Deion Sanders played for five different teams during his his 14-year Hall of Fame career. But he’s perhaps best remembered as a Cowboy.
Sanders arrived in Dallas as a high-priced free agent in 1995, and immediately became the Cowboys’ newest star. He earned three first-team All-Pro selections and made four Pro Bowls in his five years with Dallas, helping the team win Super Bowl XXX over the Steelers. That remains the most recent championship for the franchise, which has yet to advance past the divisional round since.
Ahead of Super Bowl LVII in Glendale, Ariz., Sanders sat down with Sports Illustrated to recount his playing days, and shared his favorite story about Cowboys owner, president and general manager Jerry Jones.
“I wanted some more Super Bowl tickets than I was given. And I went to see the boss. I knock on his suite door in the hotel, and he comes in shorts, T-shirt, the grandkids are running around the room. It wasn’t ‘the owner’ then, it was the grandfather,” Sanders said. “It was the dad, it was the guy that we all know and love.”
Sanders said he appreciated getting to know that side of Jones, and that he and other Cowboys players (past and present) hold Jones in high regard for the way he treated people.
“The media says what they want to say, I’ve never heard a former player speak any negativity about Jerry Jones,” Sanders said. “And I’m not about to be the first. Because I saw both guys, and I saw a multitude of men that has always been a blessing to his players, to the community there in Texas and to the organization he’s built … just seeing him in a different light in that era was unbelievable.”
Now, about that hotel suite request? Sanders got the answer he was looking for: “And he did give me the tickets.”
