Deion Sanders reflects on playing for Cowboys, calls Jerry Jones the best owner in football history

Today, Deion Sanders remains a larger-than-life figure as he coaches the Colorado Buffaloes at the college level. Still, it’s his time as a player in the NFL when Prime became a legend. In particular, his time with the Dallas Cowboys is still remembered fondly today.

Sanders reflected on his time in Dallas while making an appearance on New Heights, hosted by Jason Kelce and Travis Kelce. There, he broke down what made his time there so special, outside of all the winning, and just how important Jerry Jones has been during his time there.

“Unbelievable,” Deion Sanders said. “Unbelievable. I was just going through a personal hell at the time. I left San Fran. You know, I need the challenges in my life. Like, ‘Okay, let me go to San Fran. Oh, we beat the Cowboys. Oh, boom, Jerry Jones wants me to go there. Let me go there and see if we can beat San Fran.’ It’s like I needed challenges in my life. We had a bunch of Florida boys that played for the Cowboys at the time. I said, ‘How is it, man?’ Because I ain’t got no time for jealousy. I ain’t got no time for this. I’ve been in some locker rooms with bull junk. I ain’t got time for that. Mike said, ‘We good over here. We Florida boys over here.’ Emmitt, Mike, Big Nate. You know? Okay, so it was unbelievable, man.”

Coming out of Florida State, Deion Sanders was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons. He’d spend time as a two-sport athlete within the city, also playing baseball for the New York Yankees, Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, and San Francisco Giants at times during his career. He’d become the only professional athlete to play in both the Super Bowl and the World Series in the process. After Atlanta, he played one season in San Francisco before landing in Dallas.

Deion Sanders got to Dallas after Jerry Jones had already won two Super Bowls. Sanders had gotten his first with the 49ers. There, the pair would go on to win another. It was a time that would leave an impression on Sanders, as he now thinks of Jones as the best owner the NFL has seen.

“Jerry Jones will go down and should go down in history as arguably the best owner that ever owned a football franchise because you hear media talk about Jerry. You’ve never heard a player talk about Jerry Jones in a negative fashion because he is unbelievable. I had the luxury to play for Eddie DeBartolo, who was unbelievable,” Sanders said. “Some other ones, Steve Bisciotti later on in life, but let me tell you something, man. The Cowboys, you’re talking about America’s team, and when you travel and when you go places, it’s probably like it is, right now, it’s probably the same way as you were with Philly at the end. Philly fans are crazy. They’ll kill you, shank you. It was unbelievable, man. It really was. It was an experience — we were too young and dumb to really know the level of it.”

Sanders’ connection to Jones runs deep, and his name even came up as a possibility to replace Mike McCarthy as their head coach last season. That didn’t end up happening. On top of that, Sanders would also joke that the favorite team he played for during his time was actually the Atlanta Falcons.

“Atlanta was my favorite team. We had so much fun, man. I mean, we got our butts kicked. We went to a playoff. We had so much fun. I think we had a team meeting in Magic City every Friday night. It was crazy. We had so much fun. Shout out to Magic,” Sanders said. “But so much fun. The Dallas Cowboys were different. San Francisco it was business. It was like business, and I love that it was like business. Then, you got to Dallas and they won like you did in San Fran, but you had fun winning. You enjoyed all your teammates and the laughter and the banter that went on.”

Deion Sanders will be remembered as a player for the success he found with multiple franchises. His time with the Cowboys, however, was clearly special to him.