Quick Kicks
Deion thankful he whiffed
Dallas Cowboys cornerback Deion Sanders described how he attempted suicide last year when his marriage was crumbling, his father was dying and everything seemed to be falling apart.
“You’re on the run, trying to reach out and hold on to something desperate,” Sanders said in an interview broadcast Sunday on CBS’ “NFL Today.”
“The enemy comes to kill, steal and destroy. And he was trying to murder me, and I was about to let him do so. And there came that fatal attempt.”
Sanders said he tried to kill himself about a year ago by driving his car off a cliff in Cincinnati, where he was playing baseball for the Reds.
“I attempted suicide, but God had his hands on me,” Sanders said. “I ran the car off the cliff, and it was like a 40 … 30-foot drop. The car went down and hit and there wasn’t a scratch on me or on the car.”
Sanders estimated he was driving “about 65 or 70 mph” at the time.
He said he turned his life around after the crash and now loves the Lord with all his heart.
“You try to fulfill your time and your needs,” he said. “I was just empty. I tried cars, jewelry, clothes, women, money.
Everything, nothing could fulfill me.
“I know who I am, what I am, where I’m going and how to get there.”
Shanahan sacks Elway
It was 10 minutes before kickoff and John Elway, suffering from an injured hamstring, was throwing the last of his warm-up passes when Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan sacked his star quarterback.
“He said, ‘Let Bubby (Brister) take the rest of them,’ ” said Elway, recounting being benched prior to Sunday’s game against the Washington Redskins at Jack Kent Cooke Stadium. “I said, ‘That’s fine.”’
The 38-year-old Elway, in his 16th year with the Broncos, quietly went to the locker room, changed into street clothes and took to the sideline, where his only contributions were encouragement and tips to Brister.
“Just looking at him yesterday … I could see John not being John,” Shanahan said.
As he stood by his locker after the game, Elway said he knew Shanahan had made the correct decision, even though he said he doesn’t like the view from the sideline.
Carolinians on the pine
The Carolina Panthers, already hit by their worst string of injuries since the team started playing in 1995, got more bad news Sunday.
Left guard Matt Campbell sprained his left knee in the second quarter of the Panthers’ 37-30 loss to Green Bay and is expected to miss 5-6 weeks. Running back Fred Lane cracked a rib but kept playing, and Pro Bowl kick returner Michael Bates sat out the fourth quarter with a knee injury.
In the first quarter, cornerback Doug Evans dislocated his left thumb and safety Tony Veland broke his nose. Both returned.
The last word …
“It’s just sad to see the rest of the team play so well and have the rookie quarterback come in and lose the game. The Chargers should be a lot better right now if not for me. We’re 2-2 because of me.” - Ryan Leaf, San Diego quarterback after another disappointing performance.