For all the success he has achieved on and off the field, Colorado head coach Deion Sanders never misses a chance to give back to the next generation. And in doing so, he makes his rough upbringing the headliner of his conversations. This time, he added an extra insight into the principles that guide his recruiting in Colorado while speaking to an audience of kids much younger than the ones he coaches in Boulder.
“Your mentality is everything I look for when I choose people to play with me in Colorado,” he said to the kids in a July 16 video posted on theWell Off Media YouTube channel. “Not their talent, not what they do on the field. That has a little bit to do with it, but their mentality. And this wristband that I have on says “smart,” “tough,” “fast,” “discipline,” and “character.”
“Well, you got somebody in your house who probably is not going to believe in you. Somebody in your hood ain’t believe in you, somebody in your family definitely don’t believe in you. And somebody’s trying to get you to do wrong when sitting right there in front of you. So, it takes all that, and the ability to say no… [I] couldn’t afford a camp. I haven’t gone to a camp in my life. I didn’t get recruited out of high school until senior year. I was 150 pounds when I graduated. Camp? No, we did hood stuff. We used to have recreation centers.”…