Deion Sanders Admits He Wanted To Play For Bengals But Didn't Get A Call Back

Deion Sanders says he fell in love with the city of Cincinnati and even crafted a long-term plan to build a life there, but it didn't go as planned.

The new Colorado head coach was one of the few professional athletes to find success on both the gridiron and the diamond, shining for both the Falcons and Braves in 1992 and 1993.

Coach "Prime" joined Pat McAfee's podcast earlier this week and admitted his desire to try a similar situation later in his career when he played for the Cincinnati Reds.

He actually called the Cincinnati Bengals himself.

Apparently the Bengals, despite being one of the worst franchises in the NFL at the time, weren't interested in his services.

"I loved Cincinnati," Sanders said. "I wanted to just build a home there and live there forever. We even asked the darn Bengals at the time, which were horrible. Like okay, let me just bring it here. Let me do the two-sport thing here because I don't want to leave, I love it. They didn't even call us back. I'm like, 'I want to play for you. I love baseball here. I would love to play football here so I can stay here all year round. I found a property to go to the lake and I want to do fishing and I love it here.' And they never called back."

"Primetime" spent parts of four MLB seasons with the Reds, first from 1994-95, then again in 1997 and finally in 2001.

Deion Sanders continued NFL career after MLB retirement

Following his release from the Reds in 2001, Deion Sanders signed a minor league deal with the Toronto Blue Jays, but the Washington Redskins found a loophole in his contract which compelled him to return to the Redskins.

Sanders's football contract had been negotiated to allow for him to play both baseball and football, but the terms of the contract stated that Sanders could miss NFL training camp and the first few games of the season only if he were playing Major League Baseball. Since he was not then on an MLB roster, Sanders had to leave his minor league assignment at Syracuse and return to the Redskins so he would not violate his NFL contract.

Before arriving at training camp, Sanders informed Redskins personnel he was retiring from professional baseball.

After a decent statistical year, Sanders suddenly retired from the NFL following his one-year stint in Washington in 2000.

In 2004, Primetime opted to come out of retirement and sign with the Baltimore Ravens where he found success in a nickleback role. He went on to play the entire 2005 season before ultimately retiring in 2006.

He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame in 2011.