Having strong opinions is a tough business sometimes, especially when you have several different platforms on which to express them. I know this first hand. I have a daily four-hour radio show, a podcast that runs three times a week, and this here space with the Houston Press.
One of my more notorious takes in the past year was the following opinion/prediction on how things would go for the University of Colorado (and head coach Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders) in their debut game for 2023 against 2022 national champion runner up TCU:
As most of you probably know, I was a little off on that prediction. Colorado not only kept the final margin inside 40 points, they actually defeated TCU, and the pro-Deion portion of the internet, which was substantial at the time, unleashed hell on me for the next several days.
Hey, I’m a big boy, I was able to not only live with it, but lean into it and embrace it. There are a lot of things I worry about in my job — giving out incorrect predictions is not one of them. Sometimes, though, you’re just flat out wrong in predicting something, and sometimes you’re just a little ahead of your time. As it turns out, I was just the latter.
Colorado was the talk of college football after that win over TCU and their 3-0 start to the season overall. Then, the wheels fell off. Colorado would go 1-8 the rest of the way, on their way to a 4-8 clunker that looked a whole lot like the game I envisioned them having against TCU in early September. It turns out that maybe I was just way off on what TCU was in 2023, not what Colorado was.
Things have not improved this offseason for Coach Prime. In this age of the transfer portal, where essentially student-athletes are free agents after each season, there was a mass exodus of 2023 Buffaloes to other schools. All of the bluster and “y’all were wrong about us!” screams from Coach Prime during that 3-0 start last season have led to massive scrutiny, criticism, and a very, VERY defensive version of Deion Sanders.
When I say “defensive,” I’m not just talking about Sanders being defensive over criticism (which he absolutely is, more on that in a moment). I’m talking about him ignoring, shunning, and bullying media members in press conferences.
Last Friday’s press conference was a DOOZY. It started with Eric Christensen of KCNC, the CBS affiliate in Denver, and home of Deion’s coaches TV show, asking a question, and Deion shutting him down, because he works for CBS. Take a look:
Okay, the absurd thing here is that the “CBS” to which Deion Sanders is almost definitely referring to is the website CBSSports.com, which could not be further from the local CBS TV affiliate in association. Just silly stuff from Sanders. As to what “CBS” may have done that was so “foul,” it could be this article that ranked Deion near the bottom, 61st out of 68, of Power conference coaches:
Deion Sanders (61 overall): Sanders’ first season as an FBS coach started with a bang, but ended with six straight losses. He’s generated buzz and excitement by talking a big game and collecting strong transfer talent. But the foundation has cracks — see the offensive line for one example — as the Buffaloes transition to the Big 12 and face another tough schedule. Last year: N/A in Big 12
Or perhaps it was CBSSports.com’s report of Sanders’ son, Shiloh’s, bankruptcy for which he filed possibly to avoid paying a settlement to a school worker that Shiloh allegedly assaulted back in high school. Either way, Sanders looks foolish here.
Oh, and that’s not all! Sanders also thought it was a good idea to get into a verbal jousting match with Denver Post beat writer Sean Keeler over Keeler’s harsh critiques of Sanders’ program and the results thus far during Coach Prime’s tenure:
We still have over two weeks till the Buffs begin their 2024 season, which means at least a few more Sanders media sessions. Colorado is entering the Big XII this season, and the conference may not have the top level teams last season’s Pac-12 did, but it’s probably a deep conference.
In other words, there is no way this ends well, but the flame out should be spectacular.
Listen to Sean Pendergast on SportsRadio 610 from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays. Also, follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/SeanTPendergast, on Instagram at instagram.com/sean.pendergast, and like him on Facebook at facebook.com/SeanTPendergast.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
