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Former NFL Coach Mike Zimmer Joins Deion Sanders’ Coaching Staff at Jackson State University

Zimmer was brought on as an analyst for the Jackson State Tigers football team. His first job since leaving the NFL.

Anything Deion wants, he gets.

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He wants to be the head coach of the Jackson State University football team, he gets it.

He wants to sign the best high school football player in the nation, so he got him.

He wants to donate half of his salary to the football program, he does it.

Next, Deion Sanders wants to bring in former NFL head coach Mike Zimmer as an assistant on his coaching staff, what do you think happens?

Zimmer, who was once the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings, has accepted a position as an analyst under Coach Sanders, according to HBCU Gameday. He was introduced to the team on Tuesday in the teamโ€™s newly redesigned film room and in a conversation with Thee Pregame Show, Zimmer discussed why he took the position.

โ€œHeโ€™s asked me about it a few times. The payโ€™s not good. But I do love Deon and Iโ€™d do anything for him,โ€ said Zimmer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-_886kFweg

Deionโ€™s relationship with Zimmer goes back nearly a quarter-century. As an assistant with the Dallas Cowboys in the 1990s, Zimmer coached Sanders and helped the team win its most recent Super Bowl in 1996. He also worked for the Atlanta Falcons and Cincinnati Bengals before he was hired as head coach of the Vikings in 2014.

Acknowledging he didnโ€™t know much about HBCUs before Sanders came to Jackson State, heโ€™s been paying more attention since former NFL players like Sanders and Eddie George became head coaches at HBCUs.

More from HBCU Gameday

โ€œEddie George was a terrific football player. I just think itโ€™s great โ€” not just for black people but also white people, white students to understanding all about the history of what has gone on at all these great institutions.โ€

โ€œHe can open up so many doors for these young men but Iโ€™m extremely impressed with the way heโ€™s teaching them about life and not just football. And taking care of them, and talking to them about the real things that go on in the world and not the fluff stuff.โ€

The only other former NFL head coach to coach at an HBCU is former Raiders and Browns coach Hue Jackson, who accepted the job at Grambling State University in December.

Straight From The Root

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