Playboy Interview: Deion Sanders

• Deion Sanders is in a hurry. Closing the gap on an NFL receiver, legging out a triple on the baseball diamond, touting a new sports drink or racing to the recording studio to cut a rap album, 27-year-old Sanders is fast becoming the decade's most versatile athlete. And he is making money faster than his agent can invest it. "Making bank," as he gleefully puts it.

Like any good cornerback or leadoff man, "Neon" Deion has perfect timing as well as speed. Bo Jackson may have invented modern two-sport stardom. But when an injury laid Bo low, Sanders stepped up to take over the role as a renaissance jock and advertiser's dream, a guy who could make Nike's slogan "Just Do It" seem plausible. After all, it was Sanders, not Jackson, who was the first to play two pro sports on the same day. It was Sanders, not Jackson, who scored a touchdown for the Atlanta Falcons and hit a homer for the Atlanta Braves in one epic week. It was Sanders who once left a Falcons game in Miami, jumped into a limo, hopped on a jet and arrived in Pittsburgh for a Braves playoff game via helicopter--Deion ex machina, descending from the heavens.

You want timing? His rookie year in baseball, in 1989, had barely ended when he joinedthe Falcons and promptly returned a punt 68 yards for a touchdown. The next year he homered in his last game for the New York Yankees, who then allowed him to sign with the Braves. In 1991 he hit a three-run homer the night before rejoining the Falcons. Soon renowned as a Pro Bowl cornerback, he starred for the Braves in 1992, skipping a couple of NFL games to hit .533 in the World Series and tie a Series recordwith five stolen bases. As the Braves' center fielder this season--his first year as an everyday baseballer--he homered and stole a base on opening day.

And as Bo, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan begin to fade, or at least lose some of their luster, Sanders is entering his prime. Last year "Prime Time" (his other nickname--you wouldn't expect him to have just one, would you?) was the only NFL defender sent to the Pro Bowl by a unanimous vote of his peers. In December he won a showdown with the only unanimous All-Pro on offense, San Francisco 49ers receiver Jerry Rice. After an emergency delivery of Deion's lucky underwear--green boxer shorts festooned with dollar signs--to the Falcons' locker room, he intercepted two passes intended for Rice. He was also among the league's best kick returners and soon added another distinction that shot him past Bo into Jim Thorpe territory: Sanders played offense as well, catching passes, scoring touchdowns and becoming the first effective two-way player in three decades of NFL football.

These NFL triumphs followed a baseball year in which he went from prospect to semi-star. After batting .183 in his first three major-league seasons, he batted .304 in 1992. The club rewarded him with a three-year, $11 million contract--far more than the $750,000 per year that the crosstown Falcons were paying. In 1993 he hit .276 and stole 19 bases as a part-timer. That convinced the Braves to say goodbye to his friend and outfield rival Otis Nixon, making Sanders the team's everyday center fielder. Sanders announced that the diamond was now his best friend. "I've accomplished my goals in that other thing," he said. He wanted to be only "a great baseball player."

In fact Sanders has switched "my favorite sport" so often that it has never been clearwhich game he truly prefers--until this interview, that is. More on that later. For now, bear in mind that Sanders has spent most of this year singing baseball's praises. In April, after the Falcons' signing of lineman Chris Doleman put the team near its salary limit, Sanders said, "I will probably never be a Falcon again. But that's cool with me."

Critics have questioned his ability as much as his ardor. He hadn't played a full season of baseball since Little League, they said, with only slight exaggeration. Indeed, one of his few distinctions on the diamond was being named to "Baseball America's" facetious Mr. Average Team. Could a man unfamiliar with failure succeed in a sport that defeats its superstars seven out of ten times? Would he, like Michael Jordan, discover that baseball can humble even the greatest of jocks?

Sanders doesn't like the question. In fact, he hates criticism of any kind. His egocentric behavior and prima donna antics have alienated fellow athletes such as Carlton Fisk, who castigated Sanders for failing to run out a pop fly at Yankee Stadium.

Born in Fort Myers, Florida in the midst of the 1967 baseball season, Deion Luwynn Sanders grew up in a world that ground hopes to dust. His mother was a cleaning woman, his father a junkie. His friends, many of them nearly as gifted athletically as he was, joined gangsor sold drugs. But young Deion was the fastestand strongest of them all. He didn't have to smoke, drink or join a gang because he was naturally cool. He was already famous in his neighborhood at the age of 12, the kid everyone figured would make millions as an Olympic hero, a big-league ballplayer or an NFL superstar.

He streaked to multisport fame at North Fort Myers High School. His legend grew at Florida State, where the Seminoles' flashy two-time All-America athlete was dubbed Neon Deion. He won the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation's top defensive back, led the NCAA in punt-return yardage, starred in the College World Series and qualified for the 1988 Olympic trials as an All-America sprinter for the FSU track team. On one grand two-sport day Sanders helped the Seminoles win a baseball game, hurried to the track to join the track team's 400-meter relay team (running in his baseball pants), then returned to the diamond to deliver a game-winning hit in the second game of a tournament doubleheader. Before long he was a pro football star, incredibly wealthy compared with his family and friends back home. He built a posh house for his mother. He entertained old friends from the neighborhood with lavish dinners and fishing trips. Next came intimations of baseball stardom, plus a Nike commercial that sealed his status as jockdom's latest crossover celeb.

Less publicly he married his longtime sweetheart, Carolyn Chambers, and fathered two children, Deiondra and Deion Jr. This summer he will release his first rap album.

