Deion Sanders career stats: Is the current Colorado HC the greatest multi-sport athlete?

Deion Sanders was recently installed as the head coach of the University of Colorado at Boulder. This comes on the back of his successful stint with Jackson State where he turned them into a powerhouse, winning a couple of conference championships. He has the charisma and the force of personality that attracts the very best student athletes to join him.

It is, of course, no surprise that he is so well known. Sanders is one of the few players to have played two professional sports at an elite level. He played in the NFL and the MLB. The 55-year-old remains the only player to have played in both a Super Bowl and a World Series.

Deion Sanders is a Pro Football Hall of Famer, having had an exceptional football career. The former cornerback made it to eight Pro Bowls in his career. He was the kickoff return yards leader in 1992 and the NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1994.

Sanders won consecutive Super Bowls - XXIX and XXX - with the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys, respectively.

He had 53 interceptions in his career in the NFL, including five in the last two seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, four years after initially retiring in 2000. The player-turned-coach was good not only at intercepting the ball but also returning it for yards.

Deion Sanders' best season was in 1994, when he had six interceptions for 303 yards and three touchdowns. The former NFL star had a total of nine touchdowns in his career. The most interceptions he ever had in a season was in 1993, racking up seven that campaign.

His MLB career wasn't half bad either, as he made the World Series with the Atlanta Braves in 1992. He played for nine seasons in the MLB with the New York Yankees, Atlanta Braves, San Francisco Giants, and Cincinnati Reds. Sanders had a .263 batting average, 558 hits, 39 home runs, 168 RBIs and 308 runs scored.

Considering that he made the World Series in 1992 and won the Super Bowls in 1994 and 1995, he was at the peak of his form in two different sports at the same time. It is extremely rare to find someone excelling in two different sports simultaneously. We look at some others who are in this rarefied group.

Which other athletes can boast of multi-sport success like Deion Sanders?

In the American context, joining Deion Sanders is, of course, Bo Jackson. Like Sanders, he played in both the NFL and MLB.

Jackson was selected first overall by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1986, but after failing to agree terms, chose to play for the Kansas City Royals in the MLB. He would go on to win All-Star selection and Pro Bowl selection in 1990, making him the only person to achieve this level of success in both sports.

Danny Ainge played in the MLB for the Toronto Blue Jays from 1979 to 1981 before becoming a professional basketball player with the Boston Celtics. He would go on to win two NBA Championships with them and get selected for one All-Star team in 1988. He won the 2008 NBA Championship as an executive as well.

Jim Brown, the legendary running back for the Cleveland Browns, made it to nine Pro-Bowls and won three NFL MVP awards. He also won the NFL Championship in 1964.

While in college, he also played lacrosse. He is regarded as one of the greatest lacrosse players of all time and the MVP award is named in his honor. Brown also made it to the Lacrosse Hall of Fame as well as the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Some other players have been good at multiple sports at college or minor league levels, such as Jackie Robinson and Michael Jordan. But worldwide, if one player stands out as the greatest multi-sport athlete of all time, it has to be Ester Ledecka.

She is a Czech athlete who won gold in both snowboarding and skiing in the 2018 Winter Olympics. She competed in two different individual sports and achieved the pinnacle of success in both at the same Olympics.

It meant she had to prepare to execute flawlessly in both sports at the same time, unlike others. Considering that, she might be the greatest multi-sport athlete of all time.