How Deion Sanders ‘hit it off,’ became friends with 99-year-old Colorado fan in 2023

Colorado Buffaloes superfan Peggy Coppom, age 99, had an extraordinary year after forming an unlikely friendship with football coach Deion Sanders.

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Colorado Buffaloes superfan Peggy Coppom, age 99, has watched 16 head football coaches come and go in Boulder over the previous 80 years, including four who were fired since 2010. But she’s never seen or experienced anything like what’s happened in the past year with the new coach, Deion Sanders.

After his hiring last December:

∎ Sanders, 56, stopped by her house to introduce himself in January with a video camera rolling along to capture the visit.

∎ She since developed a friendship with him unlike any other Colorado coach before him.

∎ Now she’s even on the cover of Sports Illustrated with him and is featured in a new documentary series about him on Amazon Prime Video.

Colorado football coach Deion Sanders walks onto Folsom Field with Peggy Coppom before the start of the spring game in April.

“Well, my gosh, this year, first of all, it’s been unbelievable, and it’s been a lot of fun,” Coppom told USA TODAY Sports in a recent interview. “There’s been a lot of excitement and a lot of public recognition, which I didn’t ever feel like I should have. But anyway, it happened because of my friendship with him.”

That friendship blossomed this year because of what they share in common and what each brings to the other despite how different they might seem. Sanders is a flamboyant, world-famous Black former athlete from Florida. Coppom is an unpretentious, white Irish Catholic great-grandmother from a small town in eastern Colorado.

Yet they “hit it off” as…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/deion-sanders-hit-off-became-120138280.html

Author : USA TODAY Sports

Publish date : 2023-12-25 12:01:38

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