Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders has dealt with blood-clot complications that cost him two toes on his left foot. Now, after receiving custom prosthetic replacements, he has given his sons another reason to joke about the saga. Shilo Sanders, Deion’s son, admitted he spent years avoiding even looking directly at his father’s foot.
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“Yeah, them toes did a lot. They did a lot for me, but I got to keep it real. They are really messed up.”
“I’ve tried to avoid direct eye contact with them for a long time, you know, until today, really,” Shilo said. “But I really do think that these toes did bring him joy. And whenever he looked down for a long time, you could tell that he had a lot of memories with his former toes that were sadly lost, but they all got back whenever he seen the new toes right there.”
The story behind those jokes goes back to a frightening health scare in 2021. While Sanders was at Jackson State, trainer Lauren Askevold noticed that two of his toes had turned black and told him to get medical help. Doctors found three blood clots cutting off circulation in his left leg. He spent 23 days in the hospital, went through eight surgeries in three weeks, and ultimately lost two toes, although doctors were able to save his leg.
Coach Sanders later revealed that he lost nearly 40 pounds during his hospitalization and described the pain as intense, saying he was fighting for his life.
His sons were part of that difficult period, too. While Sanders recovered, Shedeur Sanders, then Jackson State’s quarterback, urged him to return. Sanders did so against Southern from a motorized wheelchair, with Shedeur throwing the game-winning 50-yard touchdown and Shilo, then a Jackson State defensive back, sealing the 21-17 win with an interception.
Shilo has since found a way to joke about something that was once anything but funny. In 2025, he even joked that he would not take his father fishing in Florida because an alligator might “take the rest of his toes.”
In a June 24 video published through his son Deion Sanders Jr.’s Well Off Media channel, Sanders was measured for custom silicone prosthetics by a representative from the medical device company Össur at his office in Boulder.
The new toes were made to fill those missing spaces and give his foot more support when he walks. After years of getting used to the changes, Sanders was finally getting something that could make everyday movement feel a little more natural.
That process finally reached its payoff Wednesday, September 16, when Deion Sanders Jr. shared a video of his father receiving the finished prosthetics. A healthcare worker handed Sanders the package and told him, “Your toes are in here.”
Sanders immediately joked that they were “wrapped up like they’re a gift.”
Once Sanders saw the prosthetics, he admired the work and joked about the new toenail and how well the color matched his skin. Then he brought Shilo into the moment himself.
“Shilo would be screaming right now. Shilo, this is for you,” Sanders said.
After putting the prosthetics on, Sanders said they felt tight and joked that the new toes had not yet “made friends” with the others. He was also excited that he could return to wearing his own shoe size of 11.5.
Once he’d slipped the prosthetic on and tested it out, Deion delivered his verdict with his usual flair: “I’m 10 toes down again!”
For Shilo, the new toes gave him another chance to joke about a part of his father’s life the family has lived with for years. But for Deion, slipping them on was a reminder of just how far he has come since that difficult 2021 ordeal.