Pro Football Hall of Famer and Jackson State head football coach Deion Sanders spoke out Friday about the water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi.

Ahead of Jackson State's opening game of the 2022 season against Florida A&M on Sunday, Sanders said the following regarding the situation in Jackson, according to Safid Deen of USA Today: "We just hope we can afford to give the people an escape for the period of time … so they can get their minds off the true issues at hand. It's a tremendous burden, but it's way bigger than football."

Per CNN's Nouran Salahieh, Jason Hanna and Amir Vera, the acute water issue in Jackson began on Monday when flooding caused a water treatment plan to fail, causing little or no water to come out of faucets in the city.

In some cases, the water coming out of faucets has been brown and undrinkable, forcing businesses and schools to be shut down in Jackson, with public schools and Jackson State classes being held virtually.

CNN noted that even before the damaged water treatment plant went into failure, there had been a boil-water notice in place for a month in Jackson, and due to crumbling infrastructure this is just the latest in a series of water issues residents have faced.