DANBURY, Texas - In the haze of an early Texas morning on the Lakes of Danbury, you can make out a small jon boat on the water and an angler throwing line. Clearly, he's doing his homework, patiently looking for the pattern that will drive the lake's largemouth bass to bite.
In the distance behind him there is a 30-foot luxury motor coach that that angler would love to call his own. The owner of that motor coach is none other than the former silver tongue of the NFL, known in sporting circles as Neon Deion and Prime Time. He enjoys these amenities thanks to the unbelievable salaries he accrued from his athletic prowess in professional football and baseball and is no stranger to the high-class lifestyle.
But when Deion Sanders joins CITGO Bassmaster Classic champion Mike Iaconelli around 8 a.m. to tape a segment for the Oct. 6 episode of "The New American Sportsman," he loses the flash and gets straight down to work - with a few asides for the lurking camera crew.
"Have you seen this guy cast?" Sanders asks with a grin. "It's intimidating. I'm going to start calling him Cast-a-nova."
Don't let the quick-witted, slick demeanor fool you. Sanders is, without a doubt, an outdoorsman. He didn't always wear a diamond-studded cross that's outshined only by his million-dollar smile. No, he grew up in South Florida, fishing where he could and getting chased out of the popular fishing holes in the area and dropping a line anywhere he thought fish might be lurking.
"I fished in puddles on the side of the road," Sanders said.
But, those days are long gone and Sanders is fishing in the big leagues now. Iaconelli, who electrified the crowd at the Bassmaster Classic a few short months ago by showing off his breakdancing, has high hopes for his day with Sanders.
"I hope we can exchange information," said Iaconelli. "I mean, all this new attention has been placed on me and what I'm trying to do to get (bass fishing) to these untraditional audiences, I'm needing to hire agents and publicists and that kind of thing, so this is a good opportunity for me to talk to a guy who's been through all that."
The two spend the remainder of the morning out on the water reeling in the better part of 30 bass.
"We worked mainly lizards over the grassy beds," Iaconelli said. "Deion found the pattern; they wanted it low and slow."
During the morning, they discover that they share something other than a love for bass fishing. They're both at the top of their game when the pressure's on.
"Not that I'm a huge football fan," Iaconelli said, "but Deion is somebody that I've looked at and loved his intensity in his sport, his competitive drive, and I see a lot of the same elements that I have in fishing that he has in football."
Iaconelli's eagerness to succeed didn't escape Mr. Prime Time.
"If there's any advice I could give (Mike), it would be to walk away when you don't have the love anymore," Sanders said. "But, this guy definitely has the love. He has the same intensity on the water that I did on the football field. This is his game."
Fans can catch the two larger-than-life anglers' adventure on "The New American Sportsman" this Monday at 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. CT/7 p.m. PT. on ESPN.