Deion Sanders stayed at Colorado after the Dallas Cowboys showed interest in him for their head coaching vacancy early last month.
But the pro game is, well, too “Prime Time” even for Sanders these days, he said on his TV talk show, “We Got Time Today.”
Speaking with former Cowboys star quarterback Troy Aikman, Sanders reflected on the intensity of practices when the two were teammates in Dallas in the 1990s and how it compares with today’s NFL.
“I couldn’t coach pro ball,” Sanders said on his show, which streamed Tuesday. “That’s why I say, I couldn’t coach — I know it was cute — but I couldn’t coach pro ball, because the way they practice, the way they go about it, I couldn’t take it. As a man, and as a football enthusiast, and I care about the game. The game is still providing for Troy and I, so there is no way I could allow that to happen on my watch. That would be tough.”
The sentiment is not new for Sanders. He told “60 Minutes” in 2022 he wouldn’t be interested by any NFL opening. He is 13-12 in two seasons as head coach at Colorado. The Buffaloes went 9-4 last season, and cornerback-wide receiver Travis Hunter won the Heisman Trophy.
The Cowboys last appeared in a Super Bowl in 1996, with a roster that featured Sanders, Aikman, Michael Irvin, Emmitt Smith and Charles Haley.
“For Dallas, Deion would have been a really good fit because he would have commanded the room, and his personality is such that people would have known that he was in charge,” Aikman said. “And I think that’s important for [the] organization to know that the head coach is the one who’s calling the shots and that he’s in charge.”
Aikman said some of Sanders’ former teammates with the Cowboys were perturbed by team owner Jerry Jones not pushing for a formal interview or making Sanders an offer.
“You didn’t need a call from me,” Aikman said. “I was watching, wondering how this whole thing was going to unfold. I will say this: As you know, playmaker Michael Irvin is a Cowboy apologist, and you not getting an official interview, not being hired, even he, I’m not sure he’s on the train right now.”
Dallas instead hired offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer, an in-house promotion for the longtime assistant and son of late NFL coach Marty Schottenheimer.
Field Level Media contributed to this report.