BlackFacts Details

Deion Sanders

Deion Sanders , in full Deion Luwynn Sanders, bynames Prime Time and Neon Deion (born August 9, 1967, Fort Myers, Florida, U.S.), American gridiron football player and baseball player who is the only person to have played in both a Super Bowl and a World Series. Known for his flashy personality and outspokenness, Sanders was a middling professional baseball player but is widely considered the best man-to-man cover cornerback in National Football League (NFL) history.

Sanders was a multisport star in high school and earned a scholarship to Florida State University, where he was a member of the school’s football, baseball, and track teams. He first brought his brash attitude to national attention as a two-time All-American in football. Sanders quickly became a sports media favourite, and his tremendous on-field achievements were sometimes overshadowed by his braggadocio, his penchant for gaudy jewelry, and his self-promotion, which included his tuxedo-attired arrival in a white stretch limousine at a 1988 game against the rival University of Florida. NFL teams were not put off by his cocky persona, however, and Sanders was selected by the Atlanta Falcons with the fifth selection of the 1989 NFL draft.

Sanders played primarily in the New York Yankees’ minor league system in 1989 but was called up for 14 games in the majors that summer. After posting a .158 batting average in 57 games with the Yankees in 1990, he was released and then signed by the Atlanta Braves. The speedy outfielder had the best season of his baseball career in 1992, batting .304 with a league-leading 14 triples as he helped the Braves reach the World Series (a six-game loss to the Toronto Blue Jays). He was traded to the Cincinnati Reds during the 1994 season and then to the San Francisco Giants during the 1995 season. After not playing in 1996, Sanders had one-year stints with the Reds in 1997 and 2001 before retiring from baseball.

In his much more successful professional football career, Sanders made an immediate impact: he intercepted

Business Facts