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Deion Sanders

Returns To Baseball

In 1997 Sanders returned to baseball, batting .273 for the Reds and accounting for a total of 23 runs batted in. He missed the first two weeks of the football season while continuing to play for the Reds. Although he missed the tail end of the baseball season, Sanders still managed to rank second in the National League with 56 stolen bases. His season with the Cowboys was further shortened by a rib injury that caused him to miss the last three games of the regular season. Despite the missed games, Sanders in 1997 was again named All-Pro and also tapped as NFC Defensive Back of the Year. One of the highlights of Sanders's football season came on September 28 when he returned a punt 83 yards for a touchdown in a game against the Chicago Bears. It was to be the longest punt return of his career and the fourth longest in team history. Sanders's accomplishments of 1997 are all the more remarkable because away from sports it was a year of great personal turmoil for him. His marriage to college sweetheart Carolyn Chambers was ending (they divorced in 1998), and Sanders later admitted that he twice attempted to commit suicide that year.

For the next three years, Sanders played no baseball at all. His football season in 1998 was cut short when he injured his toe in a game against the Arizona Cardinals. He returned to the Cowboys for the team's playoff loss to the Cardinals. Despite his injury, Sanders was named to his seventh consecutive NFC Pro Bowl squad as a cornerback and kick returner. He was also named NFL Special Teams Player of the Year by the NFL Alumni Association for his brilliant performance as a punt returner. In the spring of 1999, Sanders's personal life took a turn for the better when the two-sport star married New York model and actress Pilar Biggers in a private ceremony on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. Presiding at the marriage ceremony was Bishop Thomas D. Jakes Sr., founder of the Dallas-based T. D. Jakes Ministries and a close spiritual adviser to Sanders.

Awards and Accomplishments

1987-88	Named All-American in college football
1988	Receives Jim Thorpe Award as best defensive back
1989	Becomes the only athlete in modern history to score touchdown and hit home run in professional play during the same week
1990	Returns interception 82 yards for touchdown, the longest touchdown play of the year in the NFL
1992	Bats .533 in World Series against Toronto Blue Jays
1992	Leads NFL with average kickoff return of 26.7 yards and total of 1,067 yards
1992-98	Selected to play in Pro Bowl

Related Biography: Bishop Thomas D. Jakes Sr.

A major influence in Sanders's life since the mid-1990s has been Bishop Thomas D. Jakes Sr., founder of the Potter's House, a nondenominational, multiracial church in Dallas, and the T. D. Jakes Ministries. In October 1997, signaling a rebirth of Sanders's Christianity, Jakes baptized Sanders and fellow Dallas Cowboys players Emmitt Smith, Omar Stoutmire, and George Hegamin. Jakes also wrote the foreword to Sanders's Power, Money, and Sex, published in 1998.

Jakes was born and raised in Charlestown, West Virginia, the son of Ernest and Odith Jakes. He grew up in a hillside neighborhood and "From a very young age, he was devoted to the gospel," according to Jakes's biography on the Web site of T. D. Jakes Ministries. Jakes was called to the ministry at the age of 17 and began preaching part time while studying psychology at West Virginia State University. He later took over as music director at the Charleston church he attended as a boy and in 1982 became a full-time pastor at the same church.

The first church founded by Jakes began with only ten members and was located in a storefront in Montgomery, West Virginia. Eventually Jakes's message attracted a large, racially mixed congregation and became known as the Greater Emanuel Temple of Faith. By the time Jakes relocated to Dallas in 1996, the church's membership had grown to nearly 1,000.

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Famous Sports StarsFootballDeion Sanders Biography - Born In Fort Myers, Florida, Drafted By Atlanta Falcons, Chronology, Leads Nfl In Interceptions - CONTACT INFORMATION, SELECTED WRITINGS BY SANDERS: