Nobody likes a bully, Deion. Especially not one as old as you.
Deion Sanders had time today. That’s what he told us, at least, when he logged onto Twitter and decided that it was time to clap back at the haters, as they say.
He used some of that time to clap back at someone talking trash about Shedeur Sanders, who decided to dismiss a former teammate, Xavier Smith, who transferred to Austin Peay State University after playing at Colorado. Smith critiqued the way Sanders coached. Shedeur didn’t like that so he ruthlessly dismissed Smith’s stint with the team.
That caused someone to trash-talk Shedeur in Deion’s tweets. Deion didn’t like that, so he defended his son.
I get that—I think we all do. That’s understandable. And if Sanders’ free tweet time had stopped there, I probably wouldn’t be writing this. Unfortunately, as he told us before, he had some more time today.
Coach Prime decided to use that next bit of time to stoop as low as he could to embarrass Jaheim Ward — one of Smith’s new teammates at Austin Peay — who only seemed to be defending his guy against vitriol from players at Colorado.
He quote-tweeted one of his players tweeting out a picture of Ward’s stats saying “Lawd Jesus.” Make no mistake about it, folks: This is essentially Deion Sanders — the head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes — calling this kid trash.
Lawd Jesus https://t.co/WVIBSUE14X
— COACH PRIME (@DeionSanders) May 1, 2024
Sanders took on the challenge of running Colorado by presenting himself as a leader of men. He brought his guys there to change the program’s culture and turn it into a powerhouse moving forward. Everyone seemed to want to be a part of that. Colorado signed 72 scholarship players to its active roster last season.
Today? A whopping 61 percent of those players are no longer on the roster, according to CBS Sports. It’s been one of the most fascinating stories of the college football offseason so far.
For so long, we were curious about why players were dipping out. Colorado seemed to have all the juice when Sanders started there. The program embodied cool in college football. All the celebrities were showing up at the team’s games. What changed?
Today, things are a bit clearer. Do you see those tweets? That’s why everyone is leaving.
You’d think the coach would be more concerned with figuring out how to improve a 4-8 football team in the middle of a massive roster turnover after so many players bailed on him. He’s talking pretty greasy for a guy who coached a loser last year. And the job is only getting harder, big dog. Colorado is in the Big 12 now.
Instead, he’s spending the oh-so-precious time he told us he had today bragging about how his son will be a top-five NFL draft pick despite playing for his losing college football team and diving into tifts between players who are less than half his age and have nothing to do with his actual job.
Sanders confirmed every criticism Xavier Smith, Cormani McClain and so many others have levied against him recently. He does lack compassion, as we can see above. He does play favorites — just ask Shedeur, Shilo Sanders and Travis Hunter. And, now, we know he’s a bully who is willing to flex whatever he has against whoever, wherever, wherever.
This is who Deion Sanders is, man. It’s kind of sad because it’s clear so many of the players who opted into his shenanigans also believed in him so deeply. Just read Smith’s words about the final interaction between the two of them, via The Athletic:
“We sat on the sofa, and he’s talking to us, but he’s not even looking at us,” Smith said. “I’m looking Coach Kelly dead in his eyes. (Sanders) said he felt like I should hit the portal. He didn’t want me to waste a year thinking I could earn a spot. … I was actually getting mad, like tears coming to my eyes. Because, bro, you never even tried to get to know me.”
You can just feel the disappointment in that. And you feel so bad for him because of it. Well, at least a compassionate person would.
Coach Prime? Eh. Shedeur is going top five anyway. What does he care?
