Deion

Colorado coach Deion Sanders returned to Buffaloes football practice Wednesday — just as Coach Prime said he would 24 hours earlier when he announced he would be undergoing a surgical procedure later that day related to blood clot issues.

A video posted by his eldest son, Deion Sanders, Jr., on his “Well Off Media” YouTube channel Wednesday starts with a clip of Sanders going into surgery. Then, after indicating a 16-hour time jump, the video shows Sanders walking briskly, if perhaps a little gingerly, through the Buffaloes’ indoor practice facility. He is offered a cart but apparently turns it down.

Much of the rest of the eight-minute video shows clips from the team’s practice. Sanders stays on the move, with his walking appearing a bit more labored as practice continues. Sanders is not seen at what appears to be the end of practice, as another coach addresses the players.

A spokesperson for Colorado football told The Times on Wednesday afternoon that the team expects Sanders to coach the Buffaloes on Saturday during their home game against No. 22 Iowa State.

No other information has been released on the surgery or Sanders’ condition.

During his weekly news conference Tuesday, Sanders revealed he’d be undergoing the surgical procedure — called an aspiration thrombectomy, which involves the left popliteal (located behind the knee) and tibial arteries — later that day. He said the surgery could take several hours.

“I’m going to be all right,” Sanders said. “Prayerfully, I’ll be right back tomorrow because I don’t miss practice. I don’t plan on doing such.”

On Saturday, Sanders could be seen either sitting down or limping around on the Buffaloes sideline during Colorado’s 35-21 loss to Texas Christian. He didn’t wear a shoe on his left foot during the second half and afterward told reporters he was “hurting like crazy.”

“I think I’ve got more blood clots,” said Sanders, who had two toes amputated on his left foot in 2021 because of blood clot issues and had a blood clot removed from his right leg in 2023. “I’m not getting blood to my leg. That’s why my leg is throbbing.”

The surgical procedure is said to be Sanders’ 16th in the last three years. He told reporters Tuesday that his struggles with blood clots are hereditary.

This summer, Sanders revealed that his bladder had been removed in May to address a cancerous tumor.

Janet Kukreja, Sanders’ doctor at the University of Colorado Cancer Center, told reporters at the same news conference that a section of Sanders’ intestine was reconstructed to function as a bladder and that the procedure was a success. She added that Sanders would not need radiation or chemotherapy treatments.

Sanders was a superstar cornerback in the NFL, playing for five teams over 14 years and winning two Super Bowls (with the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys). The 1994 defensive player of the year was an eight-time Pro Bowl selection and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011.

As coach at Jackson State from 2020 to 2022, Sanders led the Tigers to two Southwestern Athletic Conference titles and was named the SWAC coach of the year twice. He is in his third season at Colorado, where he has coached such stars at 2024 Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter (now with the Jacksonville Jaguars) and son Shedeur Sanders (now with the Cleveland Browns).

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Deion Sanders confirmed that son Shedeur Sanders was called by at least three teams during the 2025 NFL draft and suggested that the former Colorado quarterback turned two of them down before being selected by the Cleveland Browns in the fifth round.

Shedeur Sanders had been considered by many to be a potential first-round pick before plummeting to the Browns at No. 144 overall, after Cleveland had already selected former Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel in the third round.

Earlier this month, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the Baltimore Ravens had planned on drafting Sanders with the No. 141 overall pick until he let them know that he didn’t want to sit on a roster behind quarterback Lamar Jackson, who is a two-time league MVP and only 28 years old.

Last week, former NFL quarterback Cam Newton said on his podcast “4th&1 ” that he had heard that the Philadelphia Eagles had also wanted to draft Sanders at some point. Like the Ravens, however, Philadelphia also has a superstar quarterback who may not have even reached his prime in 27-year-old Jalen Hurts, who was named the MVP of Super Bowl LIX in February.

Deion Sanders, an NFL legend who coached his son at Colorado, seemed to confirm all of that during an appearance on Jason and Travis Kelce’s “New Heights” podcast, which was published Monday.

“Philly called us on draft day. They didn’t mention that. I just let a cat out of the bag,” Coach Prime told the Kelce brothers. “Philly called. Who [else] was it? Baltimore and the Browns. … I played for Baltimore, so me and [Ravens executive vice president of player development] Ozzie [Newsome] are cool … and he wanted to talk to Shedeur as well as he wanted to talk to me.

“I put Shedeur on the phone. And Shedeur — I don’t want to say it went, but how in the world can somebody fault him for saying or thinking, ‘Why in the world would I go back up Lamar for 10 more years?’ Like, who comes in with that mindset?”

Sanders added: “Where do these guys come from, that sit on these platforms and say, ‘Oh, you should have sat in behind and learned the game and been what they developed.’ When have the pros ever developed anybody? By the time you get to the NFL, they expect you to know what you need to do and to do it, or somebody else gonna get in there and do it.”

The 2011 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee summed it up this way: “I’ve never sat on a bench and said, ‘Well, I learned a lot today.’ Who learns sitting on the bench?”

Sanders said he’s been preaching patience and preparation to his 23-year-old son, who currently sits behind 40-year-old veteran Joe Flacco and 24-year-old Gabriel on the Browns depth chart and has yet to see the field during the regular season.

“Be patient and be ready,” Sanders said he’s told Shedeur. “They call your name and you ain’t ready — we ain’t built like that. Sanders, we ain’t built like that. We always ready. We don’t have to get ready. And I want you to be patient. You don’t force nothing that ain’t that it may not be time [for].”

Sanders also said he has a feeling that patience will pay off for his son sooner rather than later.

“It’s coming up,” he said. “I got a prediction. I ain’t telling nobody. I got a feeling when it’s gonna go down. But it’s gonna go down this year. He gonna get a shot.”

Colorado football coach Deion Sanders addressed his health issues Monday during a news conference, acknowledging that he’d kept the worst of it a secret, not even informing his sons or his team.

Sanders said he had his bladder removed in May to address a cancerous tumor. His scan looked normal from the vascular side, he said, but a visit to Janet Kukreja, Sanders’ doctor at the University of Colorado Cancer Center, revealed the tumor.

Sanders, 57, opted for a bladder removal and creation of a new bladder to remove the cancer from the organ. He said he was fortunate and urged others not to delay getting medical attention when symptoms occur.

“Let’s stop being ashamed of it,” he said he decided. “Let’s deal with it. Let’s deal with it head on.

“This wasn’t easy. Everyone, get checked out. Because if it wasn’t for me getting tested for something else, they wouldn’t have stumbled upon this. …. This could have been a whole other gathering if I hadn’t. It’s been tough. I think I dropped about 25 pounds.”

He said urinating is, well, different now.

“I can’t pee like I used to pee,” he said. “I depend on Depends, if you know what I mean.”

Sanders said he has returned to coaching, and smiled when he said folks shouldn’t be surprised if they see a portable toilet on the sidelines during games this fall.

Sanders had been absent for several months, and he lauded his coaching staff for picking up the slack and not asking too many questions. He has long had blood circulation issues in his legs that led to the amputation of two toes and several surgeries since 2021.

“Thank God the [coaches] are good enough that I don’t have to babysit,” Sanders said. “They didn’t know. They found out yesterday like the rest of the team. The team that didn’t disclose this to anyone.”