Deion Sanders continues to deliver interest and eyeballs

Once upon a time, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones spent a lot of money to bring Deion Sanders to Dallas. Would Jones try to do it with the hottest coach in all of sports?

Jones wasn’t asked that specific question during a Sunday post-game discussion with reporters. But it’s clear that Jerry believes in Deion.

“Let me tell you something,” Jones said of Deion. “He’s a hell of a coach. He’s a hell of a coach.”

Can Jerry see Deion coaching in the NFL?

“He influences people and of course that’s part of it in the NFL,” Jerry said. “But I don’t want to go there because you know where that starts going every which way. But [Deion] can influence and cause with his stature, his substance, what he is, as well as his own personality, being able to get inside and work with you on an individual basis. I’m a product of that with him.”

Beyond influencing players, Deion delivers. Saturday night’s late-starting (and very late-finishing) Colorado State-Colorado game gave ESPN its fifth best college football rating EVER, with an average of 9.3 million viewers. In the age of widespread cord cutting, that’s stunning. Also, Colorado has completely sold out all of its home games for the first time ever, via TheAthletic.com.

The impact goes beyond football games. Via Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal, the season premiere of 60 Minutes, featuring a profile of Deion, drew the biggest audience for the show since January 2021, with 11.8 million viewers.

Yes, it helps that the show had a massive lead-in audience from Jets-Cowboys (25.8 million). Still, many stuck around, presumably for more Deion.

The sports world can’t get enough of Deion. And that could be enough to get some owner out there to become willing to try to put together a financial offer that will make Deion, who told Rich Eisen last week that he doesn’t think he can motivate rich NFL players, willing to at least give it a try.