Stephen A. Smith Reveals Real Reason Deion Sanders Shut Down CBS Reporter

This past Friday, August 9, Eric Christensen of CBS Sports Colorado announced himself before attempting to ask Colorado head coach Deion Sanders a question.

He got out just one word of his question before Sanders brushed him off and revealed he wouldn't be taking questions from CBS.

"CBS, I’m not doing nothing with CBS," Sanders told Christensen. "Next question. Ain’t got nothing to do with you, this is above that...I got love for you. I appreciate and respect you. Ain’t got nothing to do with you. They know what they did."

Sanders didn't elaborate on his reason, which led to internet rumors that it was over frustrations of a coaching ranking that CBS had put out, where Sanders was placed near the bottom of the Big 12.

However, Phillip Dukes of On3 revealed it had nothing to do with it, but it was more so due to a partnership issue. Sanders commented on Dukes' video and confirmed this, but fans were still clueless about what exactly had happened.

ESPN's Stephen A. Smith put the mystery to rest on Thursday on his show The Stephen A Smith Show, explaining it had to do with CBS pulling an African American reporter off a story with Sanders.

“A reporter, who happened to be a brother, had a story that they were working on, and the story was about to come out,” said Smith . “And when the information was accumulated, the brother was taken off the story, according to people close to Deion Sanders. And in return, it was given to somebody who was white. ‘Prime Time’ Deion Sanders had a problem with that. He may not tell you. Most other folks may not know; I’m telling you. According to folks close to Deion Sanders, that’s what happened — that’s precisely what happened.

“A young brother that was working on a story, had the story taken from them and given to somebody White. Deion Sanders took issue with that. And that’s why he reacted the way he reacted toward CBS.”

Smith later admitted that he originally had thought the beef dated back to Sanders' time with CBS as an NFL analyst from 2002-04 when he had a payment dispute with the company and wanted to be the highest-paid analyst, something that he revealed was not the case at all after reaching out to someone close to the situation.

While the incident with Christensen is the one that caught the most headlines, he wasn't the only reporter whom Sanders shut down last Friday. Sanders also declined to take a question from a Denver Post reporter, whom he felt didn't like him or the program.

"Why do you not like us," Sanders asked Sean Keeler of the Denver Post . "You don’t like us, man. Why do you do this to yourself?... No, I’m serious."

This isn't something new for the Colorado head coach either, as we saw this at times last season. Sanders refused to take questions from ESPN reporter Ed Werder after their Week 1 win at TCU when he repeatedly asked Werder if he believed in the Buffs after the win before moving on to the next question.

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