RJ Young
FOX Sports National College Football Analyst
Perhaps no NFL proprietor understands the worth of “retaining all of it within the household” higher than Jerry Jones, who obtained to say it in Episode 9 of the hit TV present “Landman.” In a cameo alongside Jon Hamm and Billy Bob Thorton, Jones took 5 minutes to ship a message that would solely come from an actual, true and genuine place.
Playing himself, a wildcat who digs holes within the floor and makes his fortune, Jones instructed the true story of his daughter Charlotte who leaves Arkansas to check at Stanford. He could not bear to be so distant from her for such a protracted time period, so he took up and moved to Palo Alto, California to be near her. The solely means he might have made a transfer like that was if he had the possibility to coach on the market too. So he did. He discovered land close to Brentwood, California.
“I purchased 25 heaps like I wished to construct 25 homes, besides I drilled 4 gasoline wells,” Jones mentioned. “And these 4 gasoline wells in 18 months paid me sufficient cash to purchase the Dallas Cowboys. Paying consideration to my children truly led me to become involved in my life’s ardour. And all alongside, all I used to be attempting to do it was being near my daughter.”
All Deion Sanders has at all times tried to do is be near his children, and that led to his ardour for teaching soccer.
Never thoughts that Sanders performed with the Cowboys for 5 years, led the workforce to the Super Bowl and was an All-Pro in Dallas. It does not matter that his endlessly residence, a 5,000-acre Country Prime Ranch, is in Canton, Texas. It does not matter that Texas residents do not pay state revenue tax.
No coach in America has a greater understanding of why Jones employs all three of his sons in high-ranking positions inside the Dallas Cowboys. No proprietor higher understands why Deion Sanders wanted to let his sons play on the workforce he coaches.
Not solely did Prime start teaching his personal boys, however he by no means coached a single season of soccer with out his youngest son, Shedeur Sanders – who might be the primary QB off the board within the upcoming 2025 NFL Draft – on his workforce. Shedeur began 47 collegiate video games at quarterback with Deion as head coach. In these video games, Prime and Shedeur are 33-14, with seven of these losses coming collectively in Year 1 in Colorado.
Matching a brand new coach with the quarterback he desires isn’t a brand new idea within the NFL. The Arizona Cardinals did simply that after they signed Kliff Kingsbury, which made Kyler Murray, the person he wished, the No. 1 decide within the 2019 NFL Draft.
Even if Dak Prescott’s four-year, $240 million extension comes into play this season and his no-trade clause remains to be lively, I’ve little question that if Jones desires to see the Cowboys transfer on from Prescott, that is it what’s going to occur. The wage bosses shall be indignant. The analytics idiots will vent and Dallas sports activities radio will speak about it for a whole lot of hours. Prescott and his huge contract aren’t any downside for somebody with Jones’ sort of cash.
Meanwhile, Shedeur will depart Colorado having set each passing file of notice in program historical past. He will even depart as one of the vital standard gamers within the sport.
And there is not any doubt that Shedeur want to proceed enjoying for his father.
In 2021 and 2022, Deion Sanders was consistently out and in of the hospital, having to bear eight surgical procedures throughout that point to take away blood clots that would have proved deadly. Shedeur made it a degree to go to his father each day because the season unfolded in 2021, and through that point his on-court play suffered. Deion missed a number of video games in his son’s first-time head teaching profession, and Shedeur felt his father’s absence.
“Shedeur got here to me and mentioned, ‘Dad, I want you,’” Sanders recollects. “You have to know that he had by no means performed a sport with out me in his life, besides these.”
Is Michael Irvin’s imaginative and prescient for Deion Sanders teaching the Dallas Cowboys lastly changing into a actuality?
After witnessing the struggling of his son’s play, Deion agreed. He had misplaced 30 kilos within the hospital. But he stored his phrase, fragile and weak. He noticed Shedeur throw the game-winning landing move, his son and security Shilo Sanders make the game-winning interception, and his Jackson State Tigers defeat the Southern Jaguars, 21-17.
“I mentioned, ‘God, take a look at you,’” Deion instructed Shannon Sharpe on the “Club Shay Shay” podcast. “(You had) 21 factors on the board with Shedeur making the game-winning move and Shilo making the game-winning interception.”
Deion made 21, the quantity he wore within the NFL and made well-known with the Dallas Cowboys, as a lot part of his picture as his nickname, “Coach Prime.” Where there is a signal to see, Deion Sanders will discover it.
