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Prime Time Resonates To This Day

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By IRA KAUFMAN

ikaufman@tampatrib.com

Published: January 30, 2009

FORT MYERS - Deion Sanders wasn't thinking about the Vince Lombardi Trophy as the final minutes ticked down at Miami's Joe Robbie Stadium 14 years ago.

With the 49ers ahead of the Chargers 49-26 in Super Bowl XXIX, San Francisco players were already in a celebratory mood, but Sanders kept gazing at third-string quarterback Bill Musgrave.

"I went over to George Seifert and said, 'Coach, put Billy in,'" Sanders recalled. "I don't think Billy even played a snap that season. Musgrave was saying, 'I'm cool,' but I was saying, 'No, man, you've been preparing us the whole season - you need to be in the Super Bowl. It's something you need to tell your kids.'"

Sanders persisted and Seifert relented.

Let the record note that Bill Musgrave completed a 6-yard pass to Ted Popson seconds before the final gun.

"When they put him in and let him throw a pass, I was teary-eyed because I know what that guy meant to the team," said Sanders, who won the first of his two Super Bowl rings on that South Florida evening. "Those are the moments that really register in my mind."

The memories come flooding back for Sanders, now a 41-year-old analyst for NFL Network.

Sports fans won't soon forget "Prime Time," the flamboyant cornerback who divided football fields in two and declared to all who would listen:

"This half's mine."

Then, he backed it up.

Sanders was the first athlete to play in a Super Bowl and a World Series, and the first regular starter on offense and defense. He won back-to-back Super Bowls, with the 49ers in Super Bowl XXIX in 1995, in which he had an interception, and the Cowboys in Super Bowl XXX, in which he caught a long pass.

"He's the best who ever played the game during my time," Bucs receiver Ike Hilliard said. "You talk about a game-changer. Deion was an unbelievably instinctive corner. And he played at the line a lot stronger than people give him credit for."

The man who defined the term "cover corner" was first drafted by the New York Yankees in 1988, then the Atlanta Falcons in 1989. Sanders stole 186 bases while playing for four teams over nine years, batting .533 with the Braves in the 1992 World Series, but football served as his colorful canvas.

He quickly earned a reputation as a consummate pass defender who didn't contribute much as a run stopper, even characterizing the act of tackling as a business decision.

"As a cover guy, Deion was unbelievable," former NFL coach Dan Reeves said. "As a kick returner, he was unbelievable. But would he hit anybody? You'd try to come up with formations that would create a situation where Deion would be forced to make a tackle."

Hey, Koufax couldn't hit and Picasso couldn't sing.

Sanders could cover ... and he made sure everyone knew it.

In his 1989 debut with the Falcons, Sanders returned a punt 68 yards for a touchdown. The first of his 53 NFL interceptions came a week later against the Cowboys. In 1994, with the 49ers, Sanders was named NFL Defensive Player of the Year. He joined the Cowboys the next season and caught a 47-yard pass in their Super Bowl triumph against Pittsburgh.

"Just seeing the Cowboys get back there once again, that registers in my mind," Sanders said. "They had won the previous two years and we took it away from them when I was in San Francisco. To see the joy of my owner, Jerry Jones, getting that trophy back, and Barry Switzer, a guy that I'm so fond of, win his first Super Bowl, those are the memories that register with me."

Then-Baltimore coach Brian Billick didn't know Sanders when Sanders ended a three-year retirement and joined the Ravens in 2004 for his final two NFL seasons. Sanders made quite an impression.

"There's been some great lockdown corners in this league," Billick said, "but Deion's athleticism, his speed and his mind-set for the game changed the position."

Reporter Ira Kaufman can be reached at (813) 259-7833.

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