Deion Sanders has revealed he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of bladder cancer and ultimately decided to have his bladder removed, saying the decision is the reason he is “sitting here today.”
The University of Colorado head football coach shared details about his health battle at the fall camp news conference on Monday, July 28, ahead of the 2025 college football season.
Joined by his surgeon and Colorado athletic trainer Lauren Askevoid, Sanders said he was given several treatment options. He chose the “curative” option of having his bladder removed.
“It was tough. It wasn’t a cakewalk. It wasn’t easy,” said Sanders. “That was a fight, but we made it.”
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Sanders, 57, dressed casually in denim overalls, a white sweatshirt and white cowboy hat. He got emotional as he detailed his health struggles.
Dr. Janet Kukreja, director of urological oncology at the University of Colorado Hospital, said a surgical team removed his bladder after doctors found a cancerous tumor. The university put out a press release Monday, calling Kukreja the “top” doctor in “the field of bladder cancer robotic surgery in North America.” The hospital said she performs 150 surgeries each year.
During a humorous moment, Sanders tried to direct Kukreja on how to proceed with her comments. The top doc cut him off and said, “We’ll get there.”
Kukreja said she presented Sanders with multiple options and he chose an aggressive treatment plan because of his “commitments to his family and to the team.”
“I am pleased to report that the results from the surgery are that he is cured from the cancer,” she told reporters.
Part of Sanders’ intestine was reconstructed and now functions as a bladder.
The retired NFL star patted the surgeon on the back and said, “Without wonderful people like this, I probably wouldn’t be sitting here today.”
“Coach Prime” said dealing with the illness has been one of the most difficult challenges of his life. He noted that Kukreja introduced him to other patients she treated for bladder cancer to help him understand the battle ahead.
“Now, I depend on Depends,” Sanders joked, before speaking frankly and comparing himself to a newborn baby.
“I cannot control my bladder,” he said. “I’m making a joke out of it, but it’s real… so if you see a porta potty on the sideline, it is real.”
He encouraged other men to get screened for cancer.
“Men, everybody get checked out, because if it wasn’t for me getting tested for something else, they wouldn’t have stumbled up on this,” he said. “Especially African American men, we don’t like going to the doctors. We don’t like nothing to do with the doctor. You know that. So I’m not just talking to the brothers. I’m talking to my Caucasian brothers, my Hispanic brothers, my Asian brothers, my everybody and my sisters. And that’s all y’all get checked out, because it could have been a whole other gathering.”
ESPN reports Sanders has previously dealt with other health problems, including blood clots in his legs and having two toes amputated in 2022.
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