Keeping it in the family: Why Deion Sanders, Jerry Jones and the Cowboys make sense

RJ Young

FOX Sports National College Football Analyst

Perhaps no owner in the NFL understands the value of “keeping it all in the family” better than Jerry Jones, who got to say as much in episode 9 of the hit TV show “Landman.” In a cameo across from Jon Hamm and Billy Bob Thorton, Jones took five minutes to deliver a message that could only come from a place that is real, true and authentic.

Playing himself, a wildcatter who dug holes in the ground and struck a fortune, Jones told the true story about his daughter Charlotte leaving Arkansas to study at Stanford. He couldn’t stand being so far away from her for such an extended period of time, so he picked up and moved to Palo Alto, California, in order to be near her. The only way he could make a move like that was if he also got to work out there. So he did. He found some land near Brentwood, California.

“I bought 25 lots like I was gonna build 25 houses, except I drilled four gas wells,” Jones said. “And those four gas wells in 18 months paid me enough money for me to buy the Dallas Cowboys. Paying attention to my kids actually led to me getting involved into the passion of my life. And all along, all I was trying to do was hang out near my daughter.”

All along, all Deion Sanders has been trying to do is hang out near his sons, and that has led to a passion for coaching football.

Never mind that Sanders played with the Cowboys for five years, led the team to the Super Bowl and was an All-Pro in Dallas. Never mind that his forever home, a 5,000-acre Country Prime Ranch, is in Canton, Texas. Never mind that Texas residents don’t pay state income tax.

No coach in America has a better understanding of why Jones employs all three of his children in high-ranking positions within the Dallas Cowboys. No owner understands better why Deion Sanders needed to have his sons play on a team he coaches.

Not only did Prime get into coaching for his boys, but he has never coached a single season of football without his youngest son, Shedeur Sanders – who might be the first QB off the board in the upcoming 2025 NFL Draft – on his team. Shedeur has started 47 collegiate games at quarterback with Deion as his head coach. In those games, Prime and Shedeur are 33-14 — with seven of those defeats coming in Year 1 at Colorado together.

Pairing a new head coach with the quarterback he wants isn’t a new concept in the NFL. The Arizona Cardinals did just that when they hired Kliff Kingsbury, who made Kyler Murray, the man he wanted, the No. 1 selection in the 2019 NFL Draft.

While Dak Prescott’s four-year, $240 million extension comes into play this season and his no-trade clause is still active, I have little doubt that if Jones wants to see the Cowboys move on from Prescott, that’s what will happen. The salary capologists will rage. The analytics dorks will vent, and Dallas sports talk radio will talk about it for hundreds of hours. Prescott and his big-number contract are not a problem for someone who has the kind of money Jones has.

Meanwhile, Shedeur will leave Colorado having set every notable passing record in program history. He will also leave as one of the most popular players in the sport.

And there is little doubt that Shedeur would like to continue playing for his father.

Back in 2021 and 2022, Deion Sanders was constantly in and out of the hospital, having to undergo eight surgeries during that time to remove blood clots that could’ve proven fatal. Shedeur made it a point to visit his father every day as the season played out in 2021, and during that time, his play on the field suffered. Deion missed multiple games in his son’s career for the first time as a head coach, and Shedeur felt his father’s absence.

“Shedeur came to me and said, ‘Dad, I need you,'” Sanders recalled. “You gotta understand he had never played a game without me in his life except for those.”

After witnessing his son’s play suffer, Deion acquiesced. He’d lost 30 pounds in the hospital. But he kept his word, frail and weak. He watched Shedeur throw the game-winning TD pass, his son and safety Shilo Sanders make the game-clinching interception, and his Jackson State Tigers defeat the Southern Jaguars, 21-17.

“I said, ‘God ,look at you,”‘ Deion told Shannon Sharpe on the “Club Shay Shay” podcast. “[You had] 21 points on the scoreboard with Shedeur making the game-winning pass and Shilo making the game-clinching interception.”

