Shutdown corner: the term starts--and ends--with Deion.(NFL)(Deion Sanders)

Shutdown cornerback. It's a term I hear used all the time in the NFL, and it's starting to get on my nerves. Because there's no such thing. Not anymore, anyway.

A shutdown cornerback is a guy teams won't throw at, period. When he lines up, his side of the field is closed for business; the ball will be going elsewhere all game long. Problem is, there's no one in the league about whom that's true.

I've talked to lots of coaches around the NFL, and I have yet to find one who simply won't attack a particular cornerback. They'll look at a team's corners and identify one as the guy they'd rather target. But avoid the other entirely? No way. Teams are scared of Champ Bailey, but they'll go after him. Same with Antoine Winfield, Chris McAlister, Ty Law and any of the other terrific corners in the league today. I have plenty of respect for those guys, but none is a shutdown corner.

I've seen only one shutdown corner in my life, and that was Deion Sanders. When he played for Dallas, there were games when not a single ball would be thrown in his direction. Not one. And when quarterbacks did test him, it didn't take long for him to remind them that maybe ...