Deion Sanders: Coach Prime's Success Game Plan

28:32And how in the world can I be suicidal? How in the world can I not want to be here? well, I was going through a tremendous divorce and my kids were stripped away from me. And those are the only two people that I felt like loved me in my whole life because it was genuine. Like, these are my kids. They came from me. I know they love me because I know you don't. I know you don't. I know you don't. You love what I'm capable of doing for you, but you don't love me. You know why you don't love me? Because you don't know me. And let me go through this soliloquy so you understand right where we were, right where I was parked at the time.

29:07I'm in a 15 ,000 square foot house, but never feeling at home. I have hundreds and hundreds of suits, but I can't cup up the pain. I got 500 or more pair of shoes, but I can't take a step in the right direction. Several cars parked in the driveway, exotic from old 64 Chevys, but I ain't going nowhere. you mean i'm sleeping in between two and three women but nobody is satisfied and i'm sleeping on a five to ten thousand dollar bed but i ain't get no rest so you're going through all these emotions and all these challenges and you're just not happy like i'm three for four and i'm still going to commit suicide after the game so all this stuff came to a head where I finally had to get on my knees and say, Lord, take me, man.

30:01I can't do this no more. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't stand it. I can't stand the life. And it's not that I've never smoked in my life. I've never been high. I never drank, never tasted alcohol. Stopped using profanity when I was 19 years old. So it wasn't those vices. It was other vices, but it wasn't those vices. But I just didn't have peace and I didn't have joy. And I knew God was calling me, but I didn't want to be hypocritical because I despised that. Someone saying this and not this. I despised that. So I was trying to clean up before I go to the Lord. It ain't no way you can clean up before you go to the Lord.

30:42You got to go to the Lord to get clean. I didn't know that. I didn't understand that. So finally, you know, after going through hell and child tribulation and attempting to commit suicide, I had to surrender and give it all to him. That was the place. But you know what broke me, what almost broke me and hurt me, that when I came out and told the world about this is what I was going through, this is what I was dealing with, they didn't believe me. I'm like, so you think I'm going to tell you all this. What's the game? I already got money. So what am I gaining? Like what I already got fame. What am I gaining to tell you that I've accepted the Lord?

31:21I'm tired. I was broken. What am I gaining? And I wish somebody would have told me that my most critical people would have come from inside, not outside. The church folks, that was my most critical persons, not the sinners. The sinners were like, hey, man, God bless you, man. Tell me how you did it. tell me how you stopped that Lamborghini going 200 tell me how you slowed everything down yeah the church folks were like oh there ain't no way in the world he could do that so no no what you're doing is telling yourself you're telling that if you had all these things that you couldn't do it because you said I can't because you're thinking about the things because the things had me I didn't have them brother I love you man that's one of my favorite that's like I've done 600 episodes that's one of my most treasured moments ever of doing this show right there you're a good man thank you brother

32:29really like yeah you're most qualified in life to help the person or people you used to be and that's why that's so profound because so many people hold on hold on that's profound I never heard that Say that again, please. You're most qualified in life to help the person or people you used to be. Wow. That explains why I'm passionate from the people that are broken, that have done this, that have done that. They may say people dislike them, disown them, ridicule them. That's why I'm attracted to those type of people to help. To help. I just picked up on the street the other day, just walking in the backpack.

33:18It was snowing. I'm like, brother, get in. What's wrong with you? It's five degrees. What is wrong with you? He's like, coach, brother, like, Hey man, I got time for that right now. Where do you need to go? Where do you need to go? Cause I'm taking you wherever. Did you really? That that's yeah. That. That's beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. Me too. I always wondered why am I so called to this work? And it was, it's not even something I came up with. Someone said it to me a while back, and I'm like, you just explained me to me, maybe for the first time. I get it now. I got this thing on my heart where I want to, you know, I was broken.

