Deion Sanders updates health status as Colorado football camp begins

Deion Sanders was flanked by his medical team during the first press conference of Colorado’s 2025 fall camp.

The Buffaloes’ head football coach has recently been dealing with an undisclosed health issue and he cleared the air on Monday: Coach Prime had his bladder removed after a cancerous tumor was found in it. The bladder removal cured the cancer and that word (cure) is not something Sanders’ doctor, Janet Kukreja (director of urologic oncology, uses lightly.

Kukreja is able to declare Sanders cured of bladder cancer because the tumor was caught early enough. As a result, Coach Prime is back in Boulder and ready to coach the Colorado football team in 2025 and beyond.

“It was never in my spirit, in my heart, that God wouldn’t allow me to coach again,” Deion Sanders said Monday. “I never thought like that. I just didn’t want to be running down to the hospital once a week when I have all of this on my plate.”

Sanders began having health complications back in April, shortly before the 2025 NFL Draft, and underwent surgery in May.

Bladder cancer is the fourth-most common cancer in men and Sanders opted for a treatment option (bladder removal) that allowed him to return to coaching quicker. The other option would’ve resulted in a long series of treatments (up to three years) with a 50% chance of re-occurrence.

Coach Prime’s values didn’t align with that timeline. His values aligned with being there for his family and the Buffs.

“You have no idea how good God has been for me to be here,” Deion Sanders said Monday.

The Colorado football team reported for fall camp on Sunday and will hold its first practice of the 2025 season on Tuesday.

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