Contributing Editor Kevin Cook (who last interviewed Barry Bonds for Playboy) met Sanders in Florida before one of the Atlanta Braves' preseason games. Cook reports:

"The fans were expecting Sanders to bat leadoff against the Mets. They were disappointed. Moments before the game he jogged from the clubhouse to meet me, leading a half-dozen autograph hounds. He wore one of his well-known Hawaiian shirts, green satin shorts and enough jewelry to choke a precious-metals dealer. 'Let's go,' he said, pointing to a black Toyota truck with silver letters reading Prime Time on its doors.

" 'What about the game?' I asked.

" 'No problem,' he said. 'I told them I'm taking the day off.'

"We sped to a Red Lobster. He had the Admiral's Combo, his favorite, and relaxed behind a pile of fried shrimp. He was open, occasionally funny and surprisingly candid, given his reputation for being impatient with the press. He made only three or four calls on his cellular phone, a constant companion that costs him $1000-plus in monthly phone bills. He insisted on paying for lunch. Then we were off to a down-home hair salon, Progressive Beauty, where he talked about his heroes and enemies while his hair was permed and braided.

"Later we went fishing, the hobby he loves most. Sanders caught one little bass and let it go. He seemed miffed at the fish for being so small. By then he was also getting miffed at me for asking so many questions.

"Driving from place to place he played cuts from his new record, which will hit the stores this summer. Like his conversation, Sanders' lyrics are often bitter, biting and curiously enraged for a young man whose life so far has been mostly golden.

"As Playboy went to press, Sanders was sent to the Cincinnati Reds--a surprise trade that was surely motivated in part by his growing cancer-in-the-clubhouse rep in Atlanta. He now goes to play for Marge Schott, another loudmouth, but one known for making racist comments. The Reds and Braves may well meet in the playoffs. If so it will be billed as Deion'sRevenge, yet another Prime Time headline.

"Reached by phone, he told me, 'I was surprised to be traded, but now I'm looking forward to the change. Actually, this is the best thing that could have happened. Everything had gotten comfortable for me. Now there's extra motivation. I'm going to go even harder to show everyone what I can do.' "

[Q] Playboy: Which of your nicknames do you prefer?

[A] Sanders: Prime Time. Neon Deion, that's not me. That was made up by Florida State's PR people. Prime Time was given to me by a dear friend in high school, one of my boys, and it's a hell of a name. But my friends don't call me Prime Time. It's just Prime or Time, whatever sounds right at the moment.

[Q] Playboy: Are you in your prime now?

[A] Sanders: This is my year. I hope to be an All-Star in baseball. I'm working with Coca-Cola promoting Power Ade, their new sports drink. I might have a new fishing commercial, and my record is coming out, too.

[Q] Playboy: You're finishing your best year in the NFL, in which you're one of the biggest stars of the game. But until this season you weren't even an everyday player in baseball. Is baseball harder?

[A] Sanders: Oh, yes. Football is straight-out ability, man. Football is physical--strength and instinct. Baseball is mental, because the sport sets you up for failure. You fail seven out of ten times. Let me drop seven out of ten punts, and I'd be on my way out. Plus, if I score a touchdown or intercept a pass, I can enjoy that all week. I can sit on that for six days. In baseball, you hit a home run and that's it. The next night, the next at bat, you're starting over. Baseball is repetition, endless repetition. You can't master baseball, you can just learn more about it.

[Q] Playboy: You had a great line last year: "Baseball toys with your mind."

[A] Sanders: One minute they can't get you out. Next thing you know, you're 0 for 25. It'll make you crazy if you think about it too much, so you have to contain yourself. You have to stay flat mentally, because the game is always playing with you. That's why there are so many damn alcoholics in baseball.

[Q] Playboy: How do you stop a slump?

[A] Sanders: Focus on your weaknesses. I used to go up there swinging. They'd get me out with fastballs off the plate, junk that wasn't strikes. Now that I'm more developed as a baseball player, I know how to work the count a little bit. I broke my 0 for 25 against [the Cincinnati Reds'] Jose Rijo, a great pitcher. He kept throwing fastballs outside. Finally I slapped one to left field. After the game I said, "Thanks for taking care of me, man. I was looking for that fastball. "He said I had been pulling off the ball. I was never going to reach that pitch until I started keeping my front shoulder in. It was good of him to tell me what I was doing wrong.

[Q] Playboy: You sound almost humble about baseball. Has the game ever embarrassed you?

[A] Sanders: Definitely. Striking out three times straight, that's the worst. You're going to go home and think about that.

[Q] Playboy: You didn't strike out much in the 1992 World Series against Toronto. Did you go home and think about batting .533 on national prime-time TV?

[A] Sanders: No, because we lost.

[Q] Playboy: As pennant winners, all the Braves received rings from the league. Why don't you wear yours?

[A] Sanders: I gave it to my stepfather. I didn't want it because I didn't earn it. The Braves weren't even playing me before the World Series. I don't like sports rings. They are a form of bragging.

[Q] Playboy: You're against bragging?

[A] Sanders: Doing it that way, yeah. Maybe if I had contributed to the team all year, helped us get to the Series and we had won--

[Q] Playboy: What if that happens to you this season?

[A] Sanders: I might wear that ring.

[Q] Playboy: You've always gone back and forth about which sport you prefer, especially at contract time. But the big diamond-encrusted 21 on your necklace is your football number. Should that tell us anything?

