Colorado coach Deion Sanders declines to address health issues at Big 12 media days

FRISCO, Texas — Deion Sanders declined to address any of his health issues when he took the podium at Big 12 football media days Wednesday after being away from Colorado.

“I’m not here to talk about my health,” said Sanders, who is going to his third season as the Buffaloes coach. “I’m here to talk about my team.”

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Since overseeing Colorado’s spring game April 19, Sanders hadn’t attended football camps in Boulder. The school had said last month, amid reports that the coach was ill, that it could not say why he was absent from those camps. Sanders did not specifically answer any lingering questions.

“I’m looking good. I’m living lovely. God has truly blessed me,” he said. “Not a care in the world. Not a want or desire in the world.”

Sanders was the last of the league’s 16 coaches to take the podium on the main stage over two days at the headquarters of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, which is about 75 miles from a massive ranch the Pro Football Hall of Fame player has in Canton, Texas.

While commending the work of Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark in his opening remarks, Sanders said that Yormark called him daily to check to make sure he was getting better. There have also been a lot of calls from his fellow league coaches.

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“I love them, they’ve been calling and checking on me, making sure I’m straight,” Sanders said.

This will be Sanders first season at Colorado without having one of his sons on the team. Quarterback Shedeur Sanders was a fifth-round pick by the Cleveland Browns in the NFL draft, and safety Shilo Sanders signed with Tampa Bay as an undrafted free agent.

Also gone is Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, the two-way standout who played for Sanders at Jackson State and Colorado and will now try to play both ways in the NFL with Jacksonville.

Sanders is 13-12 in his two seasons with the Buffaloes, who in their return to the Big 12 last season missed making the league championship game on a tiebreaker after being one of four teams to finish 7-2 in conference play.

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He is under contract with the Buffaloes through the 2029 season after agreeing to a new $54 million, five-year deal this spring that made him the Big 12’s highest-paid coach. That replaced the final three years of the $29.5 million, five-year deal he got when he arrived from Jackson State.