33:51I'm still broken, but I'm a little less broken, you know, and so I want to help broken people. You know, I want people. I didn't have hope at one time. I want to give people hope. I wasn't always inspired. I know what it's like to be a liar and live the wrong way, and, you know, I want to help people who are doing that. And anyway, I just, I watch you and I understand why the people close to you have such reverence. Like Constance, our mutual friend, she's told me for years, like, I wish you knew this man. He reminds me of you, number one, but number two, his heart is so good. And I'm getting that now.

34:22Like, I'm really grateful that I'm getting a chance to, I mean, everybody gets to listen in on me talking to you for an hour is what I feel like right now. I appreciate it, man. I appreciate it. Yeah, you're a good man. The thing he's saying about it, I'm going to go through a couple more things because you're so loaded with gold. We don't have too much more time. I've got about 15 minutes. But it's weird that you say this because I've said this term forever. Always ask when I go talk to teams, I'll say, who's the rabbit on this team? Who's the rabbit? Wow. What I mean by that person, when I say it, you say it a little bit different, but what I mean by that is on every team, if it's a company or a sports team, there's a rabbit.

34:56It's the person who sets the pace. It's the person that everyone's chasing their effort. Everybody, I know, I can tell you right now, I'm a college baseman when I played. I know exactly who our rabbit was. It was our little second baseman, Trini Ruiz, shortest dude on the team, 5 '6". Just outworked everybody. Every time I'd show up early, this dude was there before me. I'd leave BP an hour after everybody else. Trini's walking back in the batting cage. You know what I mean? He was the rabbit. And you talk in life about having, what's your rabbit? I love the way you say this. What's it mean for you?

35:30First of all, I'm from Florida. So we had dog tracks growing up in Florida. And if you ever been to a dog track, these beautiful greyhounds, beautiful lean, you can see their muscles. They in the chutes and they let them out. And it's a rabbit that runs around the inside of that rail. They never catch the rabbit. But the rabbit is the gold. The rabbit is something they're chasing. And I'm asking you, what's your rabbit? Because we're all chasing something, man. Whether it's popularity, whether it's love, whether it's reconciliation, whether it's finances, we're all chasing something. And when I say, what's your rabbit?

36:05I'm sitting up there saying, this helps us discover our why. Because when I meet these young men for the first time and we're recruiting them, they think they're recruiting me, but I'm recruiting them. Can you fit with us? What's your why? I need to know your why, your rabbit. and some of them can't understand that or can't reconcile what I'm saying, and it's that thing that keeps going that gets you up in the morning. See, I was seven years old, and I told my mama I was going to be rich. I was going to make a lot of money, and you're never going to have to work another day of your life. She said, yeah, okay, until the end, go get the lawnmower, go out there and cut the grass.

36:43I said, cool, I got you. That's how my mama get down. That's who she was, true story. But that was my rabbit. my mama never saw me play a football game a baseball game or basketball game in high school because she was working she worked she worked the night shift she worked in either she never now she saw me play peewee ball because it was on Saturdays but she never saw me play throughout high school so she reading the papers and this guy's doing this college is getting that I said mom what you think I should do about college she said I don't give a damn where you're going you're getting up out of here you're getting up out of here I don't care where you go you're getting up out of here.

37:19So I'm like, I can't let this continue. And she having this life ends, never met. They never really saw each other. And I could do better. I could do better. I could help her. And that was my rabbit, man. So I never stopped to this day. My mother has not worked since 1989 when I signed the dotted line for the Atlanta Falcons. And she would never, ever work another day of her life because that was my rabbit and that's still my rabbit my mother lives with me like so every time i go home and see her i'm like that's my rabbit i'm still chasing that i'm still trying to catch that making sure i fulfill my promise when i say she's never gonna have to work another day of life that's my rabbit that's that's my rabbit sad way to go through life if you don't have a rabbit you know you gotta have a rabbit man it's got to be something that yeah and you got to see it don't don't say oh i want to be the president you got to be able at least to see it don't just fantasize that's a fantasy i'm just talking about the rabbit see the rabbit in the dog track they they may not have been able to smell it they can see it they can see it you got to be able to see it man what a huge point oh my gosh because people get these big huge dreams I'm like, you probably should just catch your next rabbit, right?

