Generally, when you see Deion Sanders or hear about him, it’s usually something positive or exciting. That’s just the way Coach Prime (formerly Neon Deion, for his love of the limelight) operates. But during this past offseason, he faced a far tougher opponent than ever before: cancer.
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And there’s no doubt this diagnosis made it hard for Sanders to keep his usual sunny disposition. But he managed to do it anyway, even while facing a high-risk, non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. This is one of the more aggressive types of the disease, with a staggering 50 percent chance of recurrence. And that’s not exactly comforting, no matter who you are.
Coach Prime’s doctors gave him a clear choice: undergo 36 weeks (nine months) of chemotherapy to target the cancerous cells, or have his bladder removed entirely.
As he explained to ABC host and Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Strahan on Good Morning America recently, Sanders went with the second option. The one that would offer finality and closure.
“The surgery to aggressively try to go get it all. Like right now… I prayed on it. I’m aggressive, man. I ain’t waiting! I ain’t sitting back on the curb waiting! To slowly but surely do whatever’s gonna happen. No, let’s go right now! Let’s go get this thing!” Sanders recalled.
According to the report by GMA, the surgery required the doctor to not only remove Sanders’ bladder entirely, but also recreate a new one using other parts of the body, including his intestine. After the first, more minor surgery, Sanders was already feeling the pain.
“I remember lying there, and they said, ‘Well, you need to go try to pee.’ That was the most excruciating pain I’ve ever felt in my life. I remember, just on the ground, in the bathroom, and I’m just screaming. Because it was so much pain. I’m like, ‘You got to be kidding me.'”
Despite that, when Strahan asked Coach Prime if he had any regrets, he said, “No.”
Now that the surgery is done successfully, Sanders can start putting this whole ordeal behind him. The only drawback, he says, is that there’s no more taking the easy route when nature calls.
“It’s just, when I gotta pee, I gotta pee, man! It’s not that you can just stand up in front of the toilet and you can just pee. You’ve got to push through your abs and everything and just push it down and try to force it out.”
Deion Sanders made a brave choice, and it seems like it’s paying off … if the only side effect is a more dedicated and prepared route to the urinal.
He has been on the sideline for every game so far this season, and the Colorado Buffaloes sit at 2-2 in the post-Travis Hunter/Shedeur Sanders era in 2025. No doubt that record could have looked a lot worse if Sanders had been missing practices and games for a chemotherapy routine.