[A] Sanders: Probably.

[Q] Playboy: After an All-America football career at Florida State, you were the Falcons' first-round pick in 1989. You were All-Rookie that year, All-Pro two times since. Playing baseball caused you to miss five of the Falcons' 16 games last year, but people still talked about you as the NFL's MVP.

[A] Sanders: To come off the baseball field and get seven interceptions in 11 games--it's unbelievable to do that.

[Q] Playboy: You played offense, too.You averaged 18 yards per pass reception, had a touchdown catch that iced an upset of the Super Bowl champ Cowboys and even threw a perfect pass on a trick play. What's the matter, isn't covering Jerry Rice and Michael Irvin hard enough for you?

[A] Sanders: I've always been an offensive-type football player, even on defense. When I get the ball, people can see the offense in me--I'm taking it to the house, thinking about scoring every time I touch the ball. I chose defense in college because the team was stacked at wide receiver. When I came to the Falcons they were deep at receiver, but I could play right away at defensive back.

[Q] Playboy: When you run a pass route, do you actually know what the cornerback is thinking?

[A] Sanders: I know what he wants to do to me because it's what I would try to do to him. First of all, he's a little scared of a guy with my speed. So I know he'll back off a little.

[Q] Playboy: You're thinking this as you look at him?

[A] Sanders: As soon as I come out ofthe huddle, as soon as I come off the ball, I'm thinking touchdown.

[Q] Playboy: Do you want to play offense even more next season?

[A] Sanders: Yes. June Jones, our offensive coordinator, always wanted me out there full-time. If it were up to him I would never have left the field. That was fine with me. I told him I wanted to earn every dime they were paying me. But now it looks like I won't be back with the Falcons. As for my future in football, it's hard to say what's going to happen.

[Q] Playboy: No one else has played both ways in the NFL since the Sixties. Could you bean All-Pro on both sides of the line? Is such a thing possible?

[A] Sanders: Why not? If there's anybody who believes in himself, it's me.

[Q] Playboy: On defense, you're known as one of the game's hardest hitters.

[A] Sanders: But I'm not a hard hitter. Not if I can stay away from contact. I'm too valuable to my team to go out there and butt heads every minute. And anyway, they don't put in the paper how hard you hit a guy. It's tackles or assists, not "bones crushed," right? I think of myself as a big-play person, not just a hitter.

[Q] Playboy: Tell us how to shut down Jerry Rice.

[A] Sanders: I didn't shut him down. Jerry's a great man, nobody can stop him. I contained him. I kept him out of the end zone and I got two interceptions. But people need toknow that it's not just Deion Sanders versus Jerry Rice. No defensive back can stop a receiver if the quarterback has enough time to throw. If I don't get a good pass rush from my teammates, he's going to kill me. That game I got a great pass rush, and I was getting a good jam on Jerry at the line--throwing him off stride at the line of scrimmage.

[Q] Playboy: Is that what you would do if you had to cover Deion Sanders?

[A] Sanders: Yes, because if the man gets rolling he is going to roll. Also, with someone like Jerry you have to stay strong, because he can run like a deer all game long.

[Q] Playboy: It was the marquee matchup of the year: The upstart Falcons, who had a winless first month before you rejoined them, were suddenly the hot Falcons facing the favored 49ers. All eyes were on Sanders and Rice. Describe the moment when you knew you had beat him and you were going to pick off the pass.

[A] Sanders: It started with the snap. I knew from their alignment they would run a quick snap. From the way Jerry's body was aligned, the way he set up at the line--I'd watched film of him over and over--I knew this is the play he runs to this particular area. So I was prepared. But you can't go for it before it's time. You can't move, you can't tip them off that you know what's coming. I sat back and waited. And then he comes to me, and when the quarterback, Steve Young, lets the ball go, I know I've got it.

[Q] Playboy: You have said you're an instinctive football player. Does that mean you're not a student of the game?

[A] Sanders: I'm a student of the opposition. I have game films dating back to when I came into the league--it's like keeping notebooks on pitchers. Two years ago when we played the Cowboys, Mike Irvin had a good game against me. Before we played them last year I was thinking about that all week: I have to shut that guy down. I went to my little library and pulled up film from 1991, when I did well against him, and picked up a few moves. Can't tell you what they were--I don't want him to read about them--but I went out there and did all right against Mike last season.

[Q] Playboy: You held Irvin to one five-yard catch all game, while catching a 70-yard touchdown pass of your own. What gives you the biggest charge, shutting down a star receiver like Irvin or Rice, or hitting a home run?

[A] Sanders: I'd rather score a touchdown. Guys hit 40 home runs in a year, but nobody gets 40 TDs. That's the thing I love to do. That's six whole points, man. A run is just one point.

[Q] Playboy: It seems you're looking forward to scoring more touchdowns.

[A] Sanders: If I play football again. It's not decided yet. I don't have a football contract. I may not even play in the NFL this year.

[Q] Playboy: Could you really give up the game? You've admitted that you're better at football and that you have a lot of work to do to be a great baseball player. Wouldn't it be hard to quit the NFL when you're at the top of your game?

[A] Sanders: I want to play football, but it's not a necessity. I can give it up if I have to. Right now it's baseball season, so I'm focused on that. I can think about the NFL later.

[Q] Playboy: Still, you're coming off your best football year.