38:35That's the one thing on the dog track. They do keep it pretty close to the dogs. It's not so far in front of them that the dog thinks they can't catch it. They can't attain it. It's not that far out that you can't attain it. It goes steadily and slowly that you could almost grasp it. That's why they put the muzzles on because they're scared that somebody's going to catch it. Somebody's going to catch it. So let me just cover your face up with a muzzle just in case you catch it and bite it. and I don't want that I just want you to catch that right I've always wondered I'm just sitting here going my gosh this is so good like I wish we could do like nine hours of this like I'm blown away by how good this is what's it like I've always wanted to ask somebody I asked Brady this maybe like about eight weeks ago we were at something together and I asked him but I'm curious as to your answer have and all y 'all be interested in this do you ever wonder what it's like when you are the goat of something, what that feels like or what you're thinking.

39:32I've always wanted this. So you would line up in an NFL game and half the defensive coordinators would literally just say, forget that side of the football field, right? Like he would literally eliminate a side of a football field to throw to because this man stood over there. Dion did coach prime. I'm just wondering, like, what's it like being that like, I like, I'll be honest with you. I'm not gonna lie to you. Like in terms of speaking on stage, it's probably going to get me in big trouble. But like I'm kind of known as like that person in speaking. Like and I know what that feels like in my body.

40:06You know what I mean? I know what it feels like. From your perspective, in your prime, Coach Prime, what did that feel like? Was it did you feel that? Was it like you're relying on just your preparation? Was there just like this? I just got this. What's it feel like when you walk out, whether that's being some of you that be a business person or you're the you're the goat of moms. This is the goat by a mile of all corners of all time, all defensive backs of all time. What does that feel like to be that, if you could describe it? I'm just curious. It's two things, but it's contradicting. Okay, the first one is when you walk into a stadium, this is no lie, when I walked into the Georgia Dome, I felt like every darn person inside that Stadium, came to see me play, and I was not going to disappoint.

40:58I was going to send you home with some type of memory, some type of thought, some type of feeling, some type of inspiration, a joy that you would never forget. I was going to give you more to your ticket price. That's what I thought. Secondly, in a contradictory manner, I never felt like that guy, because that would have disabled or disarmed my work ethic. So even though I would throw a shit out and nobody would catch a ball, I would go home and study the film and say, okay, he had me on that if they would have thrown right there. Oh, darn it. I got to stay lower and come out of my break. Oh, he could have called it out right there.

41:42I was my worst critic, not you. I was my worst critic, not the fan. I was my worst guy, even playing a game that you thought was perfect, perfect. I looked at that film and I said, no, let me go work on that. So I would go work on that, that next week in practice, work on what I felt like I lacked because I never wanted to feel like that. I thought like that guy, but I didn't want to feel like that because I didn't want that to disable me from being who I was called to be. Wow. Why are you a great coach? Let me tell you why I ask you this. Typically, great players cannot relate to guys that aren't as athletic of them or as works.

42:27I'm thinking, you go through all of the goats of coaching. If you think Coach Saban's the goat, wasn't a great player. Coach Belichick, wasn't a great player. Tom Brady's probably not going to sit on the sideline. Peyton Manning didn't choose that path. When I was a kid growing up, you know baseball real well. My hitting coach when I got pretty good was Rod Carew, one of the great hitters of all time. Oh, my God. So I was really – he saw me at a camp when I was a kid. Like 15, he's like, I'll work with you. But yet when Rod became a hitting coach at MLB, it didn't work out real well. By the way, Rod's been on the show too.

