Deion Sanders' Rumored Girlfriend Once Dated Another NFL Star

Yahoo

2 days ago

Deion Sanders didn't just reveal his cancer battle on Monday. He also may have "soft launched" his newest relationship.
In a candid press conference, Sanders revealed that he was diagnosed with bladder cancer this offseason and had surgery to remove his bladder. Doctors say the Colorado head coach is "cured" following the procedure.
'The process wasn't easy,' Sanders admitted, while also expressing thanks to his doctors and touting his faith in God.
In one portion of a video released by the Colorado program, Sanders can be seen in the hospital with an unidentified woman by his side. Sharp observers noted that the woman is Karrueche Tran, a 37-year-old actress.
Tran, a native of Los Angeles, broke into acting as Vivian Johnson in the web series The Bay, winning a Daytime Emmy for her work. She also had a major role in the TNT series Claws and appeared in shows such as Catfish, Ridiculousness and Bel-Air as well as a number of movies.
Tran's most high-profile relationship was with R&B star Chris Brown in 2011 and from 2013-15. She also had a brief fling with rapper Quavo.
Additionally, Sanders is not the first major NFL name Tran has been involved with. For several years, she dated former New York Giants star Victor Cruz.
Karrueche Tran and Victor Cruz: A Timeline
Cruz and Tran were first linked in 2017. Cruz, 38, who has a 13-year-old daughter with his former partner Elaina Whatley, was months away from officially retiring from football when he and Tran publicly launched their relationship.
"Yeah! We've been hanging out and getting to know one another," Tran said of Cruz in February 2018. "My main priority is always work, but he's a gentleman. He's a sweet guy and he's really nice. We're taking it slow, but yes!"
Over the next couple of years, the two were regularly spotted out on dates and at various Hollywood events. The two kept their relationship ongoing despite the hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced them into a long-distance romance.
"We're literally on the phone all the time," Cruz said in May 2020. "It's given us a lot of time to talk, obviously, and to just dig deeper and just get to know each other more and just find new things out."
At one point, there were even wedding rumors, but nothing came of them.
'Life Happened'
After more than three years together, Cruz and Tran went their separate ways. The split was amicable though, according to the information that has been made public by both parties.
Both Tran and Cruz spoke well of each other after they broke up, with Cruz blaming the flow of life for their relationship not working out.
'I handle it all with a smile,' Cruz said on a 2023 episode of 'The Pivot Podcast.' 'I remember, this is when COVID was still a thing, so we're doing Zoom meetings … and I get in one [Zoom] room and this dude was is like, 'What happened with you and Karrueche?' … I just smiled and was like, 'Life happened, bro.' … But those are the things that come with the territory. … If I gotta answer a few questions about why her and I broke up, I can answer that all day, because it wasn't anything malicious.
'It was just two people going separate ways, going in separate directions in life — and one person feeling like they needed to do that on their own, and one person feeling like they couldn't, and we go our separate ways. It's literally that simple. [We're] still friends to this day, still have conversations from time to time. She just had something happen to her in her life, she lost her dad — I lost my dad, you reach out. We're human beings, bro. We're not like aliens that once we break up I gotta create this division.'
Prime Time
Neither Sanders nor Tran have officially confirmed their relationship, but her presence at the hospital during such a heavy and emotional ordeal is a telltale sign the two are together.
Deion, who turns 58 next month, has been married twice. His first marriage, to Carolyn Chambers from 1989-98, produced two children, Deiondra Sanders and Deion Sanders Jr.
From 1999-2015, the Pro Football Hall of Famer was married to Pilar Biggers-Sanders, with whom he had three children: Shilo, Shedeur and Shelomi. Shedeur was a fifth-round draft pick of the Cleveland Browns this spring.
It will be interesting to see how Sanders' relationship with Karrueche unfolds over the next few months, particularly with football season around the corner. Perhaps we'll get some sightings of the two together in Boulder this fall.
Deion Sanders' Rumored Girlfriend Once Dated Another NFL Star first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 28, 2025
Solve the daily Crossword