(ThyBlackMan.com) In football, it seems like the biggest media story in the NFL is Taylor Swift dating Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce and college football’s biggest media story has been Colorado Buffaloes head football coach Deion Sanders. Both stories have engendered a lot of headlines and attention due to the large personalities and talents of Swift and Sanders. The Colorado Buffaloes got the early attention of the college football world with their early season upset of TCU, who played for the National Championship last season. Deion Sanders’s bravado and the play of his star quarterback Shedeur, one of Deion’s sons, was a big reason for the Buffaloes’ quick start this season, which is impressive for a team that won one game last season and has struggled mightily in recent seasons.
One of the best NFL and college football players of all-time, Deion Sanders has made quite a splash in college football the last few years as a head coach and drawn criticism and praise for various reasons. However, it is the handling of a college football rivalry that is the best feel-good moment of Deion Sanders’s Colorado Buffaloes tenure so far.
Nearly one year ago, Deion Sanders was the head coach of Jackson State University, an HBCU that has a football program known for producing NFL legend Walter Payton. In October 2022, Sanders had a heated post-game confrontation with Alabama State’s head football coach Eddie Robinson Jr. after Jackson State’s 26-12 road victory over Alabama State. Robinson Jr.’s famous quote about Sanders, “He ain’t SWAC” followed that confrontation. There is little argument that Sanders’s success at Jackson State brought some more attention to HBCU football in the brief time he was the head coach. There remain questions about his words and actions matching up about what his presence meant for HBCUs on a larger scale beyond football and his authenticity.
Now that Deion Sanders is in Colorado, he has garnered a lot of attention for several reasons. He has also gotten African/Black fans to support Colorado Buffaloes football in larger numbers. One of the most interesting games of the 2023 college football season was Colorado hosting rival Colorado State. Prior to the game, Colorado State head coach Jay Norvell had some criticism for Deion Sanders for Sanders wearing a hat and sunglasses during news conferences. Norvell said, “I don’t care if they hear this in Boulder. I told them [ESPN] — I took my hat off, and I took my glasses off. I said, ‘When I talk to grown-ups, I take my hat and my glasses off. That’s what my mother taught me.'” Sanders wasn’t pleased by the comments and took them “personal”.
The Colorado-Colorado State football game ended up being one of the most entertaining college football games of 2023 with Colorado pulling off the narrow victory. During the game, Colorado State defensive back Henry Blackburn laid a strong hit on Colorado cornerback Travis Hunter that knocked Hunter out of the game and lacerated Hunter’s liver. Sadly, Blackburn received online death threats for that hit and Deion Sanders wisely publicly called for the death threats to end. The Henry Blackburn/Travis Hunter story ended on a good note when Hunter and Blackburn met last month and went bowling together, as shown in a video posted on Hunter’s YouTube channel. The video shows the power of forgiveness and that the young men can learn from an unfortunate event on the playing field. It is the best moment of Deion Sanders’s Colorado Buffaloes tenure as the head football coach.
Staff Writer; Mark Hines