Op-Ed: Deion Sanders maintains priorities and shows it's not all about winning
A month ago, while Travis Hunter was still nursing a lacerated liver, he picked up the phone and made a direct appeal to Deion Sanders regarding his return timetable.
“I need to play this week, we need to do whatever we can so I can get on the field, I’m not taking no for an answer," Sanders relayed at a press conference.
At this point in the season, the downslide had begun in the middle of the "murderers’ row" within their schedule. If he could've been out there, one could see how any coach would entertain bringing the kid back early. Coach Prime would not entertain the request. Not for a moment, but for the future.
“No, you ain’t ready and I care more about you than I do this game," Sanders texted back. "You’re gonna change the game of football one day when you’re healthy and ready. Your future is brighter than mine ever will be or was. Relax and get healthy, I love you son.”
Being able to sit the star player when they might be good enough to go is not the road always traveled. There are two incredible examples of what happened in the last week at the NFL level. This past week's Thursday Night Football, a seemingly healthy Joe Burrow dropped back intending to pass the ball to a shallow receiver. It wasn't a difficult throw for a player of Burrow’s talent. With the football not a foot-length removed from his fingertips, his entire wrist looked to cease function at the same time. The entire process with structure, muscle strength, and ligament control went lights out in an instant. At that point, Burrow walked off in agony and his night was done. We later discovered he was done for the year.
Where this gets interesting is firsthand accounts revealing that Burrow had been in a wrist brace prior to the game. Which would suggest he started that TNF game with a “its good enough to go” mindset.
Was it though? Burrow has been fighting a multitude of injuries this season. How important was a TNF game against a Baltimore Ravens team that was playing almost as well as anyone? Does Cincinnati want to win that game? Of course, they do. If they win that game, does it put them in a significantly better situation? Yes. But if Burrow is not good to go, wouldn’t it be better to lose him for a week or two hoping that’s all it is? Is it worth playing him in a game that will take everything to win and risk losing him for the remaining seven games and all but ensure them missing the playoffs?
On the other end of Ohio, DeShaun Watson and the Cleveland Browns find themselves in a similar fate. Going into last Sunday’s game, the Browns had twice as many wins as losses on the strength of the league’s top-ranked defense. Their success had little to do with Watson’s play, as he was previously sidelined for a month of games due to a microfracture in his shoulder. A few weeks later he attempted to come back. Despite multiple doctor’s citing that injury will not recover without at least three months of inactivity. That return was not successful and he was out another week. Then, Watson did return, putting up a 14-14 second half.
A perfect performance and arguably the best stretch he’s had as a Cleveland Brown. Days later while the media was still singing the praises of his second half performance, the NFL learned that Watson re-injured his shoulder and was done for the year. Even with a team who has only had one playoff relevant season in almost 30 years, and a playoff caliber defense, allowing the star player to rush back might have doomed their season.
Coach Prime’s decision to sit Hunter down for the required time displays a difference in priority structure. Maybe that’s the result of professional football money, or maybe it’s another example of how Sanders is just built differently.
Many in the national media were proclaiming the hype ship was sinking. It would’ve been understandable even if ill advised to let Hunter come back early, if he thought he could go. Prime did not waver on his stance of waiting until he was completely ready to go. A decision that Zac Taylor and Kevin Stefanski probably wish they would’ve made.
As events transpired in Colorado's game at Washington State, Coach Prime proved his intentions were consistent. To say Shedeur was under constant duress would not come as a shock to anyone the way this season has gone. On an early sack, Shedeur was winding up to throw the ball deep when a Washington State pass rusher looked to fold up Shedeur’s throwing arm. He left the field but didn’t enter the tent. It appeared Shedeur was struggling to grip the ball. Despite the fact Colorado was facing a three-score deficit and a five-game losing streak, Shedeur did not re-enter the game.
Sanders was just a spectator and teammate come halftime. Prime’s locker room message to the team was “we just have to keep fighting, there is no quit in this team." Regardless of the extent of Shedeur’s injury, what is known is that once again Coach Prime made the right decision.
Despite the win total, bowl status, and what the outsiders will say about the season... it didn't matter. Sanders kept the health and safety of his players above the immediacy of winning a game.
