‘Dijon’ Hot-Dogs It For Prime Time

According to A.C. (no relation to Harry) Nielsen, Super Bowl telecasts account for 18 of the top 45 television programs of all time. Incredible but true. Our 30-year-old American Football Festival ranks right up there with the final episode of “MASH,” “Roots” and the Beatles on Ed Sullivan.

The Super Bowl is the ultimate TV sports event, an annual ratings bonanza, guaranteed to sell lots of potato chips, beer and diet cola.

In this spirit, today we reluctantly bring you Mr. Prime Time, Deion Sanders.

Deion (wouldn’t “Dijon” be a better fit?) is the ultimate Super Bowl Grand Marshal. He’s overpaid, overrated, overhyped, flashy, fast and proof that this is indeed a great country.

Sanders has terrific skills, no doubt. He’s the fastest man in football and can play offense, defense and special teams. He creates a surge of electricity every time he touches the ball. In Dallas’ playoff rout of Philadelphia, Sanders dominated play for 60 minutes and managed to appear on your home screen during most of the commercial breaks. You could not take your eyes off him.

And so it was that Tuesday - the dreaded Downtown Julie Brown Memorial “Media Tuesday” of Super Bowl week - Deion was The Man.

When you are surrounded by the talent of Emmitt Smith, Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin, the girth of Nate Newton and Erik Williams and the ego of owner Jerry Jones, it’s not easy to be The Man. But it’s no problem for Sanders. There’s simply not enough Grey Poupon in the country to cover Dijon, and that is why for the second consecutive year he was the star of the mass media event.

All of the Steelers and Cowboys were made available to more than 2,000 media representatives Tuesday. Signs were posted to indicate where an athlete could be found. Some players got their own podiums. Deion was assigned a large section of the Sun Devil Stadium grandstand, and still it wasn’t enough. Other players were surrounded, but Deion was the only one who appeared to be slam-dancing in his own personal mosh pit. If not for the glistening earrings and chains of gold, it might have been hard to find him in the middle of the horde.

But even if Deion couldn’t be seen, he certainly could be heard.

“Get ready now,” he started. “Everybody ready? Ready? Ready? … I’m baaaaaaaack.”

Chuckles all around. Sanders knows this is what we expect. He knows there’s an element of the sports world that detests him, and a large faction that adores his flash and dash. He knows his $35 million package from the Cowboys has a lot to do with style as well as substance. He knows how to play the game. On and off the field.

“Media Day is a great day for everyone,” said Deion. “You guys never know what I’m going to say. You never know what I’m going to do and you always want to be there just in case it’s one of those real good ones.”

He would not talk about the point spread. He would not compare these Cowboys with the Super Bowl-champion San Francisco 49ers he played for last season. He would not share his pregame rituals.

He talked about just about everything else. He denied a scurrilous rumor that he turned down a part in “Showgirls.” He said his mom was coming to Sunday’s game. He had some Super Bowl tickets to sell if we wanted to meet him out back, but not for face value.

He said, “If it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense.”

He thanked Pittsburgh’s Leon Searcy for buying his album - “for contributing to the Prime Time Fund.”

He would not “guarantee” victory, as Joe Namath did in 1969. He said he considered it a dumb question.

“Is I supposed to fall for that one - the Joe Namath of the ‘90s?

“We’re the team you love to hate because we have so many personalities on this team and we’re good and we know we’re good. And we let you know that we’re good. And our owner is good. He’s very good at what he’s doing and a lot of people don’t like that. He lets you know. So we’re disliked because we’re very confident.

“I told them, ‘Do not let Kordell Stewart outshine me.’ I think I’m playing quarterback and doing whatever Kordell does. If he punts, I want to punt.

“This league got a little boring in the last couple of years. It needs a couple of exciting guys. Truly so. I like to have fun doing my job. I try to have a good time doing it. Sunday, I’m going to act like a damn fool out there on that field and have a good time doing it.

“How am I overrated? You guys see what I do on the field. I do my job and I do my job well and I think everybody knows that. You can say what you want about Deion Sanders, but between those white lines, he handles his business and I think you all know that.

“I’ve been blessed my whole life. This ain’t the first time I’ve been in the spotlight. It’s been that way since I was 7 years old, playing for the Fort Myers Rebels. We were national champions. I don’t know if they allowed flash back then, but I’ve been high-steppin’ since I was 7 years old. I’ve been the same since ‘74 when I first started playing ball.

“I enjoy my life. I wish you guys could get through your heads, I enjoy my life. I really do. The Lord has truly blessed me and I enjoy my life. Ain’t nothing wrong with that. If ya’ll gonna say I need hype and exposure, well, I didn’t tell all you guys to come up here. Not one time.”

There’s a little bit of Muhammad Ali in Deion Sanders. But there’s also a little bit of Fred (The Hammer) Williamson.

In 1967, the Packers sent The Hammer out of the first Super Bowl on a stretcher. A lot of Steelers would like to do the same to Deion. But Sanders is hard to nail. You’ve got to catch him first.