- NCAA. Travis Hunter and Shohei Ohtani continue to fire up fans and make the impossible look easy
- NCAA. Deion Sanders is swayed and 'updates' family ranking after major development with daughter Deiondra
Deion Sanders is a rarity in professional sports -- not just because of his charismatic personality, or because of his Hall of Fame football career, or because of his winning start to his second season as Colorado's head coach.
In the 1990s, Sanders gained further fame by embarking on a career in Major League Baseball simultaneous with his NFL career. Sanders played parts of nine MLB seasons between 1989 and 2001, hitting .263 lifetime with 39 home runs and 186 stolen bases. That gives Sanders a unique perspective on what Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani has achieved in 2024 -- which warranted a couple special comparisons from Coach Prime.
Coach Prime likens Ohtani to Brady, MJ
In speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Sanders likened Ohtani -- the first MLB player ever to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in the same season -- to other "GOATs" in North American sports. Coach Prime specifically compared Ohtani to Tom Brady and Michael Jordan in attempting to quantify his impact on baseball, drawing a parallel to how Brady (a seven-time Super Bowl champion) and Jordan (a six-time NBA champion) dominated their respective sports for long periods.
Sanders thought that Barry Bonds or Jose Canseco in the 1990s would be the first to establish the "50-50 Club", but designated hitter Ohtani has done it instead as he seeks his first World Series ring in his first season since g a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers.
With only six games remaining in the regular season, Ohtani has homered 53 times and swiped 55 bases in a campaign that will surely see him win his third MVP award in seven seasons. Whether a championship will follow remains to be seen, but Sanders knows something special when he sees it -- on the gridiron or on the diamond.