You’ve heard about about the polarizing public figure whose first name begins with D who recently had a particularly testy press conference, right?
No, not the obese “golfer”. Rather, the very much in shape two-sport star who’s coaching college football.
Here’s how a de facto shill organ called BUFFALOES WIRE and its one-named correspondent Jackcarlough reported it:
Colorado football head coach Deion Sanders made national headlines last week when he denied a question from a local CBS reporter during a press conference.
While Coach Prime acknowledged that his refusal had “nothing to do” with the particular reporter, he expressed some frustration with the national network. “What they (CBS) did was foul,” Sanders said.
But the ever-uber-sensitive Mike Freeman of USA TODAY felt compelled to offer his own version, not to mention his insightful thoughts:
Deion Sanders is again picking unnecessary fights. It seems to be his thing now.
He had some type of problem with a journalist from CBS though it’s not clear why. He went after Pittsburgh coach Pat Narduzzi. There was a bizarre moment where Sanders argued over the meaning of the word “bolster.” He did the same over the word “chemistry.”
Sanders also attacked a writer for the Denver Post. It was this dispute, with columnist Sean Keeler, which was the most telling of what is currently happening with Sanders.
“You don’t like us, man,” Sanders said, after Keeler attempted to ask a question. “Why do you do this to yourself?”
“C’mon,” Keeler said.
“Why do you – you always on the attack,” Sanders said. “What did we do?”
Sanders then asked him, “What happened to get you like this?”
“That’s a good question,” Keeler said.
“No, I’m serious, because I want to help, because it’s not normal,” Sanders said.
“We can talk about that,” Keeler said.
Keeler attempted to shift the talk back to football.
“Can I ask you a football question, seriously?” Keeler asked.
“No,” Sanders said, before adding to Keeler, basically, see you when I see you.
If you were to leave this story at this point, you might think Freeman has some sort of a point; after all, he’s a champion of what he deems to be fair treatment for all.
But you, lucky Binary News reader, has someone on the case that dug a little deeper.
BROBIBLE’s Jacob Elsey shone some light on the Keeler issue:
Coach Prime referenced a number of past pieces directly and negatively aimed at the Colorado program. Keeler responded by writing another unfavorable piece on the head coach.
It’s understandable to an extent if you’re a fan of the program, especially after how Sanders’ first season as coach evolved, a fact that Freeman was quick to remind his readers of:
I think Sanders knows this could be an extremely rough season for the Buffaloes. The team started 3-0 last year but finished 1-8 in its final nine games. That’s because while the team has two of the more stunning players in all of college football in quarterback Shedeur Sanders and wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter, there are still huge talent gaps across the roster.
Sanders didn’t quite ride into Boulder descending from a golden escalator, but he did strut in, hobbled from recent surgery, last year from a shockingly strong run at HBCU stalwart Jackson State, taking fils Sanders and Hunter along with him. FOX and ABC, the media outlets of the Pac 12, rode his horse as enthusiastically as any they have gotten on. Leading into their first conference battle of the season with Top 10-rated Oregon, both networks’ pre-game spectacles were live from Boulder.
Then the other shoe dropped, and hard. Colorado got destroyed by Oregon in Eugene, 42-6. You already know how the rest of the season played out, let alone what happened to the Pac 12. And Oregon’s now part of the Big 10. So no rematch.
As far as the CBS tiff is concerned, our single-named friend Jackcarlough explains:
People immediately began making assumptions about why Sanders was irritated, with many pointing to a recent CBS Sports Big 12 football head coach power ranking that placed Colorado’s leader second-to-last. However, according to On3 national recruiting analyst Phillip Dukes, that theory is “totally false.”
In a video posted to On3 Recruits’ YouTube channel, Dukes reported that Coach Prime’s beef with CBS instead stems from a collaborative project that turned south.
“There was a project between the two (Sanders and CBS) that one person did their part and was vulnerable enough to say, ‘Hey, you know what? I’m going to share this with you,'” Dukes said. “The other faction, said company, without notice, without saying anything, after all of this time and effort was put into something basically said, ‘Nah, this ain’t a good look for us right now.’
“If you want to know why Deion Sanders reacted the way he did, there was an abuse of trust between the two that I’m sure will be expounded upon later on. But as far as what I can say, it was way deeper than a ranking.”
And it’s pretty clear that Colorado is placing its bets on making a dent in its new conference through means other than on-field performance, as Freeman’s more objective colleague Brent Schrotenboer reported earlier this week:
The University of Colorado has finalized an agreement with Deion Sanders’ business manager that spells out the terms for filming another season of the “Coach Prime” documentary series on the university’s Boulder campus.
The contract was finalized in late July after Amazon Prime Video announced the renewal of the series in May. It details the agreement between the university and SMAC Productions, a division of SMAC Entertainment, a talent agency based in Los Angeles. SMAC’s business clients include Sanders, Colorado’s football coach, and three players on his team − two-way star Travis Hunter and Sanders’ sons Shedeur and Shilo.
The contract is mostly the same as last year’s, which covered Sanders’ first season at Colorado. It was signed by Sanders’ business manager, Constance Schwartz-Morini, CEO of SMAC Entertainment, along with CU administrator Patrick O’Rourke. The contract again includes no compensation for the university, which instead sees the publicity from the series as its own form of compensation.
“We were extremely happy with how the last season of the Coach Prime docuseries turned out and are looking forward to working with SMAC on what promises to be another great season,” university spokesman Steve Hurlbert said.
And besides, as even Freeman allowed, it sure looks like sponsors are already attached:
(T)here was this incredibly weird moment when this was asked by someone in attendance:
“This is a non-football-related question. I recently had a medical condition about two months ago, and thank God I had AFLAC … You’re an ambassador for them, a spokesman for them. How important is it for everyone to have AFLAC a part of their life? It’s amazing, right?”
Sure appears to me that my old Oswego compadre Constance, the SM of SMAC, may merely have been negotiating for additional media exposure for her clients, and they seem to subscribe to the time-tested theory that there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Especially when the results from the first term which started out with promise wound up blowing up in the end, and the potential for running it back not looking especially promising.
You know, kinda like how that obese golfer and his team play it.
Courage…