The agenda was no agenda.
The move?
Simply to connect on a more personal level, presumably with supporters, curiosity-seekers and a smattering of coaches from various levels of football.
Deion Sanders didn’t set a time limit, didn’t pre-screen questions and quite literally did not know upon whom he was ceding video access for questions Thursday during a Zoom session.
Nonetheless, Coach Prime – leader of the undefeated, consensus top-five Jackson State Tigers football program – first posted to his official Twitter account, @DeionSanders, that he would be hosting the interactive session on Instagram, before clarifying the event would be hosted on Zoom.
He supplied the link and the pass code – and did not remotely get to all the questions from a teeming audience that featured myriad coaches, former JSU graduates, a former JSU women’s basketball player, a mother of a football player and countless others.
The event also featured Sanders’ unyielding candor.
“Ninety-five percent of my players will not go to the professional level,” Sanders, a legendary former NFL and MLB standout who's been enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, said, “so I am not focusing on the minority but the majority.”
Don’t split hairs on the 95% -- historical, year over year data point to a number closer to 99% or higher not reaching the NFL – but focus instead on Sanders’ ongoing outreach.
Coach Prime was told by Zoom attendees about his impact on all facets of their lives, especially simply for those seeing a fellow minority uplift and empower minorities in any possible method – be it as a head coach at an Historically Black College and University program (HBCU) – or in his everyday path.
Sanders also revealed that recently the NFL’s final team that had yet to visit the Tigers’ football program had sent an emissary.
“All 32 teams now have been by,” he said. “I was about to put y’all on blast.”
Have discussed this w/ multiple other national media but respect the brilliance of @DeionSanders to host an unprecedented interactive “press conference” today @FootballScoop pic.twitter.com/UiQKDOfkEk
— John Brice (@JohnDBrice1) November 10, 2022
Never afraid to peel back the curtain on his program, Sanders also shined a light on JSU’s approach in recruiting.
“[Our goal is to] Dominate,” Coach Prime said. “We don’t really go after 4- and 5-stars. We attack our needs because our needs promote the value of that young man into your program.
“We didn’t care if it was a 3- 4- 5-star kicker or punter or long-snapper. We just wanted some quality people that are consistent and we went out there and got them and they’ve paid dividends.
“I think Alejandro Mata (the Tigers’ sensational place-kicker) is the only one (among specialists) who was a 4-star and had stars by his name.”
Sanders also kept it real about the approach of both he and his staff to educating players – including, yes, “wearing condoms.”
“We have 13 children from our players, collectively,” Sanders said. “Sometimes these are boys trying to raise young boys and raise young girls which is tough.
“The way we do that is being transparent about our lives and our pitfalls and our highs and lows. I’m going to be naked (wholly transparent) with them.”
Perhaps most interesting, at least pertaining to collegiate athletics, was Sanders’s willingness to acknowledge he is continuing to fight for the JSU program – and, presumably, others – to participate in college football’s tradition-rich but largely old-school postseason bowls scene.
“We’re going to always push to get us to the next level,” Sanders said, when asked about his crusade to get JSU into the NCAA’s Football Bowls Subdivision bowl scene. “Why wouldn’t they wanna have that, because we are gonna travel together as 40,000? It would be phenomenal. I would love that.
“They said if you’re not in FBS, you can’t go to a bowl. Well, change it. Why do all FCS teams have to play in one little playoff? I’m not really sure that’s financially suitable and stable. We are gonna push for change in that realm.”
But first, the Tigers are going to continue their push to repeat as Southwestern Athletic Conference champions Saturday at Alabama A&M and seek to earn an second-straight Celebration Bowl berth for the program, an accomplishment standing as perhaps another new benchmark for Jackson State football.