[A] Sanders: It was my most gratifying year, not because of what I did on the field but because I had dedicated the season to my father, Mims Sanders--that's what the MS on my wristband stands for. He died last year. And that man loved football. Baseball was cool with him, but football was it. After he died I would take him out there on the field with me. I would go up to the line, get ready to cover somebody and look over my shoulder and say, "You all right over there, baby? You OK, Pops?" I worked my butt off. I dedicated the season to my father and had a good year.

[Q] Playboy: Were you close to your dad?

[A] Sanders: I grew up with my mother and stepfather, but my father was around. We had our misunderstandings--he didn't do all the right things in life. He got caught up in drugs. Then he was finally getting his life together. We were becoming closer when he got sick and died of a brain tumor. He was 50.

[Q] Playboy: Your friend Hammer, who's now producing your album, took your dad on tour with him, didn't he?

[A] Sanders: My father was part of Hammer's posse. He didn't have a job title, he just took care of odds and ends. But it made his last year the best year of his life. Hammer did this as a favor to me. I went to him and said, "I can't get through to Pops, but if anybody can, it's you." Hammer said, "OK, I'll take him on my world tour." And old Pops Sanders became part of the posse, part of the family. Finally he was going onstage and dancing, opening Hammer's shows.

[Q] Playboy: Did your father have a showbiz background?

[A] Sanders: No, he was just cool. Heused to work with mentally retarded children before he got caught up in junk. I guess he might have danced when he got high.

[Q] Playboy: Did you get to say goodbye to him?

[A] Sanders: No, and that kills me every day. I did a song on the record about taking things for granted: "I never got the chance to say I love you, but we both knew. I know you love me, Pops, and you know I love you."

[Q] Playboy: Growing up in the projects i n Fort Myers, how did you stay out of trouble?.

[A] Sanders: I had sports, and I had my mother. She broke her back working in a hospital, cleaning up. She taught me right from wrong. Also, I could think. I was never crazy enough t o get in trouble like all my friends. My friends are in jail, most of them. But I wasn't like them. I'd see them selling dope at school and think, You're going to get caught. I'd say to them, "Man, if I know you're selling, don't you think the police know? You're one person going against the whole police staff. They're all out to catch you, so how can you succeed?" And I'd say one other thing: "Have you ever seen a drug dealer retire?"They couldn't answer that one. They knew I was right, but they keptat it.Now they're doing time.

[Q] Playboy: Most of your childhood friends?

[A] Sanders: Maybe 70 or 80 percent of my boys are doing time today. Unless they're dead. Some of them are dead.

[Q] Playboy: You were never tempted to do what they did?

[A] Sanders: I was playing sports every minute, so I didn't hang out. Without sports I probably would have been out there with them, and in jail today. But, you know, I could think for myself. My father did drugs. I saw what that stuff could do, so why would I want to be like him?

[Q] Playboy: What about peer pressure--didn't you want to be cool?

[A] Sanders: Mark my words, man. Ever since I started playing sports, I was the best one on the team. I was always the man, always cool, even at eight years old. I never had to fit in with the crowd.

[Q] Playboy: You've said you were disappointed with baseball last year. You left the team for three weeks while your agent negotiated a new contract, which was seen as a bargaining tactic. But it was also during the time your dad died. You've said that when you returned to the Braves clubhouse, none of your teammates said they were sorry to hear of his death.

[A] Sanders: "How much money did you get?" That's what they said. I'm bitter because it was the first time I'd lost someone close to me, first time I'd ever been to a funeral. And all anyone cared about was the damn Braves. The team said I was holding out for more money, but come on, I wasn't playing anyway. Why shouldn't I leave? I wasn't playing for one simple reason: I wouldn't sign their contract. They wanted me to sign and I wouldn't sign, so they punished me. It was killing me to sit there on the bench, knowing I should be playing, knowing that they were saying I was greedy--even though nobody talks about the times I was tired as hell after football practice and came over here and pinch-ran for the Braves, just to get a run home and help them win. I was thinking about my father dying, and my mind was nowhere near baseball. That's why I left. I was starting to go crazy.

When I came back Otis Nixon was playing. The fans would cheer him and boo me. I've always been able to handle heat, but what hurt me was that Otis was fueling up the situation, capitalizing on it against me.

[Q] Playboy: But you two were good friends.

[A] Sanders: That's what puzzled me. But the fans were even worse. One day I jumped at a ball in the gap and hit my shoulder on the wall. I came off the field holding my shoulder and they were cheering. They were glad I got hurt.

[Q] Playboy: What did that make you think?

[A] Sanders: There ain't no love. That's what I learned. If I sign an autograph for them it's fine, I'm a good guy. But deep down they don't really like me. So I lost love for them. Now I just go out and do my job.

[Q] Playboy: In the end you got what you wanted. Otis Nixon is gone, center field is yours and you have an $11 million contract.

[A] Sanders: But I didn't like being punished by the team. I didn't like being booed by the fans.

[Q] Playboy: What do you want to tell the Braves fans?

[A] Sanders: One thing: Be true to your boo. I'm serious about this. Don't just boo me when I strike out. When I turn it around and hit a triple off the wall, don't cheer. I want you to boo me. That's what I have to say to the fans at Fulton County Stadium, because they embittered me. I won't sign an autograph at that stadium for anything in the world.

[Q] Playboy: Does that statement apply to your football fans?

[A] Sanders: No, no, I'll sign for them. They're cool. They know I pour my guts out every time I'm on the field. That's why I would take a jog around die field before the Falcons games, to slap all their hands. There's love there.

