{"id":6605,"date":"2025-08-02T09:56:03","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T13:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/?p=6605"},"modified":"2025-08-02T09:56:03","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T13:56:03","slug":"deion-sanders-says-he-never-felt-let-down-by-god-despite-bladder-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2025\/08\/deion-sanders-says-he-never-felt-let-down-by-god-despite-bladder-cancer.html","title":{"rendered":"Deion Sanders Says He Never Felt Let Down by God, Despite Bladder Cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Left: Ringo Chiu \/ Shutterstock.com | Right: 11Alive \/ YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Deion Sanders revealed<\/a> he\u2019d 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\u2019 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\u2019 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 \u201chigh grade” but that the operation, had \u201ccured\u201d Sanders. “I am pleased to report that the results from the surgery are that he is cured from the cancer,” she said.<\/p>\n

The new bladder, called a \u201cneobladder\u201d 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. \u201cYou have to push through your stomach and force the pee out. Like you can\u2019t just pee, and when you feel like you gotta go pee, you need to pee or you gonna start leaking,\u201d he told Michael Irvin on his podcast<\/a>. To ensure he can make it through long games, Sanders will have to rely on protective underwear. \u201cI depend on Depends. … I’m making a joke out of it, but it is real,\u201d Sanders said.<\/p>\n

Sanders had been facing a series of health issues since 2021. He told Irvin he tried to keep his health battle quiet. \u201cI think you were the first one [to visit] because I didn\u2019t want to be seen\u2026 you know, I\u2019m only 12 pounds down now. But I was 20-25 pounds down. I didn\u2019t want to be seen like that even though it was you I just didn\u2019t want that. I wasn\u2019t allowing anybody except for my kids,\u201d he said. He recalled the difficulty of having to make his will and facing the possibility that he wouldn\u2019t be around.<\/p>\n

One thing Sanders\u2019 health battle hasn\u2019t changed, however, is his faith in God. \u201cI never questioned and ask God,\u201d he told Irvin. \u201c\u2018Why me?\u2019 I can\u2019t. 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, \u2018Why me all that, too?\u2019 So, I never asked God, \u2018Why me?\u2019” he concluded. He said he leaned more heavily on God, asking Him to show him what he was supposed to learn from the circumstances. \u201cWe got this, Lord. I know I ain\u2019t going nowhere,\u201d he said. Sanders will continue to coach, with Sanders hoping to improve on last season\u2019s 9-4 record. \u201cI always knew I was going to coach again,\u201d he said. \u201cI never didn\u2019t 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\u2019t allow me to coach again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Deion Sanders revealed he\u2019d 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\u2019 doctor, Dr. Janet Kukreja, spoke at the press conference as well to share what the process had been…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":6608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nDeion Sanders Says He Never Felt Let Down by God, Despite Bladder Cancer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Deion Sanders reveals bladder removal after cancer diagnosis, shares faith-filled recovery journey, and vows to keep coaching.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2025\/08\/deion-sanders-says-he-never-felt-let-down-by-god-despite-bladder-cancer.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Deion Sanders Says He Never Felt Let Down by God, Despite Bladder Cancer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Deion Sanders reveals bladder removal after cancer diagnosis, shares faith-filled recovery journey, and vows to keep coaching.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2025\/08\/deion-sanders-says-he-never-felt-let-down-by-god-despite-bladder-cancer.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Daily Cup of Wellness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-02T13:56:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/410\/2025\/08\/Deion-Sanders_credit-Left-Ringo-Chiu-Shutterstock-Right-11Alive-YouTube.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Deion Sanders Says He Never Felt Let Down by God, Despite Bladder Cancer","description":"Deion Sanders reveals bladder removal after cancer diagnosis, shares faith-filled recovery journey, and vows to keep coaching.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2025\/08\/deion-sanders-says-he-never-felt-let-down-by-god-despite-bladder-cancer.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Deion Sanders Says He Never Felt Let Down by God, Despite Bladder Cancer","og_description":"Deion Sanders reveals bladder removal after cancer diagnosis, shares faith-filled recovery journey, and vows to keep coaching.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2025\/08\/deion-sanders-says-he-never-felt-let-down-by-god-despite-bladder-cancer.html","og_site_name":"Daily Cup of Wellness","article_published_time":"2025-08-02T13:56:03+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/410\/2025\/08\/Deion-Sanders_credit-Left-Ringo-Chiu-Shutterstock-Right-11Alive-YouTube.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2025\/08\/deion-sanders-says-he-never-felt-let-down-by-god-despite-bladder-cancer.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2025\/08\/deion-sanders-says-he-never-felt-let-down-by-god-despite-bladder-cancer.html","name":"Deion Sanders Says He Never Felt Let Down by God, Despite Bladder Cancer","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2025\/08\/deion-sanders-says-he-never-felt-let-down-by-god-despite-bladder-cancer.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2025\/08\/deion-sanders-says-he-never-felt-let-down-by-god-despite-bladder-cancer.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/410\/2025\/08\/Deion-Sanders_credit-Left-Ringo-Chiu-Shutterstock-Right-11Alive-YouTube.jpg","datePublished":"2025-08-02T13:56:03+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-02T13:56:03+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d"},"description":"Deion Sanders reveals bladder removal after cancer diagnosis, shares faith-filled recovery journey, and vows to keep coaching.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2025\/08\/deion-sanders-says-he-never-felt-let-down-by-god-despite-bladder-cancer.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2025\/08\/deion-sanders-says-he-never-felt-let-down-by-god-despite-bladder-cancer.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2025\/08\/deion-sanders-says-he-never-felt-let-down-by-god-despite-bladder-cancer.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/410\/2025\/08\/Deion-Sanders_credit-Left-Ringo-Chiu-Shutterstock-Right-11Alive-YouTube.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/410\/2025\/08\/Deion-Sanders_credit-Left-Ringo-Chiu-Shutterstock-Right-11Alive-YouTube.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"Left: Ringo Chiu \/ Shutterstock.com | Right: 11Alive \/ YouTube"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2025\/08\/deion-sanders-says-he-never-felt-let-down-by-god-despite-bladder-cancer.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Deion Sanders Says He Never Felt Let Down by God, Despite Bladder Cancer"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/","name":"Daily Cup of Wellness","description":"Healthy Living, Mental Health, Nutrition, Fitness, and More","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d","name":"Brandy Grenier","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/author\/bgrenier"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/516"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6611,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6605\/revisions\/6611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}