Sports Illustrated names NFL icon as 2023 Sportsperson of the Year

The Independent

Colorado football coach Deion Sanders has been named Sports Illustrated’s 2023 Sportsperson of the Year. In less than a year, Coach Prime has not only transformed the Colorado football program. He’s also breathed fresh life into the campus and transformed a community.

Transcript

00:00 Okay, if I clip this.

00:02 Yes, sir.

00:03 I've been doing this for a long time, probably since or before you were born.

00:07 Yeah, yeah, you.

00:08 You.

00:09 That's right.

00:10 I've been around for a long time.

00:12 And guess what?

00:13 I ain't going nowhere.

00:14 Our 28th coach in Colorado history, Coach Prime.

00:18 I want you to know, I'm coming.

00:20 Is there a better story in NFL college ice cream?

00:23 The most important story in my lifetime is Deion Sanders.

00:25 It's time! It's time! It's time!

00:27 Say that.

00:28 It's time.

00:29 Say that again.

00:30 It's time.

00:31 Coaches only.

00:32 It's time.

00:33 Players only.

00:34 It's time.

00:35 Everybody.

00:36 It's time.

00:37 I move the needle.

00:38 Make things happen.

00:39 I provoke an opinion.

00:41 But I'm a dirt money man.

00:44 Who ready?

00:45 I'm ready!

00:46 Who ready?

00:47 I'm ready!

00:48 The Colorado Buffaloes look awful right now.

00:50 You been here for a while?

00:51 All of you have a tremendous opportunity, coaches included.

00:53 Is the team better?

00:54 Good.

00:55 Let's rest it right there with an exclamation mark.

00:58 [Music]

01:01 Colorado football is instantly relevant.

01:03 They were completely irrelevant in the years before Deion Sanders arrived.

01:09 He injected personality, energy, curiosity, and drew everything to him.

01:18 Today's a new day.

01:20 It's time for everybody to come together.

01:22 Regardless of how you felt the last 12 months or 18 months,

01:25 it's a new day today.

01:27 Everybody said, "Let's go all in."

01:29 It's time to go all in.

01:32 I chose this program because Rick George first and foremost gave me a tremendous opportunity.

01:38 And he felt like I was the guy that could stick this key in and turn it,

01:44 and it would click, and it would open.

01:46 We getting ready to go out there and give it everything we got.

01:48 You good with that?

01:49 Yes, sir.

01:50 Who ready?

01:51 You.

01:52 When I say, "Who ready?" you say, "I'm ready."

01:53 Who ready?

01:54 I'm ready.

01:55 Who ready?

01:56 I'm ready.

01:57 Everyone around the country has given to us unconditionally,

02:01 and we have a tremendous respect for that.

02:04 Peggy Copham has been attending games at CU for decades.

02:07 The 98-year-old has been a season ticket holder since the mid-'60s.

02:12 He is a genuine person.

02:15 I'm very comfortable with him.

02:17 What everybody sees is what you get.

02:20 There is nothing that is fake about him.

02:23 I don't want just a football team.

02:26 I look at this thing totally different than just being a team.

02:29 Deion Sanders has been a disrupter and a precedent setter, really,

02:33 in college football with what he did in the transfer portal,

02:37 an unprecedented turnover of the roster,

02:40 the willingness to act authentically on the sidelines,

02:45 and in general, in the way he comported himself.

02:48 He did not choose to fit the cookie-cutter mold of a major college coach,

02:54 and I think people were refreshed and invigorated.

02:57 He's the same guy he was when he was a player.

03:00 Deion Sanders is the person that is an awesome dude.

03:02 I mean, seriously, I think you get what you see, period,

03:05 and there's no sugarcoating it at all.

03:07 The message that he's delivering to his players,

03:10 and Deion has given them the spiritual aspect of it,

03:13 but yet he's allowing them to grow as young men.

03:15 I apologize on behalf of just myself, staff, support staff,

03:20 that we didn't send them out right in which we wanted to because they deserve it.

03:25 Apologizing to the fan base.

03:26 They've been supporting the heck out of us,

03:28 and they've been showing up and showing out and never sell our crowd.

03:31 We're so close is what I told the team, but yet so far.

03:34 And I think college football has kind of evolved to the point where

03:37 it's caught up with Deion as opposed to Deion changing to catch up to college football.

03:42 [Deion Sanders]

03:45 When you say it takes a village, that's no lie.

03:48 People take that for granted, but not only do I have a wonderful team of athletes,

03:53 but the team of persons that keeps this machine going,

03:58 that keeps you in the tank, that keeps me on point,

04:02 that makes sure I'm hitting my marks and making sure I'm making it happen,

04:06 is phenomenal, and I'm so thankful to have that team.

04:10 I've accomplished some tremendous things individually,

04:15 but my biggest accomplishments have all come with a team.

04:20 Deion Sanders is the 2023 Sports Illustrated Sports Person of the Year.

04:31 I can't tell you why.

04:36 First of all, it's awesome because it's unexpected,

04:40 especially with the way our season is right now,

04:43 but you recognize impact, you recognize momentum.

04:48 You recognize change, you recognize culture, you recognize significance,

04:56 you recognize so many different attributes that we possess.

05:01 And I'm thankful to be in this position.

05:05 Candidly, as sports fans do, is this a crowning season in terms of wins and losses?

05:10 Was there no better coach in terms of a record or competing for the national championship

05:15 than Deion Sanders? Of course there was.

05:17 But if part of this award is sports pioneers, sports visionaries, sports figures of the moment,

05:22 people who understand the current landscape, whether that's conference realignment,

05:26 whether that's the importance of media, social media, of the transfer portal,

05:30 of the possibilities that come with NIL,

05:32 this is someone who really is a man of the moment in college football.

05:36 I move the needle. I make things happen.

05:45 I provoke an opinion.

05:47 What have I really done to you?

05:50 Besides try to encourage you and motivate you and have you aspire to be greater.

05:55 This is one of those moments.

05:57 One thing that really struck me was you could really sense the concern,

06:02 if not outright fear, from other coaches.

06:04 This guy is running circles around me.

06:06 Some guys have tremendous moments and we give them their love,

06:10 we give them their praise, we give them their roses.

06:12 I understand that.

06:13 But I'm a damn monument.

06:15 (music fades)

06:17 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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