{"id":1494,"date":"2011-08-20T01:09:49","date_gmt":"2011-08-20T05:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?p=1494"},"modified":"2015-03-13T23:13:23","modified_gmt":"2015-03-14T03:13:23","slug":"the-true-confessions-of-neon-deion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2011\/08\/20\/the-true-confessions-of-neon-deion\/","title":{"rendered":"The True Confessions of Neon Deion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a> He was a remarkable athlete at Florida State, an even more remarkable athlete as a pro footballer who played for five different teams, helping most of them win championships, and this weekend he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. \u00a0 What you may not know about \u2018Prime Time\u2019 is that he is and has been a devout Christian. \u00a0 So it was no surprise when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame this week in Canton Ohio that he gave all honor and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0 And then he thanked about 100 or so people that helped him climb the mountain of football success.\u00a0 And then he began to talk about his Momma, and he made a confession.<\/p>\n

Growing up poor is no picnic.\u00a0 In fact sometimes it is quite literally, no picnic\u2014 you don\u2019t have enough to eat.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s no picnic when you are being supported by a Mom who, to make ends meet, has to be a cleaning lady in a hospital.<\/p>\n

Deion told the story of how one of his fellow footballers\u00a0 (when he was young, and before he played college ball) had seen his Momma the cleaning lady, and recognized who she was.\u00a0 The thing is that Deion at the time was on an All Star team full of rich white kids, and two African Americans.\u00a0 And it was one of those rich kids who decided it was o.k. to taunt Deion about his blue collar Momma and her job.<\/p>\n

Deion confessed before all who would listen this weekend that when that happened, he was, initially ashamed.\u00a0 Ashamed that his mother had to do that so he could play football.\u00a0 Ashamed of growing up poor.\u00a0 And he made a promise when he was still a teen on that occasion,\u00a0 that he would not tire, would not quit, would not stop, until his mother didn\u2019t have to do that any more.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At one juncture Deion told the audience,\u00a0 \u201cif your dream in life includes nobody but yourself, that\u2019s a pretty poor and selfish and limited dream\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 Amen to that.<\/p>\n

Deion\u2019s dream was setting his Momma free, and providing for her, and he certainly achieved that.\u00a0\u00a0 And once he finished his speech (which Shannon Sharpe said was the best Hall speech he ever heard), in typical \u2018stylin\u2019 fashion, he said he liked the bust of him but something was missing\u2014 and so he tied his trademark do-rag, head handkerchief around the head of the bust, to the wild applause of the crowd.<\/p>\n

Deion Sanders was an electrifying football player and a pretty darn good baseball player as well.\u00a0 Far better than Michael Jordan (though not quite as good perhaps as Bo Jackson at baseball). \u00a0\u00a0 But he is an even more impressive father and husband and Christian man, and is not afraid to say so in public.\u00a0\u00a0 Good for him.<\/p>\n

As his Momma sat in the audience and cried, we all learned something from the confession about what had motivated Deion day in, and day out, to succeed.\u00a0 His dream was big enough that it not only included<\/em> others, it meant he would live<\/em> his life for someone other than himself.\u00a0\u00a0 In a world full of narcissistic athletes,\u00a0 this was like a breath of fresh air.\u00a0\u00a0 Breath it in.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I look forward to meeting Primetime in\u00a0 Kingdom time in the Hall of Faith.<\/p>\n