NFL HOFer Deion Sanders opines hitting a baseball is harder than playing football: "Hitting a baseball ain't no joke"

Deion Sanders is one of the greatest multi-sports athletes of our generation. He has had an illustrious football career playing in the NFL and a prosperous baseball career in the MLB.

Now, he teaches college students everything he has learned over his multi-sport career. Sanders is the head football coach at the University of Colorado.

With ESPN's "First Take" on campus ahead of Colorado's matchup with Colorado St., Deion was asked the most difficult challenge he faced. His answer did not shock most baseball fans.

"Hitting a baseball ain't no joke," he said.

He revealed that hitting a baseball was harder than anything he has done in any sport. Keep in mind Sanders was a defensive back in football. He was tasked with guarding the best athletes in football and trying to anticipate where they would go ahead of time.

Hitting a baseball is widely regarded as the most difficult thing to do in all sports, especially at the higher levels. Batters only have milliseconds to track the ball, pick up the pitch type, see if it will be a strike, and figure out if they want to swing -- so much in such little time.

Deion Sanders is great at anything he puts his mind to

Nebraska vs. Colorado Football

Deion was one of the most feared defensive backs the NFL has ever seen. Opposing teams would gameplan to stay away from whatever side he was controlling.

His football accomplishments and awards list is impressively long: Sanders was the NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1994, six-time First-Team All-Pro, eight-time Pro Bowl recipient, 1990s All-Decade Team, and NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team.

He did this with the Atlanta Falcons, San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Cowboys, Washington Commanders, and Baltimore Ravens.

His baseball career was not as spectacular as his football career, but it was nonetheless great. He had a nine-year part-time baseball career, hitting .263 with 39 home runs and 186 stolen bases.

Sanders dominated teams when he was on the base paths, running any chance he got. It is interesting to think how many stolen bases he would have had if baseball was his only sport or if he was playing with today's rules.

Sanders will always be known as one of the greatest multi-sport athletes of our generation.