42:58But it didn't work out real because he just doesn't get why you can't do what he could do, right? And so when you went into coaching, I'll be really honest with you. You were at the HBCU. I'm like, that's cute. But, like, he ain't going to be able to relate to an average player every day. It's going to frustrate him. Why can't you run a 4-2-40? Why don't you show up two hours early for weights? So how have you been able to deal with that? Because it's very – I can't even think of anybody else that's like a great, great player, Hall of Fame, not just Hall of Fame. Then in the Hall of Fame, there's like a few.

43:32There's the Hall of Fame or the Hall of Fame, and that's where you are. Has that been hard for you? And why do you think you've still been able to be a great coach? I got into coaching for all the right reasons. I'm sitting up there trying to be a great dad. I'm sitting on the sideline with my two sons out there. I lied about their age because they're two years apart, but I said they're one year apart because I didn't want to go to two different practices. So I put them together. They were like five and six years old at the time. Five and seven, but we said Shador was six. So I'm sitting up there, and they're doing angle tackling.

44:05And the coaches got these kids 15 yards apart, and they're about to kill each other. I'm like, oh, my God, they're going to have – oh, my God, they're going to get concussions. So I get up, go over there, tighten the drill down for them. And, you know, they respected me enough to say, OK, sit back down. They're doing another drill, which is totally incorrect. I'm like, these kids are going to get hurt. Got back up, showed the instruction, sat back down. So the second time I sat down, I see them doing something else stupid. And I'm like, if I'm going to keep getting up, I might as well do this myself.

44:33That's just the way I think. So sitting on that sideline for the continuation of that practice, I thought about a whole team, tryouts, everything. Okay, I'm going to call this guy, this guy, this guy who played with me with the Cowboys. I'm going to call this guy. We're going to try to get this cotton bowl for the tryout. I'm going to go on the TV as well as the radio. I'm going to do spots. I had this whole thing contrived in my mind while I'm sitting over there and came up with the name Truth. trust in God, respect myself and others, understand I have unlimited possibilities, try my best to ever hear about, honor the truth in its creed at all times.

45:11So the name is Truth. That's what the name of the team. We had 1 ,500 kids try out. 1 ,500 kids come and try out. And we kept, I was so hurt and devastated because we couldn't keep even half of the kids. So I kept two teams, five and six-year-old flag, seven and eight, nine, 10, 11, 12. when I rented a school down the street, we had a whole summer camp where I bought school buses. We went out and picked the kids up from the various places. We had academics. We had football one-on-one. We had conditioning. We had spiritual class as well, but we gave them word. So every day we had a schedule that the parents would drop off at this time and we would take them back at this time where they could pick them up.

45:54All because there was a need and there was a lack thereof. So I'm not coaching to fulfill something that was empty in my life. I'm coaching to fulfill a need. And I've always been one to answer a need. If you don't have enough water, I'll go get some. If there's a piece of paper on the ground, I'm not going to wait for the custodian. I'm going to pick it up. Do we need uniforms? I'll buy them. We ain't raising the money. I'll buy them. I've always been one who God called to help fulfill needs. So I was always attracted to the desolate places. I'd never been attracted to a place that already was there.

46:33When I started my youth program, it was nothing like it. nothing like it did we had football baseball basketball track um soccer um as well as cheer so we took over the whole darn state you know when i went to speak to the hall of fame and i was giving my hall of fame speech it was seven busloads of kids and parents that had traveled from texas with me on that journey we stopped and played in memphis we stopped and played in louisville kentucky and we played in uh canton ohio so when the country just start knowing me as coach prime. I had been coach prime for 15 years prior. So God had already prepared me for this in the dark so that when he turned on the light and give me the stage, I was ready.

47:17So at Jackson, I was already prepared for this for years. The only reason that it took me that long because I was proud of myself on being a great father. So now my kids, I'm getting ready to be empty nesters. Shador is going to FAU. Shiloh is already at the University of South Carolina. My youngest daughter is living with her mom. I'm good. And God said, no, no, no, no. Time for you. Time for you to coach. I said, you know, you got to be kidding me. And that's how all that happened. That's how it transpired. But I had been coaching and running the program, Pee Wee football, high school. We won four state titles in high school.

