BOULDER, Colorado — Deion Sanders already has a victory under his belt in 2025. The Colorado University Buffaloes football coach announced Monday that he beat bladder cancer.
The CU Buffs coach addressed his health Monday at the CU Touchdown Club adjacent to Folsom Field. He was flanked at the table by Dr. Janet Kukreja, director of Urologic Oncology at CU Cancer Center, and by Lauren Askevold, CU’s assistant athletic trainer.
Sanders was diagnosed with an aggressive cancerous tumor in his bladder during a health check-up this past spring.
The coach had his bladder removed. Kukreja said he is now cancer-free.
“We’re gonna beat this, (aren’t) we?” Sanders asked Kukreja Monday.
“It’s beaten,” she replied.
Sanders, 57, has coached through health challenges before. The Pro Football Hall-of-Famer missed three games with Jackson State in 2021. He’s battled blood clot issues in the past, and had surgery to address a clot in his right leg in 2023.
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Askevold said the tumor was diagnosed during CU’s spring football practices this past April and that the surgery was completed by early May.
The CU coach was notably absent from June camps in Boulder, leading to multiple reports that Sanders was still dealing with an unspecified health issue that would keep him away from campus.
The Florida native told Asante Samuel that he recently had lost 14 pounds. Sanders said Monday that he’d dropped about 25 pounds.
Coach Prime encouraged men to “get checked … without wonderful people like this, I wouldn’t be sitting here today.”
The Buffs opened their preseason camp this week and will start the 2025 season on August 29 at Folsom Field against Georgia Tech. Coach Prime indicated he intended to return to work as normal when asked how much he had relied on his staff while he was getting treatment.
“Rely on my staff?” Sanders replied. “I’m back, baby.”
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