Deion Sanders says Jackson State dealing with water crisis

Jackson State University coach Deion Sanders heads into the locker room after pregame warmups with the Tigers before JSU s nonconference battle against longtime rival Southern University at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jackson, Miss., Saturday, April 3, 2021. Barbara Gauntt/Clarion Ledger via Imagn Content Services, LLC

There have been some major water issues in Mississippi over the past month, and Deion Sanders says the Jackson State football team has been heavily impacted by them.

Sanders said in an Instagram video on Tuesday that his team is “operating in crisis mode”

“We’ve been hit with a little crisis in the city of Jackson — we don’t have water,” Sanders said. “(That) means we don’t have air conditioning. We can’t use toilets. We don’t have water, therefore we don’t have ice, which pretty much places a burden on the program. So, right now, we’re operating in crisis mode.”

Jackson, which is home to 150,000 people, has been under a boil-water notice for several weeks after the Health Department discovered cloudy water that could be causing digestive issues. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves then announced on Monday that residents were set to lose water for an undetermined amount of time after a pump at Jackson’s main water treatment facility was damaged. Recent heavy rainfall and flooding has only made the issues worse.

Sanders said he is looking into getting his players to a hotel so “they can shower properly and take care of their needs.”

“We’re going to find somewhere to practice, find somewhere that can accommodate every darn thing that we need and desire to be who we desire to be, and that’s dominate,” Sanders said. “The devil is a lie. He ain’t going to get us today, baby.”

Sanders is entering his third season as the head coach at Jackson State. The team went 11-2 last year, though the Hall of Famer missed a significant amount of time while dealing with a serious health scare.