[Q] Playboy: Is there more pettiness in baseball than in football?

[A] Sanders: There's a lot of pettiness in baseball. Like the rookie thing. It's rookie this, rookie that: "Rookie, you should respect all the old guys." Hey, the hell with that. I don't agree. Rookies can be good, too. In the NFL, you try to kill that old guy. Football is more about doing your own thing--get out there and knock the hell out of the old guys.

[Q] Playboy: In your rookie year in baseball you failed to run to first on a pop-up against the White Sox. Their catcher, Carlton Fisk, yelled at you for it. A lot of fans, and even other players, liked that. They figured you were getting your comeuppance. We assume that you don't agree.

[A] Sanders: He was calling me names! "Run, youso-and-so." He had no right to do that. He didn't know why I wasn't running. The bat had flown out of my hands and it was going right at these' little kids in the first row by the dugout. I couldn't move. I was frozen, standing there watching my bat spin through the air. What was I supposed to do, turn and run to first base?

[Q] Playboy: Your next time up you called Fisk a racist. He objected to that, too, and you two nearly came to blows. When you say he called you a "so-and-so," was that a racial slur?

[A] Sanders: No. Just "you rookie,"stuff like that. But does he do that to a white guy? Maybe not.

[Q] Playboy: You said that your father was a football man. How does the rest of your family feel about football as opposed to baseball?

[A] Sanders: My mother hates baseball. She loves football. She's knowledgeable, too. After agame she'll tell me what I did wrong: "You let that man catch the ball all over you!"

[Q] Playboy: How about your wife, Carolyn?

[A] Sanders: She likes football.

[Q] Playboy: Daughter Deiondra?

[A] Sanders: Football.

[Q] Playboy: It's getting close to unanimous. Are we right to think that you truly prefer football?

[A] Sanders: That's what I've been telling you.

[Q] Playboy: And baseball isn't even close.

[A] Sanders: It's a fact.

[Q] Playboy: Do you worry about an injury that might make your final decision for you? Have you talked to Bo Jackson--

[A] Sanders: You can't think about that stuff. Just because a guy who got hurt has a large name, that has nothing to do with me. I mean, I check the injury reports every week. Guys get hurt. There are career-ending injuries every week. So I pray for that guy. I hope his finances are straight, because the team ain't going to take care of him for the rest of his life. But other than that, I don't really think about it.

[Q] Playboy: You have insurance, though, in case of a career-ending injury.

[A] Sanders: Yes. Quite a bit of it. It's part of the job, like having insurance when you drive a car. But it's not because I'm scared of injury. There's nothing I'm scared of.

[Q] Playboy: Are you at all superstitious?

[A] Sanders: Yes. I wear rubber bands on my wrists all the time. Before a football game your socks, jock and under shirt are rolled up in a rubber band. One time at Florida State I took off the rubber band and put it on my wrist, and it worked. I had a great game. I did it the next week and I've done it ever since. I also have to read a verse from the Bible every morning, or I don't feel right that day.And every time I get a base hit or make a big play in football, you'll see me tap my chest twice and point to the sky. I'm pointing to my father.

[Q] Playboy: Then there are your famous lucky shorts, the green ones with white dollar signs all over them. When you lost them before the game last year against Rice and the Niners, a messenger brought them to the stadium at the last minute. Don't you have a backup pair?

[A] Sanders: I have one pair. My wife gave them to me my rookie year, and I have to wear them on football game days. I'd left them in Houston. They got mixed up in the laundry, but our equipment manager found them and got them to me just in time. So I had my lucky drawers and two interceptions, and afterward I told the press, "It has to be the drawers."

[Q] Playboy: Tell us another quirk.

[A] Sanders: I get a kick out of thinking up questions that have no answers. Like, Why do they call a dick a dick? Why not a henry or larry or leroy? And who named it? Stuff like that amuses me.

[Q] Playboy: Whatever you call it, athletes are known for giving it a workout. Was that true for you when you were a bachelor?

[A] Sanders: I've never really been a bachelor. Carolyn has been with me since college, so I never had that life. I don't go to clubs. Most nights, unless I'm working on the record or something else, I'm sound asleep at 7:30.

[Q] Playboy: Has AIDS changed the lifestyle for other pro jocks?

[A] Sanders: Definitely. Guys are using a lot more protection. The condom people are doing very well on the athletes. Which is good--those things can save your life. But there are still people living dangerously, playing with fire.

[Q] Playboy: Your beliefs and experiences seem to have made you a bit of a puritan.

[A] Sanders: I have never tasted alcohol. I have never smoked a cigarette. I have never tried drugs.

[Q] Playboy: Were you tempted by sex?

[A] Sanders: [Laughing] That's different. I was active when I was a kid. And very lucky. There wasn't AIDS then, but there was gonorrhea and everything else. Atleast I was using protection.

[Q] Playboy: How old were you?

[A] Sanders: Too young. Younger than 12, let's say. The girls were three or four years older, but not old enough to do what we were doing, not old enough for sexual intercourse. But I used protection and we were lucky.

[Q] Playboy: Even at that younger age you were thinking ahead?

[A] Sanders: Right. I knew that if I had a kid my mama would really have to break her back and I would have to go to work, too. No more sports.

[Q] Playboy: You and Carolyn had a baby, Deiondra, and then Deion Jr. last year. Is it true you were talking to your mother on your cellular phone while Deion Jr. was being born, even while you cut the umbilical cord?

