Colorado's Robert Livingston Opens Up About Deion Sanders's Bladder Cancer Battle

"We're talking about a life here. This football stuff doesn't really matter at the end of the day," Livingston told Adam Musterteiger of 247Sports on Wednesday. "But it is a testament to who he is. He keeps a tight inner circle. He was away, and we were working just knowing when he comes back, he is going to hit the ground running.

"And that first staff meeting went about how you thought it would: 'Hey, we're going to do this. We're going to do that.' So it's not like he was just hanging out. He was taking care of his life, number one, and worrying about his team, number two. If we all lived our life like that, the world would be a better place."

Sanders trusted his assistants to carry the load while quietly fighting his toughest opponent yet, and Livingston took initiative. Already a favorite among players and fans, he instilled philosophy to new-look units and let fellow coaches do the same.

"You got grown men that know they have a job to do and you should do it to the best of your ability," Livingston said. "It was our job, obviously in the summer, to get the best out of the guys when we can. The player acquisition period was already over.

"I can't say enough about our strength staff. "They have done a phenomenal job. When you guys get a chance to look at practice, there are some body types and you look around, 'That's who in that number?' They look different. When you are a phenomenal leader like Coach Prime is, you establish a culture, a situation where people just go to work and that's what it was."

Alongside a coaching staff with over 150 years of NFL experience, Livingston stands out as one of the country's rising sideline stars. He garnered interest from the New Orleans Saints this past offseason and has an established presence among many as Sanders's sharpest hire since arriving at Colorado.

With year two at the helm less than one month away, Livingston is ready to keep fortifying a program that admires Sanders for never doubting he'd be back.

"His leadership is one of one," Livingston told reporters on Wednesday. "He is a Pied Piper; the world will follow him if they just listen to him. So we're blessed."

"You have to look around and say, if it can happen to him, it can happen to anybody," Livingston added on Sanders's time with cancer. "It just puts things in perspective. I think too often in this profession, we worry about what happens inside these walls more than we worry about what happens outside, and being a husband and being a father and taking care of yourself. So it is eye-opening, for sure. God bless him for going through it."