Deion Sanders Believes He ‘Made a Great Decision’ Publicizing the Details of His 2nd Divorce on Twitter
In many ways, Deion Sanders has moved from success to success in his life and in sports. He played in both the NFL and MLB. Now, he is the respected head football coach at Jackson State. But in the world of celebrity relationships, he wasn’t always winning.
Ten years ago, Sanders was in a very public struggle. He was going through an acrimonious divorce, and he shared some shocking details on Twitter. But he doesn’t think this was a mistake. He even said that the way he handled it should be a lesson to younger athletes on how to manage their brands.
Deion Sanders’ second divorce drama
In 2012, Sanders was going through a second divorce, and it got messy. According to the Washington Post, Sanders took that mess to Twitter to let the public know exactly what was happening. One evening, Sanders and his wife of 11 years, Pilar Sanders, got into an argument, and he tweeted the details as they happened.
“Pray for me and my kids now!” he wrote. “They just witnessed their mother and a friend jump me in my room. She’s going to jail n I’m pressing charges!”
“I’m sad my boys witnessed this mess, but I warned the police department here that she was gone try n harm me and my boys,” he tweeted later. “Thank God for this platform to issue the Truth.” Both of these tweets were later deleted.
He also posted a picture of himself filling out a police report about the incident. The Texas county in which the report was filed later posted on its website that Pilar Sanders was arrested on a family violence charge.
While some critics suggest more discretion in family matters like this, Sanders felt strongly that he’d done the right thing.
‘I made some great decisions,’ says Sanders
In an interview with Lee Hawkins for the Wall Street Journal, Sanders insisted that his choice was the best one he could make. Hawkins brought up the divorce and the drama on Twitter. “You were on Twitter. It became a public situation,” he said. “Do you feel that you managed it pretty well, considering?”
“I feel like I made some great decisions and timely decisions. Very cautionary decisions,” Sanders said. He went on to point out that he wasn’t just protecting himself with his actions. “And decisions not just based on myself, but my kids, my family, friends, and loved ones. And my school.”
Sanders believes that he had to go public with the problems before an inaccurate story circulated, making him look bad. And he thinks younger star athletes could learn from his example.
‘You could lose everything’
Sanders pointed to the examples of other athletes who have been in difficult personal situations and have not done well. “With some of the other prominent NFL players we can see what could happen,” he said, “And you could lose everything.”
“In that situation, when you had your sons filling out the police report, you took a picture of it,” Hawkins said, “You let the public know what was going on, that you were very aware of the fact that it could fall on your head because you’re the public figure.”
Sanders agreed, again insisting that other athletes have gone through similar problems and lost everything. The divorce didn’t get any tidier after the Twitter incident. There were fierce custody battles, and according to Fan Buzz, Pilar Sanders accused her ex-husband of domestic violence. He responded by filing a defamation lawsuit against her.
In the end, there didn’t seem to be any winners in their hard-fought divorce. But today, Sanders is doing well. He’s a successful and respected coach, so maybe he was right all along. Taking his case to Twitter may have protected his brand.
