Clark: It's about time Deion got his own documentary
You could make an argument, a good one I think, that Deion Sanders and Bo Jackson are the two best athletes of my lifetime. And I'm pretty old.
Not the most accomplished, mind you. That would go to Michael Jordan or Michael Phelps or a slew of other people you could name. But pound for pound, stride for stride, fast-twitch fiber for fast-twitch fiber, we haven't really seen anything like Bo and Deion before or since.
It's just a shame that they were contemporaries. Because I think, especially in Deion's case, the fact that there was another super-freakish athlete starring in two professional sports, at exactly the same time, took a bit of the shine off what he accomplished during his extraordinary career.
That's why I was really excited to see that ESPN's 30 for 30 documentary series -- which has been churning out sports films for a decade now -- finally got around to featuring one of THE best athletes in the history of the world.
"Deion's Double Play" debuts Thursday at 9 p.m. on ESPN.
I'm still waiting for a documentary on the Florida State-Florida rivalry of the 1990s (the teams met 12 times during the decade and they were both ranked in the Top 10 for all 12 games), but I'm sure they've got one in the works. Right after they produce a seventh one on Miami.
Hey, how about one on the Richt Years?
"What if I told you, The U hired a guy that didn't want to coach, and the turnover chain turned out to be fool's gold."
Anyway, back to Deion.
Do people understand how insane of an athlete and competitor he was? Like truly understand?
Do younger readers realize he hit a Major League Baseball home run and scored an NFL touchdown in the same week? Does that even compute?
I was alive for it. I saw it. And I still don't believe it.
Well, technically, I listened to it.
My dad and I were driving back the Sunday after Florida State lost to Clemson in September of 1989 -- a loss that would end up costing the Seminoles a national title -- and we were listening to the Falcons on the radio. After a long, drawn-out holdout, which was the norm back then, Deion had finally signed earlier in the week, which meant he had to leave the Yankees and start his professional football career.
In the first half of his very first game, just a few days of hitting an inside-the-park home run against Bo Jackson's Kansas City Royals, the dude returned a punt for a touchdown.
I remember the Falcons' play-by-play guy, Larry Munson, who was also the Georgia Bulldogs broadcaster for 100 years, losing his mind as he called it.
"My God, Deion Sanders is going to score! My God!"
My dad and I laughed and high-fived and, for a few moments at least, forgot all about Terry Allen's touchdowns from the night before.
Here. Take a look and a listen:
Deion was so fast, so unbelievably fast, that he started high-stepping at the 20-yard line. With an NFL defender just a few yards away.
We all know how his career went. No need to recount it.
But I really am interested in how deep this documentary delves into his time at Florida State.
I understand it's going to focus mostly on October of 1992, when he played for the Falcons on Sunday afternoon in Miami and then flew up to Pittsburgh for an NLCS game later that night.
It will certainly focus at least some time on his interactions with announcer Tim McCarver, who consistently criticized the move as a publicity stunt. I didn't agree with McCarver then and I don't now, but Deion's actions in the clubhouse following the Braves' dramatic Game 7 win over the Pirates were childish. If you don't know what he did, look it up or watch the doc. No need to get into that here. But I do think it diminished, in a small way, an all-time great athletic feat from an all-time great athlete.
And the footnote to that incident was that for the next week, Deion became the best hitter on the Braves' team. If they had won the World Series -- why would they do that, though? It is Atlanta, after all, so of course Jeff Reardon is going to give up a game-winning home run to the great Ed Sprague -- Sanders was in line to be the World Series MVP.
Think about that, folks.
Seriously.
He was that good. At his hobby.
*ALSO SEE: Coaches on the road recruiting: Updates from the recruiting trail
"Deion's Double Play" is a good title. And I hope it's a good doc.
But there is no way, even if it tried, that it could encapsulate what Deion Sanders meant to Florida State University.
