Peyton Manning once shared valuable advice he got before playing Deion Sanders for the first time in 1999
Colorado coach Deion Sanders is making waves as a coach in the Big 12 with his son, quarterback Shedeur Sanders, and two-way star Travis Hunter pushing the Buffaloes to new heights. He has successfully made the switch from the FCS with Jackson State to the FBS with Colorado.
Before he was Coach Prime, Sanders was known as Prime Time due to his charisma on and off the field with the Florida State Seminoles and in the NFL and MLB.
During an episode of NFL legend Peyton Manning's "Peyton's Places" in July 2023, the former NFL quarterback reviewed the first time he played against Sanders in the NFL, pitting the Indianapolis Colts against the Dallas Cowboys. He detailed the lesson he learned playing against the two-way star (4:00).
"Alright, tell me this. I played against you the first time in 1999 and I can't remember who it is that told me, 'You gotta be careful against Deion because nobody throws at him and he actually lets receivers run by him in order to appear open and then you accelerate," Manning said.
Deion Sanders breaks down clash against Peyton Manning
By the time Peyton Manning arrived in the NFL as the No. 1 pick by the Indianapolis Colts in the 1998 NFL Draft via the Tennessee Volunteers, Deion Sanders was a veteran in the league with two Super Bowl wins.
The pair first clashed when Manning's Colts defeated Sanders' Cowboys 34-24 in the fateful clash in 1999. Although the charismatic Sanders was known as one of the best cover cornerbacks, Manning threw a peach of a pass to Marvin Harrison to score a 40-yard touchdown, beating Prime Time on the play.
In 2016, while appearing on "NFL Network," Deion Sanders revealed how Manning and Harrison fooled him to score the touchdown unchallenged.
“I got caught looking at the naked hand,” Deion Sanders said. “So, Edgerrin James was running the ball well and you want to get up there and stop that before it gets started. And I’m peeking in the backfield. But you know, once you see that naked hand (when the quarterback fakes the handoff), it’s six fingers, not five fingers.
"I looked back there and Marvin ran a deep post for six, man.”
Deion Sanders is still regarded as one of the best-ever cornerbacks to play the game and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011. However, Peyton Manning, who is also considered among the greatest-ever quarterbacks, managed to find a way to outcraft him.