Disruptive Leadership: How Deion Sanders Leadership Style is Impacting the NCAA Status Quo

Like many things in the United States, the NCAA, and the sports industrial complex it feeds and is built on has a lot to answer for. Years of silence, complacence and complicity with racist rules that were bent when it suited the people in charge have been swept under the rug.

But sometimes, someone comes along who not only lifts the rug, but takes it outside and beats the dirt out of it for all to see.

Deion Sanders might be that person.

How It Started

Deion Sanders was born in 1967, and it was apparent early on that he was an especially gifted football player. He was a varsity athlete at North Fort Myers High School and was chosen for the All-Century Team in 1985. That was followed by a stint at Florida State University, where he was again a star player, and then for a while, he played professional baseball with the New York Yankees, the Braves, and other teams.

At the same time as Deion was making waves in major league baseball, he was also drafted to the NFL, and eventually played for the Atlanta Falcons, the 49ers, the Dallas Cowboys, the former Washington Redskins, and the Baltimore Ravens.

In a relatively short career that lasted until his retirement in 2006, Deion managed to check off most of the pro sports dreams every American kid has growing up. Definitely a remarkable achievement.

However, had Deion been born just a little earlier, things might have been different.

Until the 1970s, most young African American men did not attend predominantly white colleges. Instead, they got their education at so called historically black colleges or universities.

Which means, had he been born a decade sooner, Deion Sanders might well have started his college ball career at a very different institution. But he might not have stayed there.

That is because it was around the mid-1970s when the NCAA started to recognize the sheer force of talent that was exploding at historically black colleges and universities, and they started recruiting them.

Many young black men, enticed by the promise of a better, more prestigious degree from a traditionally white college moved away from their roots, and started to bolster the teams at those colleges. While they might not have been good enough to make it into those schools on the strength of their race or academic achievements, they sure were good enough to turn mediocre teams into league champions.

How It is Going

After many years as one of the best athletes – of any race – that America has ever seen, Deion Sanders did what many former pro athletes have done. He set his sights on coaching and is currently the head coach of the Jackson State Tigers football team.

You could say that things have come full circle.

Except that Deion is not quite done challenging the status quo and rocking the boat.

This time, he is doing the opposite of what the NCAA started to do over forty years ago. He is enticing young black athletes back to historically black colleges and universities, allowing them to shine and to be role models for kids in their own communities.

Of course, when you change the way things have always been done, there is bound to be at least a few people who are not happy, and this time, it is the NCAA.

With more and more young black star athletes choosing to play for teams at schools that represent their history, culture, and struggle, rather than lending their talent to institutions that once accepted them only begrudgingly, there is a real fear that big changes are coming. There is a very real chance that schools that once poached their best talent and built teams on the backs of African America players might once more slip into mediocrity. The establishment is not impressed.

Where to from Here?

It is no secret that in many ways, African American players have been embraced in college and even professional sports in spite of their race, rather than because of it. It has been a very one-sided situation, and it only really lasted as long as players towed the line. Just ask Colin Kaepernick.

But a lot can change in a very short time, and there has been an awakening of sorts.

Young African American sports stars are starting to realize that they hold more power than they ever thought they did.

Star professional players like Deion Sanders are taking on leadership roles that allow them to elevate those players on their own terms.

The world has become more awake and aware, and the insidious structural and institutional racism that kept systems like this going, quietly, for decades, are being stripped away. We can all see clearly now, that in many cases, the elevation of those players from HBCUs to PWCs was not about elevating them at all. It was about padding teams that were good at best with players with the potential for excellence.

It was just another example of organizations and institutions profiting off the hard work and talent of African American people.

Now that the shoe is on the other foot, and outspoken, unafraid coaches like Deion Sanders are using their own plays against them, organizations like the NCAA are not happy.

You could say that by taking this approach, Deion Sanders has not only rocked the boat. He is built an entirely new boat, and the NCAA is not necessarily invited. Pearls will be clutched. There will be bluster. But at some point, there will also be change, and maybe, finally, the playing field will be just a little more level. What a time to be alive. What a time to be a human being. What a time to watch the status quo shutter. What a time to see the status quo transformed.?

Dr. Terry Jackson is C-Suite Advisor, Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coach, Global Leadership Development, Organizational Architect, Thinkers50. Dr. Jackson partners with Executives and Organizations to align Strategy, People and Processes to optimize and sustain Peak Business Performance.?