By PAT GRAHAM AP Sports Writer
DENVER (AP) — Deion Sanders got right to the point in a segment of his new television series: “I couldn’t coach pro ball,” the Colorado Buffaloes coach maintained.
In his show, “We Got Time Today” that streams on Tubi, Sanders chatted with former Dallas Cowboys teammate and fellow Hall of Famer Troy Aikman about a wide variety of topics. They reminisced about their Super Bowl experience and touched on Sanders’ chat with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones concerning the Dallas head coaching vacancy. The team ended up hiring Brian Schottenheimer.
Sanders pointed out the differences at practices from their time to now. Sanders highlighted how Aikman didn’t want a ball to touch the ground, how Sanders didn’t want to surrender a catch, how Michael Irvin wouldn’t let a ball drop and how Emmitt Smith hit the hole and ran 20 or 30 yards after every play.
“That’s the way we practiced,” Sanders said in a recent installment of his show. “I know it’s cute but I couldn’t coach pro ball. The way they practice, the way they go about it, I couldn’t take it — as a man, and as a football enthusiast. I care about the game. … There’s no way I could allow that to happen on my watch. That would be tough.”
Aikman added that Sanders in charge of the Cowboys would “make a lot of sense.”
“I was asked a lot of questions about how do you think Deion would do?” Aikman recounted. “I said, ‘I think Deion would do great.’ There are a small handful of people that I know that I just simply would not bet against. And Deion is one of those handful of people. He’s proven it at every stop. He’d be successful in the NFL.”
Aikman said he understood how Sanders could make more of an impact on the college level.
“You’re not impressing upon young men the way that you are in college, but to suggest that he wouldn’t be good at it or successful at it, I don’t think people really know Deion’s story,” said Aikman, who won a Super Bowl with Sanders following the 1995 season. “I think that for Dallas, Deion would’ve been a really good fit, because he would’ve commanded the room. His personality is such that people would’ve know he was in charge. I think that’s important for any organization to know that the head coach is the one who’s calling the shots and he’s in charge.”
Sanders and the Buffaloes are coming off a 9-4 season in which they earned a spot in the Alamo Bowl. Sanders has big holes to fill after losing Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter and his QB son, Shedeur Sanders. Both are expected to be high picks in the upcoming NFL draft.
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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football