Well, before the 2025 season, Colorado Buffaloes fans definitely would not have been ready for this. On July 28, Deion Sanders announced he was diagnosed with bladder cancer and had surgery to remove his bladder. For quite some time, Coach Prime had not been doing well and went missing from the limelight for a considerable period. However, Deion did not leave any hints to make his fans panic.

Back in June, Coach Prime posted, “everything is OKAY,” after news emerged of him going missing from the Buffs’ spring camp. The 57-year-old coach got his son Deion Sanders Jr., aka Bucky, by his side through this tough phase. The Well Off Media tycoon shared in one of the episodes of his YouTube channel, confirming that his father is in Texas and “feeling well.” But a month later, the Buffs’ head coach finally opened up. 

Dr. Janet Kukreja at UC Health and Colorado assistant athletic trainer Lauren Askevold shared about Coach Prime’s health update at the press conference. As the trainer revealed, the cancer was “very high grade,” and was found during a check-up and CT scans on his foot. But fans wanted to hear it from Deion himself. On the July 28 episode of Michael Irvin’s podcast, Coach Prime let his heart open in conversation with his long-time pal. He shared, “It was growing so rapidly we had to do some quickly, and we did.” As per the updates, the tumor in his bladder had moved through the bladder wall, but not into the muscle layer. And in this whole process, Deion has lost about 25 pounds. And his “favorite kid”, Bucky, could no longer see Papa Prime in pain.

Sanders Jr. did not want Deion to walk the path of surgery. As in the podcast, Coach Prime thanked his medical team and revealed Bucky’s concern. “I’m so thankful, yeah, great, I didn’t second-guess anything,” said the Buffs HC. “Now, the procedures I know, Bucky, you wanted me to choose another route, but I said, ‘No, no, we going to go get it.” We know how much he loves his eldest son. On the other hand, the Well Off Media tycoon, too, is overprotective about his dad.

Deion Sanders kept on encouraging his son not to lose hope, even when he was in so much pain. “He wanted the more normal route that didn’t have any risk to it. And I’m like, ‘Let’s go, get it. Let’s go. Let’s go. We going to go for, Let’s go. Let’s go for this touchdown. Let’s go,’” shared the father of five. We know how a little courage takes you a long way. And Deion proved that again, setting a great example for Deion Jr. and his siblings. He shared that there are no traces of cancer following surgery, and he intends to coach this season. But even Coach Prime was made to prepare for the worst and sign a will. 

Deion Sanders’ most vulnerable moment during his battle against cancer

It’s not that dealing with health issues is something new for Deion Sanders. He has had bouts with blood clots in his legs, had two toes amputated in 2022. Back in June 2023, he underwent an emergency surgery to treat the persistent clots. He has been under the process of frequent checkups. However, things turned serious this time. Back in May, this year, he revealed that he had lost 14 pounds. While he kept battling mentally and physically, he did not reveal his medical condition to most of his family and closest friends.

That counts his two sons, Shilo and Shedeur Sanders, and the ex-Buffs dual threat and Deion’s favorite player, Travis Hunter, as the trio prepared for the biggest transitions of their lives. On July 28, Well Off Media posted a video, which had clips of Deion from the last few months while he had mostly kept himself behind the doors. And from those clips, one from May 9, captured the inner turmoil that Deion had been going through. He was seen on a medical table and scrolling through his phone. That’s when Coach Prime shared, “I don’t know if I’m ready mentally, emotionally.” That Deion Sanders spark in his voice went missing as he continued, “Yesterday was tough because I had to make a will.  That’s not easy, at all, to think that you might not be there, but you want to make sure everybody is straight.”

As if all these health updates were not too much for Deion Sanders fans. Here came some more. College Transfer Portal claimed, “Sources tell me that Coach Deion Sanders will step away from coaching the University of Colorado football team due to health-related reasons. Announcement set to be made at today’s press conference.” Looks like it’s only a rumor. The confirmation came from the head coach himself. Now that Deion has won against cancer, he looks confident about winning the gridiron battle as well. “I got work to do, we got to win the darn championship!” Coach Prime sounded confident, and that’s what makes him THE DEION SANDERS.