"Prime Time" hasn't played a down for FSU in 31 years. He's still the most famous player in program history. And when you start listing all-time greats from this school, buddy, you know you'll be starting with him. He's always going to be at the top of the list.
And it's not just because he's the best defensive back who ever lived.
It's because of who he was. And his everlasting impact.
Other than Bobby Bowden and Mickey Andrews, I've long argued that Deion was the third most important person in Florida State program history.
Because he made FSU cool. He had that swagger. That bravado.
He made it a place where Terrell Buckley wanted to play all the way from Pascagoula, Miss. Where Clifton Abraham wanted to play all the way from Dallas, Texas. Where Dominic Robinson (who called himself Prime Time 2!) wanted to play all the way from California. OK, maybe that last one wasn't a great example, but you get the point.
Deion was the first FSU superstar of the modern era. He was known by one name. He had so much swag he took a limo to his final game in Doak Campbell Stadium. Dressed in a top hat!
He would raise his arms to the crowd, he'd trash talk any receiver he lined up against, he'd tell the entire Clemson sideline he was about to take the next punt all the way back, and he almost always backed it up.
Kids from around the country and around the state saw that. They flocked to it. Because it was impossible not to.
He was that magnetic.
You could argue that the Dynasty happens anyway. Even without Deion. It's impossible to say, really.
But he was the perfect player to come along at the perfect time for the Florida State football program.
His incredible talent and showmanship made him a household name. Kids from around the country saw him strutting around and talking trash and running faster than anyone could possibly imagine, and FSU started looking mighty appealing to the best football players in the country.
I just don't think you can overstate his impact on Florida State football.
Ask anyone that followed the Seminioles back in the late 1980s about Deion. They'll tell you the impact he had in Tallahassee. He was good his first two years. He was spectacular as a junior in 1987. And then in 1988, he became something out of a movie.
He was just from another world. He would let receivers run by him -- even really good ones like Andre Rison -- to bait the quarterback into actually trying to throw a deep ball on him. The QBs always regretted the decision.
It will be forever fitting that Deion's last play in Garnet and Gold was a game-sealing interception in the end zone against Auburn in the Sugar Bowl.
But, of course, his legacy lasted well beyond that pick in New Orleans.
Other schools make claims to being "DBU." Miami. LSU. Florida. Ohio State. They all call themselves that. And they've all had great defensive backs in their histories.
But Florida State will always have the tiebreaker. Florida State will always have a feather in its cap (or headdress, I guess) that those other programs can't.
Florida State will always have Deion. The Seminoles will always have the best to ever do it.
And while he hasn't been a huge part of the program since he left Tallahassee three decades ago, it's neat to see him becoming more involved since Willie Taggart took over. Hopefully that relationship continues.
Either way, his time in Tallahassee is something that won't ever be forgotten by the people who saw him play. On the football field or the baseball diamond. Or the track, for that matter.
He was overshadowed a bit as a professional, in my opinion, by what Bo was doing with the Raiders and the Royals. Deion wasn't as physically imposing as Bo. Or as strong. He couldn't hit a baseball as far. And it's anyone's guess who was faster.
But Bo definitely got the more memorable Nike campaign. And that was pivotal in shaping public perception.
In any other generation, what Deion did would have been celebrated like the jaw-dropping feat that it really was. He was one of the best football players who ever lived. And in his spare time, he played in the World Series. I mean ... what?!
There will never be anything like him again.
I personally don't need to be reminded of Deion's greatness. I grew up an FSU fan and a Braves/Falcons fan. I saw it all.
But I'm genuinely excited that he's about to be introduced to a whole new generation of sports fans.
On Thursday at 9 p.m. (hey, that's Prime Time!), the world will get to see what we've all known for 30 years: There will never be another Deion.
Contact Warchant.com senior writer Corey Clark at corey@warchant.com and follow @Corey_Clark on Twitter.
----------------------------------------------------
Talk about this story with other Florida State football fans in the Tribal Council
