the NFL are making the debuts – either in the league or for new teams.
Deion Sanders is one of the greatest NFL players to have ever stepped foot onto the gridiron and Prime Time’ finished his 14-year Pro Football Hall of Fame career having won two Super Bowl championships.
Among a whole host of other accolades he was named to eight All-Pro teams and was also named the Defensive Player of the Year in 1994.
But, his NFL debut back on September 10 1989 for the Atlanta Falcons against the Los Angeles Rams – just five days after hitting a home run for the New York Yankees in a 12-2 victory over the Seattle Mariners – started off in brutal fashion.
Part of the Falcons’ special teams unit to start his career, the fifth overall pick in the 1989 NFL Draft muffed his first ever catch off of Dale Hatcher’s 52-yard punt at the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.
Sanders did, however, recover his own fumble before the punt was re-kicked on a penalty, where he returned the ball for 15 yards before being tackled down.
Some early game jitters? Perhaps. But, whatever nerves he may have had inside him coming into the contest were quickly shaken off after that first mishap – well to some degree.
On his next chance at a punt return with 9:52 on the clock in the first quarter of the contest, Hatcher’s 50 yard punt found its way to Sanders once again.
This time, though, he bobbled the punt which saw the ball fall to the ground but was able to quickly re-collect the ball before the opposition beared down on him.
After evading the first tackle, the 22-year-old somehow broke out of the second tackle unscathed despite being wrapped up, before a third defender attempted to get to him, though he missed the tackle entirely.
That was the moment that the former Florida State defensive back was able to put showcase his after-burners and charged 68 yards down the field, faking out men and changing directions several times until he reached the endzone for a touchdown.
That highlight play would set the tone for not just Sanders’ rookie season, but his entire career in the NFL.
During his rookie season in Atlanta, he would record five interceptions for 52 yards, while he had two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery, and 39 solo tackles.
On special teams, he had 28 punt returns for just the one touchdown on debut, and had 725 yards including a long of 72 yards off of just 35 returns.
After five seasons in the state of Georgia, Sanders joined the San Francisco 49ers for the 1994 season.
This would turn out to be arguably the best season of his entire career, where he posted six interceptions of which he returned them for a league-best 303 yards – averaging 50.5 yards per return – and three touchdowns.
One of those touchdowns was a 93-yard return with that season also being the first, and only, year in which he was not involved in kick and punt returns.
The 1994 season was only the second time that Sanders had reached the playoffs in his career, with the Niners going all the way to the Super Bowl where they defeated the San Diego Chargers by a score of 49-26.
But after one season, Sanders departed for the Dallas Cowboys, signing a hugely lucrative seven-year, $35 million deal with a $12.99 million signing bonus, during Week 2 of the 1995 campaign.
This made him the highest-paid defensive player in the league that time.
At that time, the Cowboys had now formed a dynasty with quarterback Troy Aikman, running back Emmitt Smith, and wide receiver Michael Irvin leading the offense, which had yielded two Super Bowl titles in 1992 and 1993, respectively.
Having lost to the 49ers in the 1994 NFC Championship Game, after Sanders got away with what would now be an automatic defensive pass interference on Irvin in the fourth quarter of the highly-competitive contest, Prime Time hoped to achieve back-to-back Super Bowl victories, only this time with Dallas.
Despite not having the best season, only having two interceptions for 34 yards and having a then-career-low 36 combined tackles, the Cowboys had more than enough elite-level talent to finish the season with a 12-4 record.
In the post-season, Jerry Jones‘ team overcame the Philadelphia Eagles – with Sanders scoring a rushing touchdown – and Green Bay Packers to reach the Super Bowl for the third time in four seasons.
There, they would go on to hand the Pittsburgh Steelers a 27-17 defeat, with Sanders having 47 receiving yards as he stepped into the offense, and one punt return for 11 yards.
After five seasons with the Cowboys, Sanders had a one-season cameo with Washington before retiring in 2001. After three years, he returned to football for a further two seasons with the Baltimore Ravens before hanging his cleats up for good aged 38 following the conclusion of the 2005 season.
He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011, and in light of this, Falcons owner Arthur Blank had this to say about Sanders.
“He was an electrifying performer who put fans on the edge of their seats every time he manned his cornerback positoin or dropped back to receive a kickoff or field a punt,” he said in a statement, via ESPN. “Deion is without question, one of the greatest players in the history of the game.”
Though he had a stellar NFL career, Sanders was the complete athlete, and also had a career in professional baseball which he played concurrently with football from 1989-2001, missing just the 1996, 1998 and 1999 MLB seasons for football.
He spent time in the majors with the New York Yankees, Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants.
Playing nine seasons in the league for a total of 641 games and 2,123 ABs, Sanders had a career WAR of 5.5, 558 hits, 72 of which were doubles and 43 triples, while he also had 168 RBIs, 186 stolen bases and 39 home runs.
With his ability to play multiple sports at the top level, and even dabbled in a music career, there is little dispute that Sanders was a one-of-one-type player, with freakish athleticism, speed and IQ, especially when on the football field.
As such, it came as a surprise to few that he wound up in coaching, now the head coach of the college football team Colorado Buffaloes, having joined the team in 2023 from Jackson State.
In his first two seasons, he had sons Shedeur – who is a rookie quarterback for the Cleveland Browns – and Shilo on the team, as well as Travis Hunter, who has set himself the goal of becoming the NFL’s version of Shohei Ohtani as a true dual-way player.
During that time he had a 13-11 record. Now, he enters year three just months after announcing he was privately battling cancer, and has already tagged on another victory after the Buffs defeated Delaware 31-7 on Saturday night.
Sanders’ legacy on sport in general, and especially football, is undeniable and we may never ever see a talent like him ever again.
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