Deion Sanders revealed he’d had his bladder removed in May after a bladder cancer diagnosis. Sanders, who is currently the head football coach at University of Colorado Boulder, gave the news at a press conference Monday. Sanders’ doctor, Dr. Janet Kukreja, spoke at the press conference as well to share what the process had been like. According to Kukreja, not only had she removed a tumor from the bladder, but had also removed the bladder itself. Part of Sanders’ small intestine was then used to create a new bladder for Sanders. Prior to the surgery, there had been rumors that Sanders intended to resign due to health reasons. Kukreja described the cancer as “high grade” but that the operation, had “cured” Sanders. “I am pleased to report that the results from the surgery are that he is cured from the cancer,” she said.

The new bladder, called a “neobladder” will create some big lifestyle changes for Sanders, who has to spend hours on the sidelines coaching his team. Sanders has to learn a whole new way of urinating and his neobladder has less capacity than his original bladder. “You have to push through your stomach and force the pee out. Like you can’t just pee, and when you feel like you gotta go pee, you need to pee or you gonna start leaking,” he told Michael Irvin on his podcast. To ensure he can make it through long games, Sanders will have to rely on protective underwear. “I depend on Depends. … I’m making a joke out of it, but it is real,” Sanders said.

Sanders had been facing a series of health issues since 2021. He told Irvin he tried to keep his health battle quiet. “I think you were the first one [to visit] because I didn’t want to be seen… you know, I’m only 12 pounds down now. But I was 20-25 pounds down. I didn’t want to be seen like that even though it was you I just didn’t want that. I wasn’t allowing anybody except for my kids,” he said. He recalled the difficulty of having to make his will and facing the possibility that he wouldn’t be around.

One thing Sanders’ health battle hasn’t changed, however, is his faith in God. “I never questioned and ask God,” he told Irvin. “‘Why me?’ I can’t. Why me am I living like this? Why me am I the coach of the Colorado Buffaloes? Why me am I on this wonderful university? Why me do I have these wonderful kids with my last name? Like, why me that God has blessed me so much. Like, I would have to ask God, ‘Why me all that, too?’ So, I never asked God, ‘Why me?’” he concluded. He said he leaned more heavily on God, asking Him to show him what he was supposed to learn from the circumstances. “We got this, Lord. I know I ain’t going nowhere,” he said. Sanders will continue to coach, with Sanders hoping to improve on last season’s 9-4 record. “I always knew I was going to coach again,” he said. “I never didn’t realize I was going to coach again. I was always going to coach. It was never in my spirit, in my heart, that God wouldn’t allow me to coach again.”