NFL legend and college football coach Deion Sanders is responding to growing concerns about his health and hiatus from the University of Colorado’s football team.
“I can assure you all that everything is OKAY and will continue to be so. God got me like no other. I have so much more work to do to Glorify God so please believe God got me,” he wrote on X Wednesday morning.
“I’m excited to get back to Colorado to be at home with my staff, team & all associated to our program. When we arrive back to Boulder you will be updated on everything,” Sanders added.
Wow, I am truly blessed for the abundance of well wishes, for all the thoughts and all of the prayers. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
I can assure you all that everything is OKAY and will continue to be so. God got me like no other. I have so much more work to do to Glorify…
— COACH PRIME (@DeionSanders) June 11, 2025
Sanders’ message on X comes after the news that he has been staying at his home in Texas instead of joining the team due to an unspecified illness.
Deion Sanders Jr. shared a brief update about his father in a YouTube livestream video last week, according to USA Today.
Sanders Jr. used his YouTube channel, Well Off Media, to update Colorado fans ahead of CU’s annual slate of summer football camps in Boulder last week.
He assured fans his father was “feeling well,” but did not share further details of his illness.
“He’ll tell y’all soon enough what he going through, what he went through,” Deion Jr. said on the livestream.
Sanders has appeared at the start of summer camps in 2023 and 2024, and one of his contractual duties is to run and operate the camps, according to USA Today. So Boulder fans began to ask about his absence from this year’s camp.
The school still lists Sanders as the head coach, but his return to Boulder was open-ended.
“When we get back in Boulder, I don’t know,” Deion Jr. said in his announcement. “I’m waiting until my dad leaves. When he leaves, then I’ll go. Until then, I’m gonna sit here with him.”
Sanders, also known as Coach Prime, shared that his recent health challenges are on a “whole ‘nother level” compared to the blood clots he has faced in the past, ChurchLeaders reports.
In 2021, the then-53-year-old had debilitating blood clots in his legs that forced him to get his two toes amputated.
“I’m walking with a Limp but nevertheless I’m walking in MY PURPOSE!” Sanders said at the time.
Then in 2023, doctors told Sanders he may have to get his entire left foot amputated as a result of the clots. Thankfully, that prognosis changed.
He wrote at the time, “As you know I’ve faced some medical challenges with my foot but I’ve never said ‘WHY ME’ – I keep moving forward, progressing…See you never know what a person may be going through while I sit in your seat of [judgement] but you can trust and believe that we are all going through something – just keep the faith and know that if He brought you to it, He will bring you through it.”
“More importantly I have full trust in Jesus,” he added.
Coach Prime’s mounting health challenges have forced him largely out of the spotlight. His last public appearance was in April during the NFL Draft.
He told former NFL cornerback Asante Samuel in late May that it was due to his health.
“What I’m dealing with right now is a whole ‘nother level,” he said. “I have done no media.”
“I ain’t been in front of nobody for a minute. You see, I lost 14 pounds,” he added. “I haven’t had the energy.”
Sanders was forced to cancel his keynote address for The Foundation for Sickle Cell Research on June 8.
The foundation noted that Sanders had an “unavoidable last-minute scheduling change” and Magic Johnson would replace him.
Despite the setbacks, Sanders assured of his return saying, “I’m coming back.”
Coach Prime has transformed CU’s football program since joining in 2023.
As CBN News reported, the 57-year-old is a dedicated believer and when he took over the program he put his faith on full display.
During an introductory press conference before the 2023 season commemorating his position as new head at UC, Sanders praised God.
“Out of all the persons in the world, God chose me,” Sanders said. “For that, I thank Him; for that, I love Him; for that, I magnify Him; for that, I glorify Him; for that, I praise Him; for that, I owe Him. Each and every day, I’m trying to please Him.”
Since then, he has made it a point to incorporate faith-based practices into his coaching.
Recently, Hollywood star and newly licensed minister Denzel Washington spoke to the team a few days into spring training.
“Don’t rely on it for your happiness. Rely on the Almighty. Do not rely on this world for your happiness, because it’ll tell you Tuesday that they love you, and Wednesday that they hate you. Probably said that about your team. It’s not consistent,” Washington told the team, as documented by The Pregame Network.
It was a bold move for Coach Prime as he recently came under fire from the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
The Wisconsin-based secular activist group took issue with Sanders’ decision to invite chaplain Pastor E. Dewey Smith to speak to the football team and offer a prayer after a win against Baylor University last year.
The CU head football coach said in response “God has always been my rock and my salvation…I’m going to glorify the Lord.”
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