Deion Sanders Had Bladder Removed Due to Cancer, Is Ready for Season

Colorado football coach Deion Sanders announced he had bladder cancer earlier this year, but is in good health and ready for the 2025 season after a successful surgery and treatment.

Sanders, 57, revealed the news at a press conference in Boulder on Monday ahead of training camp opening. Dr. Janet Kukreja, a urologic oncologist at Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus, and Colorado football assistant athletic trainer Lauren Askevold accompanied Sanders on Monday.

Coach Prime was away from the football team most of the offseason, and he declined to offer specifics about his health during Big 12 media days earlier this month.

After a cancerous tumor was discovered on Sanders’s bladder in the spring, a decision was made to undergo full robot-assisted laparoscopic bladder removal, and create a new bladder from Sanders’s own small intestines. The surgery was completed in early May.

“I am pleased to report that the results from the surgery are that he is cured from the cancer,” Dr. Kukreja said. 

The timing was likely life-saving for Sanders. “Very lucky to have found it at this stage, where it was still I could say the word ‘cure,’ because I don’t use that word lightly as a cancer doctor,” Dr. Kukreja said. “And there’s a lot of patients where we don’t have that same conversation.”

Sanders said he kept Colorado AD Rick George informed throughout the process. “I always knew I was going to coach again,” he said. 

That commitment played a part in Sanders opting for bladder removal, which was not the only option. “The decision I made in the surgery I chose was based on not just family, it was based on football,” he said. “I didn’t want to be going weekly to the hospital while I’ve got practices.”

There will be no travel restrictions in place for Sanders, as Colorado looks to build on its 9–4 season from a year ago. In March, Sanders signed a five-year, $54 million contract extension that makes him one of the highest-paid coaches in college football. He’ll make $10 million in 2025, with his salary increasing to $12 million by 2029.

Despite the serious medical situation, Sanders was in good spirits Monday, even joking about his new reality, which includes challenges controlling his bladder. “If you see a port-a-potty on the sideline, it’s real, O.K.? I’m just telling you right now, you’re gonna see it,” he said.

Colorado opens the season at home against Georgia on Aug. 29, for a Friday night primetime matchup on ESPN.