Deion Sanders is no longer the only member of the Colorado football staff with a gold jacket.
CU’s head coach has hired good friend and fellow Pro Football Hall of Famer Warren Sapp as a graduate assistant. Sapp, a dominant defensive tackle during his playing days, was introduced to the team at a meeting on Sunday.
Sapp told the team he was a “senior quality control analyst,” but CU confirmed to BuffZone on Monday that he has been hired as a graduate assistant. Sapp, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2013, is currently enrolled in graduate level continuing education classes at the CU Boulder Graduate School.
“Warren Sapp successfully completed all of the necessary steps required of anyone who is employed at CU Boulder, including a background check,” CU told BuffZone in a statement. “Furthermore, Athletic Director Rick George personally met with Warren to clearly articulate the department’s standards and expectations, to which he acknowledged and agreed.”
Sapp has had some legal issues in the past, including in 2015 when he was arrested for assault and soliciting a prostitute. That arrest led to him being fired by the NFL Network, where he worked as an analyst. Also in 2015, he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor domestic violence charge. In both cases, Sapp avoided jail time with plea agreements.
From the time that Coach Prime was hired by CU, Sapp has expressed interest in joining the staff and he spent some time around the Buffs last season. He cleared a big hurdle in that quest by completing his undergraduate degree in December, graduating from Texas Seminary Christian University.
Being a graduate assistant will allow Sapp to work on the field coaching the players, which he wouldn’t be allowed to do as an analyst.
Sapp hasn’t been a coach in the past, but he brings a great deal of NFL experience to the Buffs, as well as a close connection with Coach Prime, as they both grew up in Florida.
As a senior at the University of Miami in 1994, Sapp won the Lombardi Award (top college lineman) and Bronko Nagurski Trophy (top defensive player in college). He was also a unanimous first-team All-American and the Big East defensive player of the year.
The No. 12 overall pick in the 1995 NFL Draft, Sapp played nine seasons (1995-2003) with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was the NFL’s defensive player of the year in 1999 and helped the Bucs to a victory in Super Bowl XXXVII on Jan. 26, 2003.
A seven-time Pro Bowler, Sapp played his final four seasons (2004-07) with the Oakland Raiders. He was named to the NFL’s all-decade teams for the 1990s and 2000s, closing his career with 96.5 sacks in 198 career games.
Adding Sapp gives CU even more NFL experience on the staff.
Sanders, a 2011 inductee to the Hall of Fame, is considered by many as the greatest cornerback to ever play the game and played 14 seasons in the NFL.
Both of CU’s coordinators – Pat Shurmur (offense) and Robert Livingston (defense) – are veteran NFL coaches. Offensive line coach Phil Loadholt, cornerbacks coach Kevin Mathis and receivers coach Jason Phillips are also former NFL players and the Buffs have others on staff with NFL experience.
“How can you tell somebody where to go if you haven’t been there?” Sanders recently said when asked about the benefit of NFL experience on the staff. “These kids today, man, it’s now how we grew up. … Prove it to me, show me. It’s the show me type of young generation and prove it to me generation. Let me see your credentials type of generation. So when you compose a staff that pretty much embodies the NFL and where they’re directed to, that is phenomenal.”
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