Deion Sanders reveals the emotional toll his family went through during medical scares

As Deion Sanders has risen through the ranks of college coaching in the last two-plus years, he’s also had a concurrent health battle. Within the last 30 months, Sanders has undergone a bevy of surgeries to his leg, including some partial amputations.

Joining ESPN’s “First Take” on Friday from Boulder, the Colorado head coach recounted some of his health struggles. And the biggest toll might not have been on him, but his children.

“I never wavered but that gave my kids — I remember when my kids first seen my leg, Shedeur and Shilo, they didn’t want to look. They didn’t want to look and see the amputation and the severity of it. But they came to the hospital to support me. But that was tremendous because that’s the first time your father, the man that has raised you and cultivated you, now he’s on his back, looking up,” Sanders said.

Sanders had his own low points in his recovery, too.

While he felt he stayed even mentally — at least outwardly — the whole time, he disliked needing help to even get up and walk down the hallway in the immediate weeks after surgery.

“And probably my weakest moment is when we had to put rails in the bathroom and the toilets. I couldn’t even make it to the bathroom by myself. So my security that’s with me now, they was with me then, taking me to the bathroom. Pulling me out of the toilet, just doing those type of things. I couldn’t even get up to save my life,” Sanders said. “And that was tough. Because I’ve prided myself on being a man and being there for everybody else. But I couldn’t even be there for myself at the time. That was probably the toughest time of my life.”

However, Sanders thinks the whole ordeal prepared him for the pressures, trials and tribulations of being a Power 5 football coach.

“And just laying there on my back in that hospital, just thinking and praying, I never lost faith, I never lost sight of the calling and what I’ve been called here to do. And I’ve never had a pity party. I never said, ‘Why me?’ I can’t say ‘Why me?’ — I’m sitting in the hospital having 12 surgeries, ‘Why me?’ when I’m sitting in this type of crib, when I’m earning this type of salary or demanding this type of attention. If you say ‘Why me?’ to that, you gotta say ‘Why me?’ to this. I’ve never said that. And I always knew I had a purpose and you gotta understand, when you go through these perpetual trials and tribulations, that’s building you for something. So I’ve been built and established for this,” Sanders said.