Coach Prime is now Grandpa Prime after Deion Sanders’ daughter gave birth to his first grandchild Friday on the same day Sanders was born 57 years ago.
Sanders, Colorado’s head football coach, spilled the news Friday on his own birthday at a preseason news conference in Boulder. His daughter Deiondra gave birth to the baby boy after recently getting engaged to the baby’s father, R&B singer Jacquees.
“That’s how good God is, like God would choose me on my birthday, for my daughter, for my kids to have their first child, the first time I’m a grandfather, on my birthday,” said Deion Sanders, also known as Coach Prime. “Do you understand how beautiful that is? How much of a blessing that is?”
Deiondra Sanders is the oldest of five children fathered by Deion Sanders, the Pro Football Hall of Famer. Deiondra Sanders did not immediately announce the news on social media Friday. But her brothers on the Colorado football team also talked about it.
“We are uncles, yeah” said Shedeur Sanders, Colorado’s quarterback. “It’s really exciting. My sister, I just got the text that she had a child.”
Colorado safety Shilo Sanders said he saw the newborn earlier on a call.
“He’s nice,” Shilo Sanders said. “He’s healthy. I’ve seen him on FaceTime. I’m proud of her.”
Deiondra Sanders announced her pregnancy in March, calling it a “miracle” and noting that it came with health risks after having several myomectomy surgeries to remove fibroid non-cancerous growths in the uterus. She said then she had seven current fibroids and was warned about a high-risk pregnancy.
But she managed the discomfort that came with it and gave birth, marking another eventful moment for the Sanders family. Deiondra is the daughter of Deion Sanders’s first wife, Carolyn Chambers, who had two children with him before divorcing in 1997. That includes his second-oldest child, Deion Sanders Jr., a former football player at SMU who now chronicles his father’s football program for his Well Off Media channel on YouTube.
Deion Sanders then married actress Pilar Biggers in 1999 and had three children: sons Shilo and Shedeur and daughter Shelomi. The couple later divorced.
Shilo and Shedeur are entering their final college football season playing for their father in Boulder. Shelomi Sanders, the youngest of the five, recently transferred from Colorado to play basketball at Alabama A&M.
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. E-mail: bschrotenb@usatoday.com