[A] Sanders: I kept her posted: "It's coming out, it's a boy, he's fine and he's healthy." I was helping Carolyn, too, but she had an easy time of it. She was on the phone to my mother, too.

[Q] Playboy: Are you easy to live with?

[A] Sanders: Carolyn and I don't argue too imuch. But in my household, what I say goes. When I get mad I get mad, and you better just leave if you don't want to get caught in the crossfire.

[Q] Playboy: What kind of dad are you? Do you change diapers?

[A] Sander: No that's Carolyn's field. But I play with my kids. With Deiondra--she's four--it's singing games. We do those cute little Barney songs. Deiondra loves Barney.

[Q] Playboy: Deion Sanders raps by night, sings Barney songs by day.

[A] Sanders: Barney's cool, man. Barney is a bad man. Barney is large.

[Q] Playboy: Does Deiondra know what you do for a living?

[A] Sanders: She knows, and it's important to me that she knows. She needs to know why we live the way we do, why we have. a nice house, why we're capable of riding in the cars I have. I want her to know what kind of sacrifices I make for all that, like when Daddy has to go away for days at a time. She'll say, "Daddy got to go to work." I'll say, "Daddy's got to go do what?" And Deiondra knows. She says, "Daddy got to go make money."

[Q] Playboy: Do you treat your daughter differently from your son?

[A] Sanders: You need to be more careful with a girl. A girl has more to lose in life. Forinstance, if a man has sex with a hundred women, in some places he's a hero. If a woman has sex with a lot of men, in all places she's a zero. So it is different. I'm not going to sit with my boy someday and say, "OK, you can go have sex with her and her." But I'll be a little freer with him. When he gets older, Deion Jr. can maybe stay out till 8:30, but Deiondra will need to be in before dark.

[Q] Playboy: Seriously--before dark?

[A] Sanders: No question about it.

[Q] Playboy: Has having a daughter changed the way you think about men and women?

[A] Sanders: Well, I won't say I viewed women badly before, but it softens your heart to have a little girl.

[Q] Playboy: There's a lot of misogyny in rap music, a lot of antifemale talk.

[A] Sanders: I don't condone that, but some people are raised that way. If that's their lifestyle, let it be.

[Q] Playboy: As a famous father, do you worry about your family's safety?

[A] Sanders: There are weird people out there. There's this one guy who turns up wherever I go. Carolyn calls him Fatal, as in Fatal Attraction. Every time I pull out of the parking lot after a Braves game this man is standing there staring at me. Black dude, a strange person.He's at football games, too--reaching out to slap my hand when I come out of the tunnel. One time he handed me a 20-dollar bill. "Get yourself something to eat," he says. Which could be kind of funny, except that right after my daughter was born, I walked out of the delivery room and he was right outside the door.

[Q] Playboy: Do you think he's a stalker?

[A] Sanders: Just a fan, I think. An overboard fan.

[Q] Playboy: Have you confronted him?

[A] Sanders: No, man. I don't speak to him. I don't want to encourage him . But we went to another hospital for Deion Jr.'s birth.

[Q] Playboy: Do you worry about Carolyn and the kids when you are on the road?

[A] Sanders: Sure I do.But anyone who gets into my house at night, any man who comes into my bedroom, he's liable to be full of holes when he comes out. Carolyn is ready.

[Q] Playboy: Do you, have guns in your bedroom?

[A] Sanders: Let's just say that Carolyn is ready.

[Q] Playboy: What about you? Is there a gun in the truck you're driving today?

[A] Sanders: It's possible.

[Q] Playboy: Let's talk about your other high-caliber exploits. During the 1991 pennant race, when you helicoptered from football practice to a Braves game, what was running through your head?

[A] Sanders: I was nervous. It was my first time in a helicopter. I told the pilot to fly over my house. I wanted to see how the house looked. It looked cool, I felt better.

[Q] Playboy: In October 1992 you became the first player ever to play two professional sports in one day, playing for the Falcons in Miami one Sunday, then joining the Braves in die National League playoffs that night in Pittsburgh. Falcon fans loved you for it, but some baseball people thought you were showing off.

[A] Sanders: The story should have been that I was breaking my neck to help both of my teams. But [then CBS baseball broadcaster] Tim McCarver put negativity on it--saying I was out for publicity. Hey, I don't give a damn about publicity. I don't need it. But for three or four games in a row, this guy kept talking about my big attitude, calling me selfish, saying I played two sports in one day because of ego. But I know what he was about. I know why he tried to make me look stupid: He wanted an interview and I wouldn't give it to him.

[Q] Playboy: How did you know what McCarver was saying on TV? You were in the dugout at the time.

[A] Sanders: You think we don't have a phone in the dugout? You think I don't have football friends with TVs? I heard from them--they said they wanted to jump through the screen at the guy.

[Q] Playboy: In the locker room after the Braves won the pennant you made more news. You dumped a bucket of water on McCarver.

[A] Sanders: It would have been more accepted if it had been champagne, but I don't play that. I don't believe in alcohol. Even if we win the playoffs, nobody throws champagne on me. So I threw water.

[Q] Playboy: It wasn't the most adult thing to do.

[A] Sanders: It wasn't an adult thing for him to discredit me in front of millions. Where I come from, you don't take any junk. It's about honor. Nobody can talk about you like that. So I threw water. Would it have been better if I had beat the hell out of him?

[Q] Playboy: On your rap record you call him "tiny Tim McCarver" and imply that he was jealous of you.

