Father-son relationships often feature as much competitiveness as anything else, especially in the households of professional athletes. For the NFL Hall of Famer and head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes, Deion Sanders, that means keeping an unofficial depth chart for his own sons.
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Now that his boys have joined the likes of their respective NFL rosters, the former Atlanta Falcon is making sure to do his due diligence as both a father and as a former coach by calling to check in on them. Ironically enough, for Sanders’ oldest son, Shilo, that phone came while he was live streaming on Twitch.
After the Tampa Bay Buccaneer suggested that Coach Prime was well aware of the fact that he was at the top of his “Best Son” rankings, Sanders asked him, “When was the last time you bought me a gift?” The second that Shilo responded by exclaiming the same, the all-time DB promptly changed gears from coach to father, and began listing out recent favors that he had done for his son as a parent.
“I just built a big, dern beautiful room for you, which you streamed in last time you were in Texas, did you tell them about that? You got a football field downstairs, tennis court, basketball court, you got everything right here.”
The former Buffalo defender jokingly argued that Sanders had built all of these things out of a desire to “enjoy the family,” asserting that “I’m the family… You just want to use me as entertainment. “
Sanders corrected him by stating, “I invested in you, so you can enjoy that.”
When Shilo said that his dad wanted him to come over for breakfast just so he could sit there and look at him, Coach Prime jokingly explained his reasoning for wanting his son to be up in the morning for breakfast.
“Get up and start your day. Any man who’s asleep after seven is not a man, you’re a child. I promise you. You don’t got nowhere to go, no responsibilities? You asleep after seven o’clock day after day, something’s wrong. Women, if yo man sleeps past seven am, leave him… Unless he’s on the night shift.”
When your father is an NFL Hall of Famer, you’re likely to have some expectations set before you. For Shilo Sanders, that means hearing his father accuse him of trying to live “a rapper’s life.”
Shilo tried to defend himself, claiming that he still manages to get to the team’s facility an hour early, adding that the mini-camp is only three days long as it is. Sanders again corrected him.
“You know I got the report. I know what time you’re supposed to get up, you do know that, right?”
According to the two-time Super Bowl champion, we should all be striving to be “the one that wakes the rooster up to tell him to say cock-a-doodle-doo.” While the behavior may get old for his son, the phone call may provide the Buccaneer’s personnel with a bit more confidence in Sanders as a prospect.
Considering that they signed him to a three-year, $2.96-million contract, it should be comforting to know that there’s more than just the team’s coaches to keep him in line.
