“First Time In My Life Where Somebody Didn’t Want Me”: Deion Sanders Reveals How Atlanta Made Him a Mature Human Being

To this day, Atlanta Falcons supporters imagine a scenario in which their team wouldn’t have let Deion Sanders enter free agency in the summer of 1994. While Falcons faithful look back at that time with regret, Coach Prime sees it as a pivotal moment that kicked off his personality development.

Deion Sanders recently appeared on ‘We Got Time Today,’ where host and veteran comedian Luenell asked him a simple yet deeply introspective question: “When did you make the change from being ‘Neon’, ‘Deion’, ‘Prime Time’ and all that into being a real man?”

Interestingly enough, Coach Prime recalled that moment as the day when the Falcons refused to re-sign him after five years.

Deion, who joined the Falcons in 1989, reflected on how it was the first time in his life that somebody rejected him. Until then, Coach Prime had nothing but success in college football and high school. Even his five years with the Falcons were exceptional on an individual level. Considering he also had his MLB debut around that time [1989], Sanders was the literal definition of superstardom.

For someone unfamiliar with professional failure, Coach Prime found it hard to believe that. Despite his willingness to extend his contract with the Falcons, Atlanta decided against it. “The maturation probably came in Atlanta because that was the first time in my life where somebody didn’t want me… They choose you, but then they don’t resign you,” he stated.

“That’s like telling you I don’t want you… So that was hard to handle for a young G that thought he was it. So then I had to regroup and look at mirror and say, I got to go get it because I’ve been told that they don’t want me. And that’s one of the hardest things you could deal with in sports.”

What happened after the rejection? Sanders ended up joining the 49ers in free agency that year and went on to win the Super Bowl in 1995. Hearing Prime open up about his exit from the Falcons makes his Super Bowl win an epic comeback in fans’ eyes. Unsurprisingly, netizens let Prime know how proud they are of him.

A few, however, disagreed with Prime, particularly the part where he mentioned rejection as the hardest thing to deal with in sports. They believed rejection is tough to deal with, irrespective of one’s profession.

Meanwhile, Falcons fans continued to regret letting Deion go.

The popular belief is that the Falcons-Sanders exit was due to a mismatch in ambition. However, hearing Coach Prime express his desire to extend with Atlanta gives us a new perspective on the topic.

It’s truly intriguing to imagine how Deion’s career might have turned out if he had continued to play for Atlanta. Maybe the perception we have of both Sanders and the Falcons would’ve been very different if the two had never parted ways. Or maybe the breakup was necessary to help Deion develop into the player he is today. Food for thought!