Deion Sanders wants players focusing on ‘NFL, not the NIL’

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In the mid ‘90s Hall of Famer Deion Sanders crooned "Must Be The Money," while in the midst of both a Major League Baseball and NFL career. Nearly 30 years later, he’s singing the same tune, albeit from a different perspective.

Sanders, now the head football coach at Jackson State University, has an issue with the NCAA’s name, image, likeness policy. Prime Time has no qualms about athletes getting paid, he just prefers that their focus be on something bigger than the money.

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FILE - Jackson State head coach Deion Sanders points during an NCAA football game against Louisiana Monroe on Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021, in Monroe, La. (AP Photo/Mathew Hinton, File)

"It’s becoming free agency, and if you don’t have it, you won’t be able to compete," Sanders said during an interview with 247Sports’ Carl Reed. "It’s just another way to keep the schools that don’t have the proper funding down. First of all, I’m not giving a kid anything like that. I want you to focus on the NFL, not the NIL."

Coach Prime’s rant didn’t stop there. Sanders argued that when athletes cash in early, they can become complacent and lose focus on the bigger picture. "If you get comfortable with, you already got a meal and you got that (money) comin’, I mean, c’mon," said Sanders. "How hungry are you gonna be to go out there and work and go get it?"

Deion’s comments come less than a week after Kansas basketball coach Bill Self blasted the NCAA and their loosely governed NIL policy, stating that the combination of NIL and the transfer portal has "changed the playing field to maybe where it’s not quite as level as what it potentially