Deion Sanders opens up about hitting ‘rock bottom,’ suicide attempt

"Rock bottom for me was having hundreds of pairs of shoes but couldn't take a step in the right direction," Sanders said.

Rock bottom for me was having hundreds of pairs of shoes but couldn't take a step in the right direction," Deion Sanders said.

Brianna Rhodes

Mar 28, 2019

Deion Sanders confessed that life wasn’t all that it was “cracked up to be” while living in the spotlight as a successful football player in the 90s, according to TMZ

The retired football player paid a visit to Paula Faris’ podcast, Journeys of Faith, where he revealed he was dealing with dark, painful moments during high moments of stardom. Battling moments of alienation in 1997, Sanders said he tried to kill himself by driving his car off of a cliff, plunging 40 feet.

“Rock bottom for me was having hundreds of suits and not covering the pain. Rock bottom for me was having hundreds of pairs of shoes but couldn’t take a step in the right direction,” Sanders said. “Rock bottom for me was having 10 cars and wasn’t going nowhere. Rock bottom for me was having a 14,000-square-foot house but never feeling at home.”

Sanders said he was unable to relate to people in his circle, prompting him to turn to sex.

“Rock bottom for me was laying between two and three women at a time, but you get up unsatisfied…Laying right beside the person who said they love you, but she didn’t even know you was in pain. That was rock bottom for me,” he said.

Nicknamed, “Prime Time,” Sanders admitted that his public image in the NFL and his lifestyle kept people from really knowing who he truly was.

“I was crying out to people. But, they couldn’t hear you because they saw Prime. They saw my character. The character I created, not the character of a man. They saw the character I created—that was Prime,” he said.

Sanders touched on his past problems before in his autobiography, Power, Money & Sex: How Success Almost Ruined My Life.

After attempting to kill himself, he has since dedicated his life to Christianity again and has now put his “lavish lifestyle” behind him.