Shedeur Sanders makes millions of NIL dollars because he’s legitimately good at football and has a certain innate charisma about him. Is that in part due to the fact that he’s Deion Sanders’ son? Perhaps, but there’s no question Shedeur can play. He has the chance to be a high draft pick and an eventual NFL starter.
The father-son tandem, along with two-way star Travis Hunter, electrified the college football world early last season before stumbling to a 4-8 record in their first shared season at Colorado. Coach Prime has made serious use of the transfer portal to totally turn the Buffaloes’ roster over. They just didn’t have the personnel on the o-line or damn near anywhere on defense to seriously compete at a national level.
All eyes are on Deion and Shedeur to see how their second act goes in 2024, but they’re already making life harder for themselves than it has to be. Even after Deion proudly proclaimed that Shedeur and Hunter would only play in certain NFL cities as eventual top-four draft picks, a more alarming arrogance has emerged. The Athletic‘s recent deep-dive report on how Colorado treated its outgoing cluster transfers and certain players who stuck around to compete actually wasn’t that damning. What’s more of a red flag is the way Deion and Shedeur have responded.
This sparked a whole argument between players in which Coach Prime chimed in.
Like, what good does this do for anyone involved? You have some impressionable young men who were disrespected and basically laughed at on their way out the door at Colorado. They felt a type of way about it, were interviewed about it, and really, most of the story had to do with the harsh reality of life in the new transfer portal.
Colorado essentially forced out their entire previous true freshman class once Deion and Shedeur landed in Boulder, and inevitably, that left some hurt feelings in the aftermath. However, they also were dismissive of some quality players like Chase Sowell, who went to East Carolina and had 47 catches for 622 yards this past season.
There’s just no reason for Shedeur or Deion to punch down. Yet they seem to take a great deal of joy in doing it. Look at Deion on X/Twitter, up until last night near midnight. You can’t tell me this isn’t tied into the whole saga. Thinly veiled.
Cool? Hey Deion, how about being a mature adult about any of this? No? OK.
What a good example to set for Shedeur. I’m sure that sort of mentality won’t backfire at the NFL level. It’s one thing when you’re coached by your dad in college. A certain amount of that can slide. I’m just starting to wonder what the state of the Buffaloes program looks like once Shedeur and Hunter head to the pros.
Will Deion still even have an interest in coaching there? Will the on-field results be up to his standards? Is he really going to grind out several more seasons to get that program turned around into a sustainable winner? Will there be enough players who actually want to play for him if and when that times comes? There are just question marks and red alerts going off all over the place.
The whole Deion-Shedeur/Colorado phenomenon started off as endearing and wildly entertaining. It’s starting to turn into more of an alienating and off-putting vibe for me. But hey, who’s going to tell Coach Prime how to run his operation? And who’s going to tell Shedeur to carry himself a certain way as long as he’s playing well? Maybe it backfires for him in the NFL, but until then, it’ll be business as usual at Colorado. Many indications are, that’s not necessarily a good thing — nor does it appear to be the refreshing shot in the arm to college football many of us believed it was. “Toxic” is a word that comes to mind.