[A] Sanders: You have to understand. The things I do and the way I carry myself give some people fits. I see it all the time. I mean, you're white--when you're at a red light and I pull up in my Benz, dressed like I am, the first thing you think is, He's no t doing something right. He's probably in drugs. Because I know what you think when you see me. You don't think, This young black man in a Benz might be a lawyer, do you?

[Q] Playboy: You're talking about racism, not jealousy.

[A] Sanders: I was in a golf cart with my attorney. My attorney is black, too. This white guy runs up and says, "Where'd you get that golf cart?" just knowing we stole it. This stuff happens all the time. I go into a restaurant in baggy jeans, tennis shoes, my hat on backward. They don't recognize me, and they treat me like dirt. I'm in a store in Atlanta, and the security guard asks if he can check my bags. "Hell no, you can't check my bags. What gives you the right?" So we have a confrontation. Then somebody tips him off who I am and this guy feels like an idiot. He's so embarrassed he can't even speak. He just floats away.

[Q] Playboy: A few years ago in Georgia you had trouble with a white policeman. He nabbed you for two different violations involving the Florida license plates on one of your half-dozen cars. Another time you were charged with disorderly conduct at an Atlanta grocery store.

[A] Sanders: That's right. The Braves had just sent me to the minor leagues. I was goingto buy thank-you cards for my teammates, for their friendship. I'm an appreciative person--after my first touchdown for the Falcons I bought Gucci watches for all the guys on the punt-return team. So now here I am in Atlanta with my family, going to buy thank-you cards for the Braves. Carolyn drops me off at Kroger's because it's raining and this guy--and he knows who I am--starts harassing me about my license plates. I say, "Man, I'm tired. I have to get some cards for my teammates, then I'm going home," and I walk away. He says I'm going to jail. So I say, "Let's go. I'll go with you, you don't have to cuff me in front of my family." I mean, Carolyn is watching this. My daughter is watching. He really wants to put those cuffs on me. So what do I do? I jump in his car and lock the doors.

[Q] Playboy: He didn't appreciate that.

[A] Sanders: No, but he was harassing me.

[Q] Playboy: What happened next?

[A] Sanders: I let the other cop cuff me, this guy's partner. We went down to the police station. Eventually they dropped all of the charges.

[Q] Playboy: You tackle some of these issues in the songs on your rap album.

[A] Sanders: [Singing] "I got an ego, yeah man, that's what they all say. 'Cause Prime he can play two sports in one day. But I got two jobs, two responsibilities. I got two paychecks--all this versatility."

[Q] Playboy: In one song, All Eyes on Me, you attack Spike Lee as well as Tim McCarver. Lee once criticized you on a talk show for being what he called the stereotype o f the flashy, young black jock. Now you're upset with him for sowing what you call "disunity in the community"

[A] Sanders: [Singing] "Why do they envy the infamous Mr. Prime Time? Spike Lee dissin 'the Prime was ridic-u-lous. Why? For one, you never met me. But now you on the TV screen trying to check me, trying to make me look low. Playing it so black, but you a black man on a white man's show. I see your true color, I know what you's about, playing pro-black. Punk, you's a houseboy."

[Q] Playboy: The lyric was different on the tape you played for us today. The last line was, "Punk, you's a house nigger."

[A] Sanders: Well, that was too harsh, so I'm changing it.

[Q] Playboy: Race figures prominently in your songs and your conversation. But in baseball, at least, some of your best friends are white guys. You go fishing with pitcher Kent Mercker.

[A] Sanders: That's right.

[A] Playboy: And you once played fashion advisor for pitcher Steve Avery.

[A] Sanders: I have hundreds of suits all over my house, closets full upstairs and downstairs. Everyone knows I dress well. I saw Steve in the locker room in these big white undershorts and took pity on him. Here's a big-time pitcher dressed like a high school kid. So he gave me $5000 to work with. I went out and bought him a wardrobe.

[Q] Playboy: You had to go back to him for another thousand.

[A] Sanders: He needed shoes. I introduced him to crocodile and alligator shoes. Now he wears them on every road trip.

[Q] Playboy: How does he look?

[A] Sanders: He looks cool. He just needed direction.

[Q] Playboy: So Avery likes you and trusts you. Mercker backed you up in your first run-in with the Georgia cops. A little while ago you suggested that all white people have preconceived notions about blacks, but these white friends--

[A] Sanders: You don't understand. They're teammate friends, not like my boys from Fort Myers, and Florida State. Maybe they're my friends, but they're seasonal friends. After the baseball season they don't call me and I don't call them.

[Q] Playboy: Do you think Avery and Mercker make the same assumptions about blacks as that cop?

[A] Sanders: Yes. I'm damn realistic, man. I hate t o say it, but that's how it is.

[Q] Playboy: What are your politics? Do you vote?

[A] Sanders: No. I think about the struggles black people went through to get to vote, but I don't get too deep into politics. But Clinton is killing me. I pay all these taxes an d I still see homeless people on the street. I see big hotels with vacant rooms, $200-a-night rooms, and people with nowhere to sleep.

[Q] Playboy: You stay in those $200 rooms.

[A] Sanders: I'm not staying in the Peek-a-Boo Inn, no.

[Q] Playboy: What do you think of Michael Jordan's attempt to be a baseball player? He says your example helped him believe he could be a two-sport player.

