At Jackson State, the ‘Prime Effect’ Reverberates

In his first full season as the football coach, Deion Sanders has guided the Tigers to the conference championship game and energized a community. He says he’s just getting started.

JACKSON, Miss. — Grease-stained brown paper bags filled the counter at Stamps Super Burgers, a tiny burger joint near the campus of Jackson State, and the orders kept coming and coming.

But it wasn’t a change in recipe bringing a spike in orders.

Since the arrival of the university’s high-profile head football coach, the Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, in September 2020, local businesses like Stamps, which Sanders highlighted in an Instagram post, have seen a surge in exposure and business.