In his first extended comments since being hospitalized in late October, Deion Sanders on Saturday via a four-and-a-half-minute YouTube video said thanked God for being alive and emphasized his serious health struggle had been aided by his Christian faith.
Sanders, who had surgery on his left foot Sept. 22, was hospitalized shortly after he encountered medical complications October 20.
It was at that time Sanders revealed he would have to step away from his Jackson State football program, which has surged to an 8-1 record and top-15 nationally ranking.
“I can't walk on my own and people have to help me get in and out of everything, and I say, 'Lord, I thank you,'” Sanders said on the video posted to Thee Pregame Show YouTube channel.
“You say, 'Prime, how can you say Lord I thank you and it's hard for you to help yourself?' Because I'm alive.”
Sanders further said that “you have no idea the pain I've felt, what I am going through,” but again reaffirmed his thanks for the struggle.
Sanders was hospitalized in a Jackson, Mississippi-area hospital for nearly three weeks before he was discharged earlier this week.
“You have no idea what the enemy is trying to stop,” Sanders said. “He's trying to stop a man on a mission. Baby, I'm a winner.
“In the end, I'm gonna win and you're gonna see the story and how it developed and you are going to see how I overcame adversity.”
He later added, “You may not want to understand what is at stake. Lord, I thank you. If you had to choose anybody, I'm glad you chose me, Lord, because I thank you. Because I'm built for this. Built for this time. Built for this moment. Built for this mess I'm going through, Lord.”
Sanders also talked of the lonely moments in the hospital, a time when he could have allowed doubt to creep in but said that he did not.
“When there ain't nobody there, I believe,” Sanders said. “When there wasn't nobody in that hospital in the night right beside me, I believe, and when there were people in that hospital right beside me, I believe.
“It's going to be a beautiful thing when you see the story, when you see the glory, it's going to be a beautiful thing when you see how all this plays out.”