‘Prime Time’ Dancin’ Cowboys Applaud Deion Sanders’ Offensive - And End Zone - Displays

He wears more jewelry than Liz Taylor.

He brags like a sailor on shore leave.

He thinks it’s a compliment when someone calls him greedy.

Still, Deion Sanders is a wonder once he puts on a football uniform. The man plays the game better than just about anybody on the planet.

And like all great performers, the defensive back is at his best when it counts the most.

It shouldn’t have been a surprise that Sanders waited until the playoffs to score his first touchdown of the season. He also intercepted a pass to set up another TD in Dallas’ 30-11 victory over Philadelphia on Sunday.

“That’s my nickname,” said Sanders, who doesn’t blush when people call him “Prime Time.” “The big guys ‘gotta come out in the big games. You must do that. That’s why they pay us the money.”

The Cowboys now are only one win away from the Super Bowl. They play Green Bay here Sunday in the NFC Championship Game.

Sanders insisted he wasn’t at all surprised Dallas will not be playing his previous employers, the San Francisco 49ers, who were upset by the Packers at Candlestick Park the day before.

“I can’t say that I am,” he said. “I sorta predicted it to my teammates.”

Nor did he even attempt to feign sorrow about what had happened to San Francisco. Instead, he looked at it as an opportunity to twist the knife a little more.

“The team I played on last year is at home watching,” he said more than once. “The team I’m playing on this year is playing in the championship game.”

Sanders left San Francisco for a number of reasons, $35 million of them, including $13 million up front. But he wanted more than the cash. He also required a guarantee that he could play when the offense had the ball, too, something 49ers coach George Siefert was reluctant to give.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was so eager to lure Sanders away he probably wouldn’t have flinched if Deion demanded his new boss chauffeur him to and from games. And coach Barry Switzer wasn’t about to make a fuss, either.

So early in the second quarter, with the Cowboys and Eagles tied 3-3, on a first-and-10 from the Philly 21, Sanders lined up in the right slot for his first offensive play of the game.

“I’m over there begging the whole game to get in,” he said, grinning.

At the snap, he broke back toward quarterback Troy Aikman, who handed him the ball on what should have been a routine reverse. Sanders made it memorable. A few strides after taking the ball, he confronted a defender who was in position to deliver a big hit. And Deion does not like to be hit.

Sanders planted a foot and angled back the other way, racing diagonally across the field. When he neared the right sideline, he kicked it into an even higher gear and sprinted the rest of the way into the end zone, the first time in his pro career he’s scored on a run from the line of scrimmage.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Aikman said. “I started to try and throw a block but decided, naw, I’ll just get out of the way.”

Then the Cowboys gathered to admire Sanders’ end zone dance. But Switzer, screened out on the sideline, didn’t see it.

“I wasn’t invited,” he joked.

Receiver Michael Irvin was.

“I ride with him to the airport and all I ever hear him say is ‘Man, I’ve got to get into the end zone,”’ Irvin said. “I’m glad he finally got in there so I could finally see the dance.”

The play did a lot more than put Dallas ahead 10-3. It pumped up the other Cowboys almost to bursting.

“The emotions were already in the game,” running back Emmitt Smith said, “but to see him get a touchdown as a Dallas Cowboy was exciting. I might add, I did make a decent block on that reverse.”

Smith wasn’t so busy he couldn’t grade his teammate’s performance.

“He doesn’t have any moves, but he sure is fast,” he said, grinning.

Sanders probably won’t have to beg for more playing time on offense.

“Today, he opened it up a lot,” Aikman said. “They didn’t want to single-cover him… . So that leaves single coverage elsewhere.”