Deon Sanders - American Professional Football and Baseball Player

Deion Sanders is an American professional football and baseball player. He is one of the few athletes in history to succeed in two professional sports. Deion Luwynn Sanders was born on August 9, 1967 in Fort Meyers, Florida, where he grew up with his mother and stepfather. His parents got divorced when he was really young. Deion loved almost all sports and he was good at all of them. When he was 8 years old he started playing football and even though he was very young, he still was a star. He was even playing teams with kids older than him and still did very well. Another sport he played was baseball and he played that just as well as football.

You might think that Deion didn't have any religion in his past life, but he did. He grew up going to church with his mother. He has never drank or smoked. Since both of his fathers were addicted to those things, he made a commitment to stay away from that. One day he was with some friends in a car and they were smoking pot. He told them that he didn't do that stuff and they left him alone.

Throughout his high school years he played all different kinds of sports. He played football, baseball, basketball and ran track. He was one of the best in all those sports. When he played for his high school basketball team he was the leading scorer, and earned the name "Prime Time." After his four years playing for his high school team, it was time to start looking for a college. Since he wanted his mother to come see him play, his first pick of colleges was Florida State. He had great careers in all the sports he played in. Before his senior year at Florida State University (FSU), the Yankees took him, so he played professional baseball while in college. While he was in college he decided he would stay away from cursing. So every time he cursed he would pay someone 5 bucks. In 1989 he was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in the first round.

In 1996 when he was playing for the Cowboys and Reds he felt miserable, he said, "After scoring touchdowns and dancing in the end zone, after a stadium full of cheering fans had finally gone home, I was still empty inside." Nothing was making him happy, he tried money, women, and just about everything. His marriage was bad, and his life was bad. Sometimes he would start crying in the middle of his practices. It got so bad that on May 28, 1997 he drove his custom made car off a cliff. Thank God he survived. "I attempted suicide, but God had his hands on me," Sanders said. "I ran the car off the cliff, and it was like a 40 ... 30-foot drop. The car went down and hit and there wasn't a scratch on me or on the car." His lawyer who is a Christian started talking to him about straightening out his life. Then one night at four in the morning something happened to him. He describes it like this:

I was lying there in bed about four o'clock in the morning when I was awakened by these awesome lights in my room. In my testimony I say it was like a 747 had landed beside my bed, and there was this incredible rush of wind that felt like a helicopter had come in with it.

I remember opening my eyes just the slightest bit and saying, "God, if that's You, take me! Take me, Lord." and I was trembling all over. Before long it was silent and the lights disappeared, and later that night I got up and opened my bible to a passage that said, "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." That's Roman 10, versed 9 and 10, and the words hit me like a ton of bricks. I knew they were meant for me, and at that precise moment I was delivered.

I put my trust in Jesus and asked Him into my life. And as soon as I realized what I had done I was so excited I had to tell somebody, so I got on the phone and called my attorney and said, "Eugene, I did it" Now Eugene must have been scared