Ravens Cleats From Deion Sanders' Final Game Up For Four-Figure Auction
If you have a spare four figures lying around, you might be able to land an early, Prime Time Christmas gift for the Baltimore Ravens fan in your life.
The cleats that Deion Sanders wore during his final game in the NFL, the last stanza of two seasons with the Ravens, are up for auction from New Jersey-based sports auction house Lelands. As of press time, the bidding, which runs through March 16, is up to $1,464.
Matthew Emmons, USA TODAY SPORTS
Sanders' NFL career ended on New Year's Day in 2006 when the Ravens partook in an otherwise meaningless season finale against the Cleveland Browns. The future Hall-of-Famer, now the head coach of Colorado University's football program, picked up three tackles and a lateral rush for no gain in a 20-16 defeat that closed out a stellar, multi-faceted career that also visited Atlanta, San Francisco, Dallas, and Washington.
The fateful footwear was originally obtained by Tommy Polley, Sanders' teammate at the time. That game also wound up being the final NFL regular season showing for Polley, who explained how the cleats came to be in his possession in a 2020 interview with Tony Reid of Sports Collectors Daily.
"We played Cleveland and I said ‘Let me get those cleats.’ I didn’t even get him to sign them. I should have asked him to sign them," Polley, Sanders' fellow Florida State alum, recalled. "They are still muddy. They have mud all over them. Deion played so long that when I was young I followed his career then I got to play with him. It was surreal. It was one of those things."
Based in Matawan, NJ, Lelands describes itself as "the first sports auction house and the premier appraisers and authenticators in the entire sports collectible hobby." Previous notable auctions include the Boston Garden Auction and The Mickey Mantle Auction of the Greer Johnson Collection, which brought in over $3 million in revenue combined.
