Louis Riddick addresses likelihood of Deion Sanders leaving Colorado for Cowboys, NFL

NFL analyst Louis Riddick was teammates with Deion Sanders and knows him quite well. He doesn’t see the scenario of Coach Prime leaving Colorado to coach the Dallas Cowboys.

ESPN debated the topic again during Tuesday’s Get Up in response to former Cowboy Dez Bryant pining for Sanders to coach the team. But Riddick said Sanders is better suited for college football and might not even leave Colorado to go somewhere like Florida State.

“The NFL needs, and probably, realistically should want Deion much more than I believe Deion wants the NFL, or needs the NFL,” Riddick said. “Okay, so he, right now, is in the driver’s seat if there is legitimate interest in him. I don’t know if the NFL is a great fit for him because of the way he wants to coach and what he demands in terms of player buy in, player discipline, no second guessing the coach. Like there’s a lot of things … I don’t want to stereotype every NFL player … There are players that want to be coached hard. And Deion, make no mistake, do not get fooled by the glasses, the gold chains, the change of outfits. This man is old school, and he’s no nonsense … 

“But I don’t know if he wants to deal with the NFL right now … But in my (talks) with him, it would take a lot in order for him to leave the college game. It’s going to take a lot for him to ever leave Colorado. You see how they’re playing right now? You see how this football team looks right now? Why would you want to leave?”

Deion Sanders next unconventional hire in NFL?

ESPN’s Dan Graziano offered a variation on Sanders going to the NFL, specifically the Cowboys.

He likened potential success to Jim Harbaugh, who returned to the NFL after nearly a decade at Michigan, and Dan Campbell in Detroit, who was an unconventional hire a few seasons ago.

“I still don’t believe that it’s likely to happen in Dallas, because I don’t believe that Jerry Jones wants that superstar coach that attracts that much attention,” Graziano said. “Jerry Jones the face of the Cowboys, and he likes it that way. And I don’t think that bringing in Deion Sanders is the kind of move we expect him to make. There’s a different conversation to be had about it is would Deion Sanders be a good NFL head coach? And would he be appealing to NFL teams? And I personally think that he might. 

“Because when you look at what Jim Harbaugh is doing with the Chargers, right, like NFL teams, they’ll interview the hot offensive coordinator, but what they really want is a culture builder, a program builder, somebody that can come in and create something where there wasn’t. And you look at what Harbaugh has done, you look at what Dan Campbell has done in Detroit, you know, kind of an unconventional hire when they made it, I think Deion Sanders can certainly sell himself as that, based on his track record in college.”

Sanders is 39-16 as a college head coach, going 12-10 with Colorado currently and went 27-6 with Jackson State over three seasons. Colorado currently controls its own destiny to win the Big 12 Championship and make the College Football Playoff.