Deion Sanders’ Offer To Make Amends With Reporter Amid Controversy

Colorado head coach Deion Sanders has been under fire this past week for declining to talk to Eric Christensen of CBS Sports Colorado for what was originally an unknown reason.

Following Colorado's open practice at Denver's All-City Stadium on Friday, Sanders made it a point to seek out Christensen to let him know that all was okay between them. On top of assuring the media scrum he and Christensen were all good, Sanders also offered to do a one-on-one interview with the absent CBS Colorado reporter to reconcile for the incident.

"God bless you, tell (Christensen), he know," Sanders said to Romi Bean of CBS who was in attendance. "I want everybody to know we was good then. It seems like we wasn't good. We're good. I love him and I appreciate him. Tell him I'll do a sit-down one-on-one with him. We good. We good now."

The presumed bad blood between Sanders and Christensen was on display last week when Christensen went to ask Sanders a question at a media availability and Sanders revealed he wasn't talking to anyone with CBS. Christensen then expressed that he wasn't from the national CBS site, but it was to no avail as Sanders shut him down.

"CBS, I’m not doing nothing with CBS," Sanders told Christensen at the August 9 media availability. "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."

While Christensen and the rest of the college football fans were confused about the incident, fans began pointing to a CBS article ranking Big 12 coaches that had Sanders at the bottom. A theory that was debunked by On3 's Phillip Dukes, and later elaborated on by ESPN's Stephen A. Smith.

The First Take Host put out an episode of The Stephen A Smith Show on Thursday, explaining that the bad blood was because of a reporter change CBS made. According to Smith, CBS pulled an African American reporter off an assignment with Sanders in favor of a white reporter after all of the information was gathered.

“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."

CBS has yet to comment on the matter, and it is unclear when Sanders will sit down with Christensen ahead of Colorado's Week 1 game against North Dakota State.

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