Deion Sanders was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio on Saturday, as part of the 2011 class. Sanders, aka Primetime, was an amazing natural athlete, and an amazing entertainer both on and off the field.
His acceptance speech covered a lot of topics, and he gave everyone a deeper glimpse into the man and motivations that drove him throughout his career.
He spoke most personally when he talked about his relationship with his mother and how she was the driving force and motivation in his life. “I attacked this game because I made a promise that I needed this game to fulfill, when I was seven years old, to this young woman aged twenty-seven. She was working two jobs to make ends meet.”
He said that he turned to her and said, “Mama, I’m gonna make a lot of money and you’re never gonna work another day of your life.”
He explained that his promise to his mother was the motivation behind the creation of “Primetime.” He said that he had recognized that defensive backs didn’t get paid a lot, so he said, “In my dorm at Florida State, I created this image. This thing you could imagine. You could love him or hate him, but he was Prime Time.”
He went on to add that he “was trick or treating and it wasn’t even Halloween. All the things you really thought I was, some of the things you didn’t like, didn’t want to accept, I was doing it for my Mama.”
He also waxed philosophically on several other topics:
On Dreams, he said that, “The problem is with some dreams, the dreams are only about you. If you’re dream ain’t bigger than you, there’s a problem with your dream.”
On Timing, he said that, “This game taught me there’s some things in life you can’t do prematurely. In football they call it offsides. In life it’s just life.”
On Self-Belief, he said that, “Thank God I went to five teams, because I had to prove myself over and over again. People start expecting. On my shoes, it says You Gotta Believe.”
Hall of Fame, he said that, “Do you understand this is the Hall of Fame? I grew up on some of you guys. I couldn’t wait to get a glimpse of that TV. To play against the Marinos and Montanas. Troy Aikman. Emmitt Smith, Mike Irvin, are you kidding me? Jerry Rice? Steve Young?”
He closed his speech with, “I don’t know what’s going on in other tents, but Snoop, Cube, Nelly, we bout to go tear this thing up.” Said as only Primetime could say it.
For more on Deion Sanders’ career, see our article here.
