Desmond Howard recalls hilarious NFL story with Deion Sanders

Desmond Howard and Deion Sanders are two of the best punt and kickoff returners in football history.

And during Monday’s College Football Playoff championship edition of College Gameday, the two relived a funny moment from the 1992 NFL season.

Howard was a rookie receiver for Washington while Deion Sanders — now the head coach at Colorado —was a superstar for Atlanta, and the two teams faced off in a Week 2 matchup.

“When I was drafted in 1992, Washington…had won the Super Bowl,” Howard said. “Coach Gibbs, he was so stressed trying to win it again, trying to repeat. He used to talk about that. He would talk to the players and he would talk to the coaches. I remember we played Atlanta and Deion Sanders was on the Falcons. It was like one of my first games. Here I am about to return a punt, Byan Mitchell’s back there with me. He threw a lateral..I took the punt all the way to the house. My first touchdown. I’m excited. I’m happy.”

"I looked over at Des and said 'What'!"

This story from @DeionSanders and @DesmondHoward 😂 pic.twitter.com/t1FG2ASai3

— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) January 9, 2023

It was clearly a memorable moment for the 1991 Heisman Trophy winner — but it wasn’t the end of the story.

“Deion what happened after that?” Howard asked.

“I was so mad,” Sanders said to an outburst of laughter on the set. “I was upset. I wasn’t even returning punts. I told the kickoff (returner) get off the field, I got this. I took it to the house and looked over at Desmond and said ‘What!'”

Washington ended up winning the game that day, 24-17, but those two returns on back-to-back plays make it more than a footnote in the history books and the two legends of college football shared exactly why on Monday before Georgia and TCU wrote their own history.

One thing remains true don’t test Primetime.