Coach Deion Sanders plans return but ‘still going through something’

Colorado football coach Deion Sanders said in a video posted by his eldest son on Sunday, July 20 that he’s “not all the way recovered” but otherwise showed signs of returning to his job in Boulder soon after recently battling an undisclosed health issue this summer.

“You know I’m still going through something,” Sanders said to his daughter Shelomi and son Deion Jr. “I ain’t all the way recovered.”

The video posted by Deion Jr. then shows him dipping his legs in an ice bath. The same video showed him more physically active than before, with footage of him shooting baskets on a basketball court, sitting down after tennis lessons and discussing a “run-walk” he finished at his estate in Texas.

“I’m getting better, though, right?” Sanders said to his youngest daughter Shelomi in the video.

Sanders appeared at a Big 12 Conference media days event on July 9 in Frisco, Texas, but declined to reveal the health issue that has kept him away from campus in Boulder while a wave of recruits visited in June.  Recruits were told he was out sick.

While recovering in Texas, Sanders, 57, also missed a number of events in May and June, including the wedding of his star player, Travis Hunter, on May 24 in Tennessee, a speaking appearance in Florida scheduled for June 8 and Colorado’s annual youth and high school camps in Boulder in June.

Colorado doesn’t open preseason football practice until late July and doesn’t open the season until Aug 29 against Georgia Tech. But Sanders indicated he’s coming back soon.  In a video posted by his son Shilo on July 16, Sanders is heard talking on the phone with Shilo and telling him that he would try his best to rent a plane to visit him in Florida before visiting his other son, Shedeur, in Ohio as they try to make the rosters of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Cleveland Browns.

“And then go to work,” Sanders said.

In an interview with media personality Phillip Dukes posted on July 17, Deion Jr. also gave an update from Texas.

‘We headed back to Colorado next week,’ Deion Jr. said. ‘It’s a blessing. It’s been a long journey, a long road and soon everybody will know the reason I haven’t left this house this summer. … Everyone will know in the next few weeks or so.’

In another video posted on July 17, Sanders said Shedeur recently mentioned his father’s weight loss and said he looked like Lil Duval, the comedian and actor.

In late May, Deion Sanders said on a podcast with former NFL cornerback Asante Samuel that he had lost 14 pounds related to his health issue.

He has a history of blood circulation issues in his legs, but it’s not clear if that’s related to his recent sabbatical.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com