Before the bye week, Deion Sanders and his team suffered a devastating loss to Stanford after being up 29-0 before the half.
After the game, Sanders raised the question to his team asking whether “You like the game or love the game?”
Actions Speak Louder Than Words
When Sanders was asked how to evaluate this between his players, his answer was based on the simple fact that a player’s actions dictate their commitment.
“Actions speak louder than words,” Sanders said. “You just say what you love, but your actions don’t line up with that love and that display of love. You can’t measure a heart in football or in physical sports. So that’s the thing that’s missing, the heart of it. So when you talk about love, you talk about accompanying that with your heart, playing with your heart.”
It’s Tough to Detect
Regardless of actions, Sanders states it’s very tough to detect. Only time can tell with how bad players want it and how hard they are willing to work to achieve their best.
“You can tell by the locker room,” he said. “How some guy’s practice, how some guys feel the pain of it if we don’t win, how their heart is in it. That predicates love to me. But it’s tough to detect that. I wish we could detect the heart. We’ll put every recruit we have on a heart monitor and see where they are. It would help us tremendously in recruiting the heart. It’s tough though.”
Sanders has never been one to shy away from the truth. He’s made it clear that his standards have not changed and that from day one, he expects the best from all those who play for him and work with him.
