Two Rules Named After Deion Sanders

Today Deion Sanders is being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But even if the legendary cornerback weren't enshrined in Canton, history would remember Neon Deion. After all, he has two rules named in his honor.

Take Your Finals

When Sanders was a college star at Florida State, he came up with a big interception to seal FSU’s win over Auburn in the 1989 Sugar Bowl, but he also opened up a firestorm. It later came to light that Sanders, who was obviously bound for NFL greatness, simply hadn’t attended classes or taken finals the fall semester before the game.

When state education officials learned about Sanders’ slacking off, they made a Deion Sanders Rule that required football players at Florida schools to successfully complete their fall classes if they wanted to play in bowl games.

No Fuzzy Math

The professional version of Prime Time became the center of another controversy when he signed with the Dallas Cowboys in 1995. The Cowboys signed Sanders to a contract with tiny yearly base salaries and a nearly $13 million signing bonus in an attempt to circumvent the NFL’s salary cap. The league didn’t think the maneuver was so great, though, and quickly instituted its own Deion Sanders Rule so that a prorated portion of a player’s signing bonus counted against the salary cap as well.