It’s a Hall-of-Fame Game for Sanders

He belongs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, maybe the most talented Cowboy of all, the man in charge when Troy Aikman came to Dallas and Herschel Walker went to Minnesota, the gunslinger who hired Jimmy Johnson, won with Barry Switzer and changed the way they do business in the NFL.

You scoff, but before dismissing it as NFL heresy, take note--although it has yet to be announced--Jerry Jones’ name is on the preliminary list of Hall of Fame nominees this year, and while he will probably not make the final cut, constant evidence is being produced to suggest it is only a matter of time before his bust resides in Canton, Ohio.

Take Monday night in Giants Stadium, an evening dedicated to crowning Deion Sanders the most exciting player in a football uniform as the Cowboys ripped the Giants, 31-7, before 78,039.

Sanders, feeling ill before the game, returned a punt 59 yards for a touchdown, became sick again, took intravenous fluids at halftime, caught a 55-yard pass to set up another score, and finished with an end zone dance after a 71-yard interception return for a touchdown.

“Monday Night TV, and the man knows how to raise his game on special occasions,” said Joe Avezzano, Cowboys’ special teams coach. “I just marvel watching him.”

Jerry Jones is the man who brought Deion Sanders to Dallas. He’s the crazy man, as most everyone called him at the time after writing out a $12,999,999 signing bonus check--superstition preventing him from making it $13 million--who thought a part-time baseball/football player could dictate terms of surrender to the opposition.

He was so radical in his thinking, that his son, Stephen, stood against a door blocking his father’s exit, threatening to fight him if he insisted on signing Sanders to a $25 million, five-year contract, thereby trashing the Cowboys’ salary cap.

“Good thing I couldn’t keep him going through me and that door,” Stephen said. “I was wrong.”

That makes him no different than most people in evaluating Jones, the wannabe coach, who while flamboyant, produces results.

Without Sanders, the Cowboys (2-1) might already be finished this season, having lost quarterback Troy Aikman for at least a month with a broken collarbone.

The Cowboys were playing with Jason Garrett at quarterback, and eventually without Emmitt Smith, who left in the second quarter with a groin injury. They needed a spark, and Sanders provided a jolt.

In the middle of 11 punts exchanged by the Giants (1-2) and Cowboys in the first half, Sanders changed the game, running left after fielding a punt, then right, in reverse, right again and then left, and finally into the end zone.

“I’d like to tell you all the things we plan and work on for our punt returns,” Avezzano said. “But let’s be honest. We don’t have a clue where Deion is going; it’s just run Deion run.”

Spent, dehydrated and forced to the locker room, Sanders returned in the second half after receiving medical treatment and went racing down the field, splitting two Giant defenders to catch a pass from Garrett for a 55-yard gain. Sherman Williams, playing in place of Smith, went on to run the ball in for a touchdown, and the rout was on.

Sanders returned another punt 39 yards to close out the third quarter, one tackler keeping him from going all the way again, and then the Giants signed their own death warrant by throwing in Sanders’ direction late in the game.

Ask yourself this: If you are Danny Kanell, the Giants’ weak-armed quarterback, why are you throwing the ball to someone covered by Sanders? The Cardinals elected to throw the ball in Sanders’ direction only once in the season-opener. The Broncos did the same the next week, but the Giants tried five times--the fifth resulting in Sanders going 71 yards for a score with an interception--his 16th touchdown return of an interception, punt, kickoff or fumble.

“People probably will never appreciate how he dictates what offensive teams do and how he’s made us into such a good defensive team,” Jones said. “They just don’t understand how he almost allows us to have 12 men on the field.

“So I’ve never questioned the decision to sign him, because the first year we made that decision we went on to win the Super Bowl. He deserves the kind of respect that I saw in the eyes of his teammates when he walked into that locker room after the game. On and off the field, this man has become a team leader.”