College football coach Deion Sanders is giving thanks to God for enabling him to survive a cancer battle, maintaining that people “have no idea how good God has been to me.”
Sanders, a former NFL football player who is now the head football coach at the University of Colorado Boulder, discussed his medical prognosis at a press conference alongside medical professionals Monday.
Dr. Janet Kukreja said she had removed a tumor from Sanders’ bladder and removed the bladder itself. She added that part of Sanders’ small intestine was used to create a new bladder that was subsequently implanted, according to ESPN. Following these operations, Sanders is believed to be cancer-free.
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Sanders noted that he has had 14 surgeries since 2021 and expounded on the challenges he now faces following the series of surgeries, specifically an inability to control his bladder. As he reflected on the difficulties associated with his medical problems, the football coach declared that “it has been a tremendous journey.”
“I can’t pee like I used to,” Sanders said, adding that he hopes his honesty with help others in similar conditions. “I depend on Depends. … I’m making a joke out of it, but it is real.”
After thanking God for enabling him to pull through his ordeal, Sanders delivered a message to “all you people that get upset when I start talking about the Lord.” “I never once, through this whole journey, said, ‘God, why me?’”
Sanders highlighted the blessings in his life that he attributed to God, including the opportunities to serve as head football coach at a “prestigious university” and “to “father five wonderful kids.” He maintained that when he was faced with his illness, “I said, ‘Lord, whatever it is that you’re doing, let me know what it is so I can expedite the process because I know you’ve got me.’”
“I’ve seen you have my back. I’ve seen you there in the midst of storms when nobody knew I was going through hell. I’ve seen you guide me and bring me through,” he added. Sanders reiterated that he would “never say ‘why me,’” stressing that cancer normally amounts to a “life sentence.”
Sanders expressed gratitude that cancer did not end his life “because God got me and I don’t take it for granted.”
When asked about the “biggest challenge” he has faced related to his cancer treatment, Sanders responded that “everything I deal with is like a tool to reach more, to affect more, to challenge more, to love more, to give more.”
“I know He’s going to magnify me. I know He’s going to glorify me. And that’s what has transpired. So, I don’t mind going through the afflictions I go through because I know the result,” he said.
In response to a question inquiring about when he realized he was “going to be able to coach again,” Sanders said that “I always knew I was going to coach again. I never didn’t realize I was going to coach again. I was always going to coach. It was never in my spirit, in my heart, that God wouldn’t allow me to coach again.”
Sanders responded to another question asking him what it was like “staring death in the face” by countering, “I stared life in the face.”
According to Sanders, “I’m God’s guy. I really am. I’m allowed to go through these trials and tribulations so that I could touch and reach and bless people with my words, with the energy, with that thing that God gave me.”
“I got too much life in me,” he remarked. “And I got work to do. We got to win the darn championship. You talking about death? No, God definitely ain’t getting ready to take me before that.”
As the press conference concluded, Sanders fielded a question about how he kept his sense of humor amid his cancer battle.
“There’s a scripture that says God uses the foolish things to confound the wise,” he replied. “I’m on assignment and I’m in alignment with where I’m supposed to be. I’m not lost. I’m not here by mistake. God planted me here.”
Sanders added that he “never doubted” he would find himself in his role as head football coach at CU Boulder: “I knew it was just a matter of time. So sometimes, it may not happen when you desire it to happen, but it’s just a matter of time.”
Sanders also offered praise to the CU Boulder football players: “I’m thankful that God chose me to coach them and to be right here.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
