Deion Sanders’ Son Calls Out Stephen A. Smith For His Take On the Media Drama

Last week, the CU Buffs stirred up controversy with an unexpected move of indefinitely banning a reporter from asking questions to HC Deion Sanders. Since then, sports media professionals, including even longtime Sanders family friend Stephen A. Smith, have vocally questioned the decision by the program. This criticism, however, has not been well received by Deion Sanders Jr.

On last night’s edition of ESPN’s First Take, Stephen A. fearlessly called out Deion Sanders for his and the Buffaloes’ “utterly ridiculous” move of banning the reporter. Urging Deion to get “thick-skinned” against the media, the analyst also made it known that he expected better from his longtime friend. Sanders Jr., however, didn’t agree with the veteran broadcaster’s assessment.

The Well Off Media founder went on the offensive against Smith, calling out the broadcaster and fellow panelists for their appalling lack of research for the segment. “There couldn’t have been any research done before this segment,” shot back Sanders Jr. on X, formerly known as Twitter.

From Colorado and the Sanders family’s perspective, Denver Post columnist Sean Keeler is “always being on the attack” against Coach Prime. But as Smith pointed out, accountability is key when you are the head coach of one of the most popular college programs in the country.

On the flip side, Deion has a legal provision in his contract where he is entitled to interact only with “mutually agreed upon media.” So any time you hear Deion being asked about his brand deals and supposedly friendly questions, you now have no reason to be surprised.

This is very ironic for an icon like Deion Sanders, who has motivated thousands around the world to embrace hate and channel it positively. But then again, no one should entertain hate that crosses personal thresholds.

While the jury is still out on Deion and Colorado’s actions, what’s intriguing is that this marks the second instance in the last seven days where a college football head coach has imposed extreme media restrictions.

Clemson HC Dabo Swinney bans live phone calls on radio show

Clemson fans were quite excited when HC Dabo Swinney announced a weekly radio show, “Tiger Sports Hour with Dabo Swinney,” where he would answer fan questions. However, the first edition of the show turned out to be a nightmare for Swinney when a caller ripped into his lackluster performance and a hefty salary. “Why are we paying you $11.5 million to go 4-4?” asked the caller named Tyler.

Before the caller could end, Dabo cut the line and proceeded to go on a fiery rant, blaming fans like the caller for contributing to Clemson’s problems. He also urged fans to keep their appreciation during rough patches, rather than letting expectations diminish their support.

As far as the salary question was concerned, Dabo shot back by reminiscing how he started off as the lowest-paid coach and he reached here thanks to working his “a** off every single day.” He ended the rant by declaring that he isn’t gonna let “some smart-a** kid get on this phone and create this (ruckus).”

Following the rant, the official announcement revealed that HC Dabo Swinney would now only accept questions on his show via text and email. This effectively means that questions like Tyler’s will be censored from the show.

These two recent cases pose a simple yet compelling question — Are coaches running away from accountability by using their privileges? We certainly hope not, for just like in a democracy, a healthy media is needed to keep the ones in power in check. Ideally, unbiased media is the need of the hour. Hence, seeing coaches be so overt about limiting media access is certainly concerning.