Jackson State coach Deion Sanders’ speech to his team following the shooting death of rapper Takeoff went viral this week.
Sanders told his players they were not allowed to leave their Houston hotel after the shooting. Jackson State is set to take on Texas Southern in a SWAC matchup.
"I don’t know how true it is, I hope it’s not true, but Takeoff was murdered in a dice game in Houston," Sanders said.
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"Where we’re going, so that eliminates all of y’all leaving that hotel, ’cause it ain’t happening until I give you f---ing notice. Whatever her name is, whoever she is, parents, everybody, they gonna come to the hotel to visit you because y’all ain’t leaving. Because I can’t lose one of y’all."
Sanders expressed his dismay about "influential" people dying too early and said his players should be more aware of who they are now and their surroundings.
"I’m sick and tired of the consistency that people influential to you are leaving us consistently. That’s our rappers. Sooner or later, we have to start changing our addresses, guys. That’s an analogy to saying I know we this, but we ain’t that. We got to leave that behind like we once did, and that’s what you guys are.
"You guys are Jackson State royalty. You ain’t know that. You’re not whoever you were a year ago. You’re not even who you gonna be a year from now, which is a blessing. But you can’t continuously do things you’ve always done and expect to get the results. There’s gonna have to be a change.
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"All of us are going through drastic changes. Have we, coaches? All of us is still evolving into what God has called us to be, and that’s change. You cannot kick it with the same dudes you kicked it with. You cannot kick it with the multitude of women you were kicking with. You cannot associate in the same rooms you associated with. You gonna have to change if you expect change.
"It’s gonna come to a time — they can talk about you, they can mock you, they can ridicule you, they can cuss you out, they can clown you, whatever they want. But you’re going to have to separate sooner or later. You gonna have to disconnect. Sooner or later, you’re going to have to."
Sanders added just how valuable his team is to their families and friends, and he didn’t want any of them playing "that bull junk."
The Pro Football Hall of Famer has turned Jackson State into a powerhouse school in FCS. The Tigers enter their game against Texas Southern 8-0 overall and 5-0 in the conference. Texas Southern is 4-4 overall and 3-2 in the conference.