[A] Sanders: The guy accomplished everything there was to accomplish in basketball, and that enabled him to try out for the major leagues. I'm happy for anyone who gets the chance to fulfill his dreams. I think people should leave him alone, let him go out and have a good time, instead of making it harder for him.

[Q] Playboy: But you didn't get a free pass to a big-league spring training camp just because you were great at another game. You had to start in the minors and work your way up. ForJordan it's been the other way around.

[A] Sanders: It's not about fairness. It's about him and his dreams. He isn't hurting anybody, so let the man play ball.

[Q] Playboy: He was taking at bats away from other guys during spring training. A lot ofthe White Sox were miffed about the special treatment he got.

[A] Sanders: They were probably mad that all the cameras were on him. Players who get upset about something like that--that was their egos talking. I bet every one of them asked him for his autograph.

[Q] Playboy: The problem some of the players had wasn't so much about Jordan but about how the club staged a Jordan circus. They thought it insulted the game.

[A] Sanders: The heck with those guys. Why can't Michael Jordan have a good time? If those guys wanted to go to a basketball camp, I don't think he'd get pissed off at them. Their problem is ego. They wanted the attention he got.

[Q] Playboy: Let's suppose you switched careers again. What would Deion Sanders do if he were president?

[A] Sanders: [Laughing] Paint the White House black! Make it the Black House and call all my boys. "Come on over, boys, park your cars out front and we'll have a good time." We'd take care of the issues, too. I wouldn't be spending all that money on bombs that will never be used. If somebody messed with my country I'd call them. "This is President Prime on the phone to let you know: If I have any more problems with you, I'm sending my boys out there at you. There ain't going to be no talking about it. No, you do what I want or my guys'll be down to tighten y ou up." I'd give my boys from the neighborhood positions in the Cabinet. My boy who loved guns in college, he would be the secretary of defense. He's good with those things--he'll come and personally tighten you up.

[Q] Playboy: Clinton plays the saxophone, you could sing.

[A] Sanders: Prime's in there rapping. Come to the House for a party!

[Q] Playboy: What else would happen in a Prime Time administration?

[A] Sanders: I' d have no alcohol. Smoking and drugs, the same way.

[Q] Playboy: You'd outlaw a lot of things.

[A] Sanders: Yes. They shouldn't allow alcohol in locker rooms. Look at the statistics--it's one of the leading causes of death, if not the leading cause.

[Q] Playboy: Don't some people drinkand smoke and use drugs responsibly?

[A] Sanders: There's no choice. That stuff helps people die. If it were good for you they would serve it to schoolkids, wouldn't they? That's what I tell kids when I make speeches. I say, "If drugs and alcohol were good for you, you'd have your peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, a 40-ounce to drink and a joint for dessert. But they don't because it's not good for you." It's wrong, and I get tired of seeing people drinking and driving, drinking and doing drugs, and dying of alcohol and drugs. Just about everything bad is alcohol- or drug-related. Most people who kill people are not in a good frame of mind. They've been drinking or getting high, then they go shoot somebody.

[Q] Playboy: You're pretty sure of your beliefs. Does that come from your childhood experiences, or is it religious?

[A] Sanders: It's both. I'm confident in my beliefs. I pray every day. I try to know the Lord.

[Q] Playboy: Still, you see racism all around, and poverty and alcohol and drug abuse. How does that square with your idea of God?

[A] Sanders: The Lord doesn't make you do drugs. The Lord didn't tell you to have sex with this girl you got pregnant. You're faced with your own decisions. The Lord isn't buying a gun and pulling the trigger in a convenience store.

[Q] Playboy: When you pray, how do you see God? In the books we all grew up with, he was a towering white guy.

[A] Sanders: God is black. The Bible describes him as a dark-skinned man with coarse hair.

[Q] Playboy: How does he look? Does he have robes and a long white beard?

[A] Sanders:[Laughing] He looks just like the white dude, man, only he's black.

[Q] Playboy: Let's get back to earth. You've said here for the first time that for all your protestations about loving both of the games you play--

[A] Sanders: I need to keep my bargaining power.

[Q] Playboy: Football comes first for you. Was there a time when you made that decision for good?

[A] Sanders: Yes. The Miami game.

[Q] Playboy: That was October 11, 1992. The Braves weren't playing you much in the playoffs against the Pirates. That morning you flew from Pittsburgh to Miami to join the Falcons for their game.

[A] Sanders: You want to know why? My guys hadt o face Dan Marino that day. I had to be there with them. It wasn't right any other way. How could I ever face those guys if I hadn't been there when they needed me?

[Q] Playboy: You helped keep Marino and his receivers out of the end zone, but Miami won the game. After which you got an IV for dehydration before you flew back to Pittsburgh. It wasn't a happy Falcons locker room. But we hear that some of your football teammates came up to thank you after the game.

[A] Sanders: Jamie Dukes, Mike Kenn and Jesse Solomon. They came to me in the shower.

[Q] Playboy: A warmer reception than the one you got from the Braves after your dad died. Once and for all, is that when you decided you could live without those booing Braves fans and stick to football?

[A] Sanders: That's when I knew I would do anything for those guys. Because they were my boys--we loved each other. They came into the shower just to say how much they appreciated my coming all that way to help them. And I cried. I was just losing it, tears running down my face, and that's when I knew which sport I loved. Right there in the shower I told them, "Hey, I finally found out where my heart belongs."

"If I score a touchdown I can enjoy that all week. In baseball, you hit a home run and that's it. The next at bat, you're starting over."