Following a life-saving robotic surgery and bladder reconstruction, Coach Prime opens up about his grueling recovery and the early detection that kept him on the Colorado sidelines.
Deion Sanders is approaching this offseason with a little more grace for himself. After spending the majority of last year dealing with post-op symptoms from surgery to remove his bladder, he's happy to feel normal again.
“I consider myself cancer-free,” thanks to robotic surgery that also reconstructed his bladder using part of his intestine," Sanders recently told The Associated Press.
The Colorado Buffaloes coach is thankful to be on the other side without worrying about what comes next. At a routine check-up for blood clots, a CT scan showed a mass on Sanders’ bladder. If it wasn't for early detection, the situation could've been drastically different. A team at the University of Colorado Anschutz led by Dr. Janet Kukreja, who's the director of urologic oncology at the CU Cancer Center and UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital, gave Sanders a positive new outlook on being a cancer survivor.
“I was fighting” last year at this time, Sanders said. “I was walking out on the property with a bag of blood and also urine and trying to get back. But this expedited the process. Last year, at this time, I was in a whole different place, and I’m just thankful."
What a difference a year can make. Sanders is currently down at his compound in Texas, soaking up life around his players and staff. This is a complete turnaround from where he was at before the 2025 season.
“If I pull my shirt up, I’m not scared, it’s not flawed. I’m not embarrassed by anything that transpired. I’m elated by everything that transpired,” Sanders said.
Like so many passes Sanders used to pick off during his playing day, his medical care fell into the right hand. Kukreja is among the small group of surgeons in the U.S. who perform robotic removal of the entire cancerous bladder. The process is called a radical cystectomy. Without this procedure, Sanders might've become another statistic.
“It got me back in the game, got me back on my feet and got me out of the darn hospital and back into the normalcy of my life,” Sanders said. “I’m here to let people know there’s another option if you need surgery.”
Sanders enters his fourth season at Colorado. He'll return to the city he helped build for this year's opener. The Buffs play the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in Atlanta on Sept. 3 at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.
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