During his playing days Deion Sanders and Andre Rison were the best of friends. Despite maybe 30 seconds of an on the field kerfuffle between the 49ers and Falcons, it has remained that way, teammates or not.
Recently Rison had the opportunity to visit with Coach Prime in Boulder and the two relived some great stories and some sobering truths.
Rison is currently a coach now as well, and the two see and agree on the disparity of African American coaches in Division I football. Coach Prime relived his frustrations of being overqualified but over looked while trying to break into college football.
“Now, in college, you rarely see coaches that came from high school. African-Americans that go up to the collegiate level, it’s almost like a stop sign. Unless you know somebody who gives you an opportunity. But then you don’t know somebody who gives you the opportunity because that somebody doesn’t look like you. So how do we get those opportunities,” Sanders said.
Dismissing the doubt
Anyone who doubted Sanders’ ability to coach prior to his tenure at Jackson State, that certainly didn’t age well. But even if that opinion did have merit, it’s unquestionable that Sanders was one of the greatest ever to play the game.
Rison echoed that making a point about the dip in fundamental technique in college players transitioning to the pros.
“I’ve heard they say that the product that’s coming out of college that’s going into the NFL is watered down as far as fundamentals and technique. You’re talking to the greatest of all time at that position, not not only that, but one of the greatest, if not the greatest football player of all time. You think he didn’t have fundamentals, technique? That’s all I’m saying,” said Rison as he Sanders laughed.
The two also shared plenty of laughs and stories from their playing days together. They discussed oversleeping for a preseason game, competing against one another with mink coats and sports cars plus more. And in case you’ve never heard the full story, they even discuss their on field altercation when Deion Sanders returned to Atlanta as a 49er.
Check out the full video above for story time between these two great friends sitting in Coach Prime’s office. For more video content from Thee Pregame Show, visit our YouTube Channel. You can become a subscriber and get notifications for the release of our latest videos.
