Colorado coach Deion Sanders is dealing with an unknown health issue that has kept him away from recent contract-stipulated summer football camps in Boulder, Colo., according to USA Today.
Sanders also did not attend the Foundation for Sickle Cell Disease Research’s annual symposium Sunday despite being the keynote speaker due to an “unavoidable last-minute scheduling change” that left him “unable to attend,” the foundation tweeted on June 5.
Deion Sanders Jr., the son of the NFL Hall of Famer, said Sunday on a YouTube livestream from the family’s home in Texas that his father is “feeling well” but did not offer many specifics.
“He’ll tell y’all soon enough what he going through, what he went through,” Deion Jr. said, per USA Today.
“When we get back in Boulder, I don’t know. I’m waiting until my dad leaves. When he leaves, then I’ll go. Until then, I’m gonna sit here with him.”
Sanders, 57, is known for being in the spotlight and often is quite visible across social media platforms, making his public absence all the more startling.
He attended the school’s summer camps in each of the past two years since being hired in December 2022, according to USA Today.
The promotional material on the school’s athletics website features Sanders next to the listed dates, which included June 3 and 5 events along with youth football camps this Tuesday and Wednesday and a women’s clinic Thursday.
Sanders attended the school’s spring game April 19 and was with his son, Shedeur, during his slide in the NFL draft the following week, but has not done many interviews since the quarterback’s shocking fall to the fifth round.
Sanders told former Patriots star cornerback Asante Samuel on the latter’s podcast in late May that “what I’m dealing with right now is at a whole other level” after Samuel said he hopes he feels better.
The college head coach said he hasn’t had energy, but then promoted a product so it’s possible those points may have been correlated.
“I’ve done no media, I’ve done nothing now … for a minute,” Sanders said. “Coming on with you, I ain’t been with nobody for a minute. I’ve lost about 14 pounds, I’m coming back, but I needed this.”
Sanders’ recent tweets have mostly been religious and praising God, aside from one where he showed a bucket filled with “Fresh eggs from the SANDERS CHICKENS!”
He last posted to X on Monday morning.
“I know you’re faced with a task that seems like it’s impossible to come out of this with a win,” Sanders said. “The enemy wants your mind & he wants it to doubt that GOD CAN! You got this but u gotta BELIEVE all the thru this & then after. You will have the victory. #CoachPrime.”
Sanders has dealt with health issues in recent years, including surgery in 2023 to fix blood clots in his left leg, per ESPN.
The former Cowboys star had two toes on his left foot amputated in 2022, and had undergone 10 surgeries on his left leg as of 2023, according to a USA Today report at the time.