Deion Sanders is continuing to adjust to life after his cancer diagnosis, and he's being candid about the challenges that have come with his new bladder.
During an appearance on The Basement with Tim Ross podcast, the Colorado football coach discussed the bladder leakage he's experienced since undergoing surgery and why his partnership with Depend has become personal.
"I am dead serious. I depend on Depend," Sanders said. "You have no idea. I'm sitting up there in the bed, I can't control. I got to know. The bladder don't know me. I don't know it. We just get to know each other."
Sanders underwent surgery in May 2025 after doctors discovered a high-risk tumor during a routine CT scan connected to his history of vascular issues. Doctors determined that the cancer had penetrated the bladder's inner wall but had not reached its muscular layer.
Although Sanders had the option of keeping his bladder and undergoing an extended treatment plan involving additional procedures and chemotherapy, he chose a radical cystectomy, which removed the organ.
Surgeons then constructed a neobladder using a portion of Sanders' small intestine. While the procedure allows for more conventional urinary function than an external bag, Sanders has had to learn how to control the replacement bladder.
"I'm like, 'Dawg, come on, man. You got to stop this. You got to stop. Come on now. You got to let me at least try to make it to the bathroom,'" Sanders recalled. "Like, it was on. It was real."
The Pro Football Hall of Famer previously revealed that he wakes up several times throughout the night to use the bathroom and has struggled with leakage because his neobladder doesn't function exactly like his original bladder.
"I can't pee like used to pee. It's totally different," Sanders previously said. "I depend on Depends if you know what I mean. I cannot control my bladder."
Sanders said sharing his experience has led to an unexpected number of people contacting him about their own similar struggles.
"You have no idea how many calls or DMs or whatever somebody calls somebody to get to me to say, 'Hey man, I'm dealing with the same thing,'" he said.
That response helped motivate Sanders to publicly discuss his recovery and partner with Depend. Earlier this year, he appeared in the brand's "Don't Be Afraid Hero" campaign promoting Fresh Protection Guards.
Sanders is now cancer-free, but he hasn't shied away from discussing the physical adjustments that remain following his treatment.
"It helped to give me my life back," Sanders said of the product in his Depend campaign.
