Hall of Famer Deion Sanders won the Super Bowl twice but felt none of the joy despite winning it with the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys. The cameras saw Sanders celebrating. The record books saw one of football’s most successful stars. But behind that picture of triumph was a man who was not sure about the significance of those victories in his life.

“I thought people, places, and things would give me that, even the accolades. Well, they didn’t. I received every darn accolade you could think of. On the journey to go on to the Super Bowl in win, and everybody went out and partied that night. And I couldn’t get myself to do it,” Sanders said on Coffee with Jeff. “I didn’t have peace.

Right after claiming his first ever Lombardi trophy at age 27, Sanders went on to win another one the very next year. Still, something was missing.

“But I sat right there on the bed and said that wasn’t it.[That wasn’t the goal] It was the goal in sports, but not the goal of life. I just didn’t have peace. That wasn’t it. That wasn’t fulfilling,” he further explained in an Instagram post.

During the 1990s, Deion Sanders, on one hand, was rising to NFL fame and, on the other hand, was dealing with emotional emptiness.

After joining the NFL in 1989, Sanders took just six seasons to win the Super Bowl. While he started with the Atlanta Falcons, the year he joined the San Francisco 49ers, the former NFL cornerback won Super Bowl XXIX.

He faced the San Diego Chargers in that game following the 1994 season and racked up one crucial 15-yard interception return for his team. However, for the 1996 season, after joining mid-1995, Sanders moved to the Dallas Cowboys and played dual positions as CB and part-time wide receiver.

Yet, a similar result followed. Deion Sanders went on to win Super Bowl XXX by beating the Pittsburgh Steelers. Here, Sanders caught a 47-yard pass from Aikman and even recorded a 11-yard punt return.

This also put Deion Sanders in an exclusive club of players who have been able to achieve a similar feat in their NFL careers. Yet, Sanders was not quite sure if these accolades had meaning in his life.

At the same time, the former NFL cornerback even revealed his personal struggles in his autobiography, Power, Money & Sex: How Success Almost Ruined My Life, which was published in 1999.

“I was going through the trials and tribulations of life,” he wrote. “I was pretty much running on fumes. I was empty, no peace, no joy. Losing hope with the progression of everything.”

In 1997, Deion Sanders was also going through a highly public divorce from his first wife, Carolyn Chambers, which was finalized in 1998. Amid that, in 1997, Sanders crashed his Mercedes off a highway cliff in Cincinnati, experiencing a 30-to-40-foot drop.

Sanders survived the crash without any life-threatening injuries. So, considering these instances, Coach Prime may not have been at the best stage of his life when he won those back-to-back Super Bowls.