Colorado football coach Deion Sanders has been named Sports Illustrated’s 2023 Sportsperson of the Year. In less than a year, Coach Prime has not only transformed the Colorado football program. He’s also breathed fresh life into the campus and transformed a community.
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00:00 - Okay, if I clip this.
00:02 - Yes, sir.
00:02 I've been doing this for a long time,
00:04 probably since or before you were born.
00:07 Yeah, yeah, you.
00:08 You.
00:09 That's right.
00:10 I've been around for a long time.
00:12 And guess what?
00:13 I ain't going nowhere.
00:14 - Our 28th coach in Colorado history, Coach Prime.
00:18 - I want you to know I'm coming.
00:19 - Is there a better story in NFL college ice cream?
00:22 - The most important story in my lifetime is Deion Sanders.
00:25 - It's time, it's time, it's time.
00:27 - Say that.
00:28 - It's time.
00:29 - Say that again.
00:30 - It's time.
00:31 - Coaches only.
00:31 - It's time.
00:32 - Players only.
00:33 - It's time.
00:34 - Everybody.
00:35 - It's time.
00:36 - I move the needle.
00:37 Make things happen.
00:39 I provoke an opinion.
00:41 But I'm a Deremonium man.
00:44 Who ready?
00:45 - I'm ready.
00:46 - Who ready?
00:47 - I'm ready.
00:48 - The Colorado Buffaloes look awful right now.
00:49 - You been here for a while?
00:50 - All of you have a tremendous opportunity,
00:52 coaches included.
00:53 - Is the team better?
00:54 - Good.
00:55 - Let's rest it right there with an exclamation mark.
00:57 (upbeat music)
01:00 - Colorado football is instantly relevant.
01:04 They were completely irrelevant
01:06 in the years before Deion Sanders arrived.
01:10 He injected personality, energy, curiosity,
01:15 and drew everything to him.
01:19 - Today's a new day.
01:20 It's time for everybody to come together,
01:22 regardless of how you felt the last 12 months or 18 months.
01:26 It's a new day today.
01:27 Everybody said, let's go all in.
01:29 It's time to go all in.
01:31 - I chose this program because Rick George,
01:36 first and foremost, gave me a tremendous opportunity.
01:38 And he felt like I was the guy that could stick this key in
01:42 and turn it and it would click and it would open.
01:46 We getting ready to go out there
01:46 and give it everything we got.
01:48 You good with that?
01:49 - Yes, sir.
01:49 - Who ready?
01:50 - We ready.
01:51 - When I say, who ready?
01:52 You say, I'm ready.
01:53 Who ready?
01:54 - I'm ready.
01:54 - Who ready?
01:55 - I'm ready.
01:56 - Who ready?
01:57 - We have given to us unconditionally,
02:01 and we have a tremendous respect for that.
02:04 - Peggy Coppam has been attending games at CU for decades.
02:07 The 98 year old has been a season ticket holder
02:10 since the mid sixties.
02:11 - He is a genuine person.
02:15 I'm very comfortable with him.
02:17 What everybody sees is what you get.
02:20 There is nothing that is fake about him.
02:23 - I don't want just a football team.
02:26 Yeah, I look at this thing totally different
02:28 than just being a team.
02:29 - Deion Sanders has been a disrupter
02:31 and a precedent setter, really, in college football
02:34 with what he did in the transfer portal,
02:37 an unprecedented turnover of the roster,
02:40 the willingness to act authentically on the sidelines
02:45 and in general, in the way he reported himself.
02:48 He did not choose to fit the cookie cutter mold
02:51 of a major college coach.
02:54 And I think people were refreshed and invigorated.
02:56 He's the same guy he was when he was a player.
02:59 - Deion Sanders is the person that is an awesome dude.
03:02 I mean, seriously, I think you get what you see, period.
03:04 And there's no sugar coating it at all.
03:06 The message that he's delivering to his players
03:09 and Deion has given them the spiritual aspect of it,
03:12 but yet he's allowing them to grow as young men.
03:15 - I apologize on behalf of just myself,
03:18 staff, support staff, that we didn't send them out right
03:22 in which we wanted to because they deserve it.
03:24 Apologizing to the fan base.
03:26 They've been supporting the heck out of us
03:28 and they've been showing up and showing out
03:29 on other sellout crowd.
03:31 We're so close is what I told the team, but yet so far.
03:34 - And I think college football has kind of evolved
03:36 to the point where it's caught up with Deion
03:38 as opposed to Deion changing to catch up
03:40 to college football.
03:41 - When you say it takes a village, that's no lie.
03:48 People take that for granted,
03:49 but not only do I have a wonderful team of athletes,
03:53 but the team of persons that keeps this machine going,
03:57 that keeps you in the tank, that keeps me on point,
04:02 that makes sure I'm hitting my marks
04:04 and making sure I'm making it happen is phenomenal.
04:08 And I'm so thankful to have that team.
04:10 I've accomplished some tremendous things individually,
04:16 but my biggest accomplishments have all come with a team.
04:20 - Deion Sanders is the 2023 Sports Illustrated
04:30 Sports Person of the Year.
04:31 - One foot forward, one foot back.
04:33 Good.
04:33 - I can't tell you why.
04:37 First of all, it's awesome because it's unexpected,
04:40 especially with the way our season is right now,
04:43 but you recognize impact.
04:45 You recognize momentum.
04:48 - Try to go this way more.
04:51 - You recognize change.
04:52 You recognize culture.
04:54 You recognize significance.
04:57 You recognize so many different attributes that we possess.
05:01 And I'm thankful to be in this position.
05:05 - Candidly, as sports fans do,
05:07 you know, is this a crowning season
05:09 in terms of wins and losses?
05:11 Was there no better coach in terms of a record
05:13 or competing for the national championship
05:15 than Deion Sanders?
05:16 Of course there was.
05:17 But if part of this award is sports pioneers,
05:20 sports visionaries, sports figures of the moment,
05:22 people who understand the current landscape,
05:24 whether that's conference realignment,
05:26 whether that's the importance of media,
05:28 of social media, of the transfer portal,
05:30 of the possibilities that come with NIL,
05:33 this is someone who really is a man of the moment
05:35 in college football.
05:36 - I move the needle.
05:43 I make things happen.
05:45 I provoke an opinion.
05:47 What have I really done to you?
05:50 Besides trying to encourage you and motivate you
05:52 and have you aspire to be greater.
05:55 This is one of those moments.
05:57 - One thing that really struck me was
05:59 you could really sense the concern,
06:02 if not outright fear, from other coaches.
06:04 This guy is running circles around me.
06:06 - Some guys have tremendous moments in you
06:08 and we give them their love, we give them their praise,
06:11 we give them their roses.
06:12 I understand that.
06:13 But I'm a Dermot, you know.
06:15 [MUSIC]