Unapologetic Blackness is Coming, and It’s Here To Stay! The Case of Deion Sanders

Deion Sanders is special! He is a former NFL Defensive Player of the Year, a first-ballot NFL Hall of Famer, and universally regarded as the greatest cornerback ever to play the game of football. Moreover, he is the only man to play in the Super Bowl and the World Series (and he batted .535)! Sanders, however, is special beyond his athletic accolades. Yes, Sanders has always been known for his magnetic and gregarious personality. However, his strength of personality, his confidence, and his joy are infectious.

Nevertheless, there is a legion of anti-Deion naysayers. Cynics, misanthropes, and I’m quite sure a few anti-Black racists have used coded language to repudiate Sanders's brashness and alacrity. They argued that he is simply glitz and glam, all bravado, no substance, a motivator, not a coach, leader, or teacher, and that his meteoric rise to Power 5 football is rooted in graft, not a care for the student-athletes he leads. His success was due to the stacked roster he had at Jackson State University (JSU), in which he feasted on inferior coaches with ho-hum personnel.

Others, particularly in the Black community, have contrived an anathema for Sanders, arguing that Sanders “pimped” HBCUs (whatever that means). While failing to consider that he worked three seasons at JSU for…