47:55And I was ready to just shut it down and chill and go be a fan.

48:02so i'm not coaching because there's a dead area and what i've learned through coaching i don't try to make that kid me i try to make him the best him that he could be i i can't take travis hundred turn him into me i got to take what travis does well and work on those things he don't do well and show him the direction but i don't want them to be me. And I think some great players who have dabbled into it, they looking to create themselves in a young man. I'm good. I don't need that continuation of me. I don't need that to feel like I'm there or I arrived. I'm trying to help these young men, which 95 or 90 % of them are not going pro.

48:45So my focus is not on that five to 10 % that is. My focus is truly on that 90 to 95 % at it because I want them to be great men. Speaking of that, I got two questions left for you in respect to your time too. You started at a historically bad college. And when you say 90 to 95 % of these men are not going to go play professional football, they're not. But a large percent of them are black young men. And you coach kids from every ethnic background. I watched you on your special but I'm wondering if to some extent it matters to you or matters to them that they're being led by a man that's also a black man and if there's an element of that or was there not for you that even that situation that happened with that other coach I think part of it that probably had to be even slightly more hurtful was it was another black man calling out a black man I don't know that for a fact I just you know I know a bunch of people that know you I don't think you could ask this enough, but is that part of it to be a father figure, a role model for these young men?

49:52I know that I've watched you. You're coaching all these young men and you coach them the same. But I'm wondering if there's something to that for you or for these young men that's meaningful to you. You're 100 % correct. I'm trying to be the navigational system through life for them. So all the ups and downs of trials and tribulations, God allowed that to happen so that I could navigate these men through these tumultuous times. It's unbelievable what they're dealing with. Like, we got a couple of kids dealing with neural problems. Shoot, I had two divorces. You come to me. I know what to do and what not to do.

50:34All right? Come on in here. Let me tell you about Coach Brown. Let me get butt naked and tell you, not physically, but let me tell you how this is going to happen, how this is going to go down, okay? So I've been allowed to go through some things, man, that has prepared me and overprepared me for such a time as this. I love these young men. I don't coach them. I genuinely love them. I don't come to work. I come to my calling. I don't come to work. I come to have fun. I don't come to work. I come to inspire, encourage, and motivate, you know, and point in the right direction. So the main thing, we have relationships with our players, man.

51:14So it's not just a coach player. It's like, and you're not my homie either. I'm your coach, you know, and you can look at me as a father figure all you want, but I am here to shed light and give you direction and protection and correction. So, and I love it. I don't it's not a day of work man it's it's a calling and I and I absolutely love it when I'm not here I'm thinking about these young men you know I'm thinking about this program that's why I was downstairs and tardy to get into you which I'm never late because I had a whole staff from Utah come you know and uh shoot it was unbelievable these men came here because something that I spoke registered to them and their community and said, we got to go, we got to go find out more about that, about this program.

52:06So good. So beautiful. I've enjoyed this today so much. I have to tell you, like, it's one of the all time conversations of my life to get to know you better. And I admire you in a different way than I did prior reading, reading the book, took it to a different level, but feeling your spirit today and your energy, uh, man, I feel blessed to have spent the time with you today and to be able to share this with, you know, millions of people that I love, that I believe in my extended family, which is the audience. Last question for you. Chapter 20. It's a perfect way to finish. This is a, is called finish.

52:41I'm looking at it right here. You read my mind. You are awful. We connected and you, you read my mind. Good. So just, I'll let you speak to that as we conclude, but it's such a huge thing in life and it's not written about almost ever. And then you did. So I want you to talk about that. I'm talking about finishing. We all have a problem with finishing. I don't care if it's, we can have a great conversation on the phone. Somebody would click over, oh, I got to take that. Well, you didn't even finish this call. But you're taking the other one. It could be, okay, I'm going to clean up my room today.

