Deion Sanders to parents: Lay off the yelling and remember to have fun!

Do you know a family with a “sports-life imbalance”?

You know — when one or both of the parents are so focused on pushing their son or daughter to achieve sports goals that they don’t even notice how much misery they’re creating, or the fact that they are possibly doing long-term damage to their relationship with their kid?

Well, sports legend Deion Sanders knows a few, and he wants them to make some changes.

Former NFL and MLB player Sanders is the only athlete in history to play in a Super Bowl and a World Series, so you might think he knows a thing or two about winning. But in the new TV show he hosts, Sports Dads, his message is that sports achievements are only truly successful if they come along with emotional and family well-being.

Each episode of the show features a real-life family with a parent who goes over the top in pushing his or her children to achieve in sports. (Despite the show’s name, sometimes sports-crazy moms are featured too.) At first, the parents believe that the TV crews are following them for a different type of show. Then Deion Sanders shows up, and payback begins. Sanders uses a mixture of heart-to-heart talks with Mom or Dad about the true purpose of sports in kids’ lives, and tough treatment — putting the parents through the same kinds of workouts and berating that they put their kids through, for instance.

The whole thing is meant to be an entertaining teaching tool about how parents can help sports be a positive influence in the lives of their families, instead of a destructive one.

Sports Dads is broadcast on cable channel Veria Living, which can be seen on channel 218 on Dish Network and Comcast, and channel 162 on Verizon FiOS.

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