Veteran analyst Peter King reveals Deion Sanders' fake name from playing days that helped 2X Super Bowl champ beat undue attention

During the first half of the 1990s, Deion Sanders and sports were synonymous. At the time, Prime was playing in the NFL and the MLB, becoming the first person to feature in a Super Bowl and a World Series.

The dual athlete was also the first to score an NFL touchdown and hit an MLB homerun in the week.

However, all this success attracted some unwanted attention for Primetime. To get some peace of mind, he created a fake identity for himself: Redd Foxx. He used the name to register into hotels without raising too many eyebrows.

Sports Illustrated and PFT writer Peter King once explained how he came across Prime's secret identity and poignant story of the pressures of being a dual sport athlete:

"I remember going to a lobby phone in the downtown Pittsburgh Hilton late on a Sunday afternoon in August 1992. “Could you ring the room of Redd Foxx please,” I said. Deion Sanders’ pseudonym in road hotels.

"He’d given it to me because he knew in the media world there was SI, and everyone else was angling for second place, and he wanted a pipeline to the magazine. I got him on the phone, he told me his room number on the 19th floor, and I went up.

"I found Sanders shirtless, with a crucifix against his glistening chest, bat in his hand. He’d gone hitless against knuckleballer Tim Wakefield that afternoon, and now he was taking swings in front of a mirror in his room—all the while trying to figure whether to play football or baseball full-time or whether to split the baby. He was depressed."

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What did Deion Sanders achieve in the 1990s?

To say that Deion Sanders was one of the most recognizable names (and still is) in America would be an understatement.

Especially in football, he was the defensive player of the era, winning two Super Bowls (1995 and 1996), the NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1994. He also had six First Team All-Pro, two Second Team All-Pro and eight Pro Bowl selections.

There's a reason why they called him Primetime.