53:16And now we're distracted by a call. But you ain't finished cleaning up the room like you said you were. Okay, you ain't finished the task that you said you had to handle. we have a problem with putting the period at the end of the sentence. We oftentimes put a comma, but then we don't finish the sentence. So I'm talking about always finish what you start in life. How many books have you started that you didn't finish? I can't do that. I can't do it. That means your attention is scattered. That means something else could come up in life that has your attention and something else could overtake that.

53:53And I'm not scattered like that, but I want you to finish. It says, if you quit something once, odds are that you'll do it again. Don't ever quit. Finish. The third thing is everything in life moves forward. And you got to be progressive like that. Let me prove the point. God pointed forward. Your nose protrudes forward. The words come out your mouth, go forward. Not back there, they go forward. Your ears are curved forward. When you have your hands by your side, your thumbs are forward. Your feet, forward. Everything you were designed to be is to progress and move forward. When you get excited, when you start feeling it with that other companion, everything erects forward.

54:46So why in the heck would I ever see you moving backwards when you were designed to go forward? And the last thought to that progression is the only thing that comes out behind you is somewhat. I don't use profanity, but I could, right. So everything we did was designed. Finishing is the end goal, but you got to enjoy the process and the journey. See, most people love and can't wait to conclude the journey. I'm in love with the process. I love the process of this, of rebuilding this dynasty that we're going to build right now. Everybody want to hurry up and win and get to that point. I want to win, but darn it, I love the process.

55:38I love when they're talking junk and they felt like they beat me and they talking. I go into press conference and say, okay, you better get me now, baby. Because you know I'm coming. I love the process of building this thing. Because a lot of these guys who are attacking and saying stuff, they inherited a legacy. Guys like you and me, Ed, we build it. We build it from scratch, from nothing. They inherited it. It was already there. They just had to jump in there. They could have chose anybody to jump in that seat and do what you're doing. Not us. Not us. We differ, baby. We're builders, man. The move is in shakers.

56:18Yeah, we way makers. And every way maker I know is going to get shot at, but you got to keep moving. I'm not a hunter. I don't believe in killing nothing. Maybe a wild hog every now and then. But even learning honey, we can only shoot something when it's still. We're not accurate when it's moving. So we're not going to let the devil or the enemy or these fools get a good shot at us. We're going to keep moving, baby. Let's keep moving. Just give me one game. Like just like one quarter, one game. Just stick me in when you have like 42 to 3. Like just 42 to 3, first 52-year-old senior. I'm telling you.

57:00You guys, let me just say this first of all. You all are welcome because you got to have this hour. You all are welcome. And then I want to tell you, Coach Prime, thank you. It was like I was really excited about today. And then it like went 100 levels past where I thought we would be able to go. And that's just because of you. And frankly, you're giving heart, like fully present, fully giving, as busy as you are. And you've affected millions of lives today. And I want everybody to go get, elevate, and dominate. That's your way of thanking Coach Prime. Go get a couple of them. Give one away as a gift, too.

57:34So, Coach, I just want to say thank you. God bless you, and thank you for being here, my friend. And thank you, and I apologize immensely. I'm never late, and I apologize. I really do. I hate that. I hate that, and I despise that totally because I'm a nonc. Everybody knows me. I don't play by time. I do not play by time. I apologize. That would never happen again, and I appreciate this platform, my man. I really do. You blessed me today. You're good at what you do, so you prompt me, man. Your spirit led me to give. I didn't have to close up or close in and be kind of reclusive. Like you, you got me to come out and do it, man.

58:09So I appreciate you. You're really good at what you do, my man. Thank you. You brought it today. And by the way, I only had to wait eight minutes, everybody. And that was worth waiting for. So, all right, coach, thank you so much. God bless you, everybody. Max out your life. This is the Ed Myron Show.