Deion has made 21, the number he wore in the NFL and made famous with the Dallas Cowboys, as much a part of his image as his moniker, “Coach Prime.” Where there is a sign to see, Deion Sanders will notice it.

He is the only head coach who succeeded in appearing on “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” “CBS This Morning,” a talk show on Tubi — “We Got Time Today” — and a documentary series on Prime Video. It’s the latter that led him to appear on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” where he gave an answer as to whether he’d pursue a head-coaching job in the NFL.

“The only way I would consider [coaching in the NFL] is to coach my sons,” Deion said back on Jan. 8.

By Jan. 13, Jones had fired head coach Mike McCarthy and put in a call to the only man who might be bigger than Jones in Texas. FOX Sports’ Jordan Schultz broke the news.

By Monday night, media members and take artists were in full flight around news that seemed preposterous to most folks who hadn’t been paying close attention to Prime’s rise through the coaching ranks. Those are the same folks who say this year’s Heisman Trophy winner, Travis Hunter, a talent unlike the sport has ever seen, can’t play both ways in the NFL. They forget that Hunter played for the only man who has done that in the modern NFL, and the only man who knows what it physically takes.

Deion has said that he thinks of Hunter as a fourth son to him, which means Jones would need to find a way to not only add Shedeur to the Dallas Cowboys’ roster, but Shilo and Hunter, too. While there remains little doubt about when and where Shedeur and Hunter will be drafted — the first round — some still harbor concerns about Shilo’s place in the NFL.

He is an undersized box safety who has made 137 tackles, forced five fumbles and made one interception over two seasons at Colorado. His ceiling compares favorably with Bob Sanders when he was the Indianapolis Colts’ box safety and a two-time All-Pro.

While Bronny James might be unplayable in the NBA, Shilo can and should make an NFL franchise’s 53-man roster. There’s no doubt to me Jones would make the same concession for Deion that the Los Angeles Lakers did for LeBron James — even if he wanted to make his podcast partner his offensive coordinator or his head coach, like James did with J.J. Redick.

Stars rule and stars make their own rules. Deion Sanders is on the short list of the most popular head coaches in North America and probably polls better than Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr and Ohio State coach Ryan Day. In fact, the only coach who might be more popular than Prime right now is Kansas Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, and that’s far from a sure thing.

Knowing what we do about Jones, we shouldn’t doubt that he has both the power and money to bring Sanders to the Cowboys — and yes, that includes paying the $8 million buyout to secure him. Could anything short of making Prime the highest-paid coach in college football, alongside an extension, keep him in Boulder if Jones decides to press for him?

Paying Prime more than double his current annual salary — $5.7 million — might not cut it, as USC coach Lincoln Riley, Florida State coach Mike Norvell and Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer each make more than $10 million annually, according to USA Today.

Paying Prime a similar amount to Georgia coach Kirby Smart, who makes more than $13 million annually, or Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, who makes more than $11 million annually, might cause Boulder brass to blink, but that’s a far better fate than fading back into oblivion, which is where Colorado football was before Prime arrived.

Colorado’s identity is tied to Deion Sanders — not the other way around. We know what happens to Colorado football if he leaves, and so do they. So ante up or prepare for nothingness to be thy name again, Colorado.

Now tell the truth and shame the Devil. You knew damn well Deion Sanders was going to be up for the Dallas Cowboys coaching job. You knew because this is who Sanders has been all along. You knew from the moment Sanders got out of his chair for the eighth time at a youth football practice to correct a coach on the fly. You knew from the moment he took a hard look at how much he loved his family, knew about football, and had an ability to convey meaning that this was always going to be true.

You’ve already made peace with it. If it comes to pass, you’ll don a Cowboy hat, sit back in your chair and turn on FOX in the Sunday afternoon window to watch Deion Sanders lead Dallas in the most compelling season the organization has seen since 1996.

And you’ll smile about it.

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast “The Number One College Football Show.” Follow him at @RJ_Young.

Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily.