Deion Sanders revealed during a documentary series Tuesday night that he had two toes on his left foot amputated due to blood clots last fall.
The clots that stemmed from a previous surgery could have lost him his leg and even his life, the Pro Football Hall of Famer turned Jackson State coach said on the “Coach Prime” docuseries by Barstool Sports.
“They were talking about the amputation of toes,” Sanders said. “Then they were talking about the amputation of my leg from the knee down. Then, they were trying to ensure I had life.”
Last season, the former All-Pro cornerback was hospitalized for about a month in the middle of the Tigers’ Southwestern Athletic Conference championship season. He had a dislocated toe along with an inflamed nerve. He first had surgery in September and returned to coach practices and games using a golf cart, crutches or a push scooter.
But during the documentary, he revealed that his toes began to darken under the bandages and the 54-year-old underwent several surgeries. Along with his blood clot, Sanders had compartment syndrome, causing his leg to swell up and for doctors to drain fluid from his legs. The complications caused his big toe and second toe to be amputated.
“The hardest thing of it all was to look down there and see that and understand once upon a time you was this type of athlete and you don’t even know if you’re gonna walk because all you feel is pain,” Sanders said. “You just wanna get out of this hospital.”
Sanders, who started his career with the Falcons before stints with the 49ers and Cowboys, suffered a turf toe injury during the 1998 season in Dallas. Despite multiple surgeries, the injury hobbled the ball-hawking corner in his final two seasons in Dallas and his lone season with Washington in 2000.
In 2018, Sanders detailed his injury on the “Dan Patrick Show,” showing the camera his mangled toes.
“It’s the closest thing they call to ‘turf toe.’ It was just horrendous,” Sanders told Patrick in 2018. “I mean, I’ve never felt anything like it. It was so bad it had begun to be hammertoe, so they have to shave it down and straighten it out, and that’s what I got.
.@DeionSanders show us what his NFL Career did to his toes #PrimeToe pic.twitter.com/aH6tKkFhKO
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) February 1, 2018
“You could hit it on top with a hammer, because it’s numb. It’s numb right now, but it hurts.”
Despite Sanders’ absence at times last season, the Tigers went 11-2 and 8-0 in SWAC play.
This article is based in part on wire service reports.
• Jacob Calvin Meyer can be reached at jmeyer@washingtontimes.com.
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