Despite many rumors and countless hours of television segments spent on said rumors, Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders is not going to be an NFL coach for the 2025 season. A brief dalliance with the Dallas Cowboys after they parted ways with Mike McCarthy appeared to be the closest Sanders got, and even that wasn’t that close. On the latest episode of his Tubi show, We Got Time Today, Sanders gave a glimpse into why he’s sticking around at the college level.

Chatting with host Rocsi Diaz and former teammate and current ESPN color commentator Troy Aikman, Sanders bemoaned the difference in practice intensity nowadays, saying back in his era he competed just as hard in practice as he would a game. He highlighted the contrast as the reason he couldn’t stand to coach at the highest level.

“That’s the way we practiced,” Sanders said, per Pro Football Talk. “I know it’s cute but I couldn’t coach pro ball. The way they practice, the way they go about it, I couldn’t take it as a man and as a football enthusiast. I care about the game. The game is still providing for Troy and I. There’s no way I could allow that to happen on my watch. That would be tough.”

While it’s difficult to gauge the potential difference in effort from outside the building NFL practices have undeniably gotten less intense in this era because of changes to the CBA. The NFL Players Association worked tirelessly over the years to enforce non-contact practices during OTAs, for example, and pushed back the start of training camp to ensure players get the maximum amount of recovery time in the offseason.

All this doesn’t sit well with Sanders, it would seem. And it may even be enough to dissuade him from future NFL flirtations.