He is the one coach who managed to seem on “Late Night with Seth Meyers”, “CBS This Morning”, a chat present on Tubi – “We Got Time Today” – and a documentary collection on Prime Video. It’s the latter that led him to seem on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” the place he gave a solution about the potential for taking a head teaching job within the NFL.
“The solely means I might think about (teaching within the NFL) is to teach my children,” Deion mentioned Jan. 8.
By January 13, Jones had fired coach Mike McCarthy and introduced in the one man who is perhaps greater than Jones in Texas. FOX Sports’ Jordan Schultz broke the information.
On Monday night time, media members and take artists have been in full swing round information that appeared absurd to most individuals who hadn’t been paying a lot consideration to Prime’s rise by way of the teaching ranks. These are the identical individuals who say this yr’s Heisman Trophy winner, Travis Hunter, a expertise not like any this sport has ever seen, cannot play each methods within the NFL. They overlook that Hunter performed for the one man who did within the trendy NFL and the one man who is aware of what it takes bodily.
Deion mentioned he thinks of Hunter as a fourth son to him, that means Jones must discover a option to not solely add Shedeur to the Dallas Cowboys roster, however Shilo and Hunter as properly. While little doubt stays about when and the place Shedeur and Hunter shall be drafted — the primary spherical — some nonetheless have issues about Shilo’s place within the NFL.
He’s an undersized security who made 137 tackles, pressured 5 fumbles and threw one interception in two seasons in Colorado. His ceiling compares favorably to Bob Sanders when he was the Indianapolis Colts’ field security and a two-time All-Pro.
While Bronny James is perhaps unplayable within the NBA, Shilo can and ought to be on an NFL franchise’s 53-man roster. There is little question in my thoughts that Jones would make the identical concession for Deion that the Los Angeles Lakers made for LeBron James, even when he wished to make his podcast associate his offensive coordinator or head coach, as James did with JJ Redick.
The stars rule and the celebrities make their very own guidelines. Deion Sanders is on the brief record of essentially the most well-known coaches in North America and might be higher within the polls than Los Angeles Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts, Golden State Warriors supervisor Steve Kerr and Ohio State supervisor Ryan Day. In truth , the one coach who is perhaps extra standard than Prime proper now’s Kansas Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, and that is removed from sure.
Knowing what we do with Jones, we should not have any doubt that he has each the facility and the cash to deliver Sanders to the Cowboys – and sure, that features paying the $8 million purchase to make it secure. Could something wanting making Prime the highest-paid coach in faculty soccer, together with an extension, preserve him in Boulder if Jones decides to push for him?
Paying Prime greater than double his present annual wage — $5.7 million — might not minimize him, as USC coach Lincoln Riley, Florida State coach Mike Norvell and Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer they every earn greater than $10 million a yr, in line with United States today.
Paying Prime an analogous quantity to Georgia coach Kirby Smart, who makes greater than $13 million a yr, or Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, who makes greater than $11 million a yr, might make him beat Boulder brass frowns, however that is a a lot better destiny than fading again into oblivion, which is the place Colorado soccer was earlier than Prime arrived.
Colorado’s identification is tied to Deion Sanders, not the opposite means round. We know what occurs to Colorado soccer if he leaves, they usually understand it too. So up the ante or put together for nothingness to be your title once more, Colorado.
Now inform the reality and disgrace the Devil. You knew full properly that Deion Sanders was going to be up for the Dallas Cowboys teaching job. You knew this as a result of that is who Sanders has at all times been. You knew it from the second Sanders jumped out of his chair for the eighth time throughout a youth soccer apply to shortly appropriate a coach. You knew from the second he regarded intently how a lot he cherished his household, knew soccer and had the flexibility to convey the that means that this could at all times be true.
You’ve already made peace with it. If it occurs, you will placed on a cowboy hat, sit in your chair and activate FOX in your Sunday afternoon window to observe Deion Sanders lead Dallas to essentially the most compelling season the group has seen since 1996.
And you’ll smile about it.
RJ Young is a nationwide faculty soccer author and analyst for FOX Sports and host of “The Number One College Football Show” podcast. Follow him to @RJ_Young.
Want nice tales delivered straight to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, observe leagues, groups and gamers to obtain a customized publication each day.
Get extra from College Football Follow your favorites to get data on video games, information and extra
