Why Stephen A. Smith is 'disappointed' in Deion Sanders

Deion Sanders has already stepped into the headlines before his team has even stepped onto the field for the 2024 season.

In advance of the Buffaloes’ Week 1 matchup against North Dakota State, Colorado made waves by banning the Denver Post‘s Sean Keeler from asking Coach Prime questions, citing “a series of sustained, personal attacks.” Per the Post, Sanders has a clause in his contract that only requires him to speak with “mutually agreed upon media.”

On Monday morning, after it became natural fodder for Paul Finebaum and Get Up , the ESPN college football analyst joined Stephen A. Smith, Shannon Sharpe, and Molly Qerim on First Take. Finebaum offered what he did on First Take , as he did the previous ESPN morning show before Smith shared his unfiltered thoughts.

“I do not agree with how he’s handling this situation,” Smith said. “I do not agree with how the Colorado program has handled this situation. And quite frankly, I’m a bit disappointed because you have to have thicker skin than that. If you don’t want to talk to the reporter, Shannon, don’t talk to the reporter. But, to have the program putting out a release announcing that, ‘We’re not gonna take questions as a program from this guy,’ is utterly ridiculous.

“You started off 3-1; you beat TCU. TCU was the national runner-up the year before. Colorado opens the season in the ‘Prime Time’ Deion Sanders era; you beat them, and what did you do post-conference? ‘Do you believe? Do you believe?’ And he kept asking that question, and he wanted to hear the reporter(s) say, ‘Do you believe,’ and then, he shooed them off… Obviously, you’re gonna have critics. People who are lining up. Remember that pregame motivational speech that Coach (Dan) Lanning at Oregon did before they rocked Colorado on national television, Shannon?… He took a direct shot at ‘Prime Time’ Deion Sanders. He was saying, ‘We ain’t trying to win the headlines. We gonna win out on the field.’ And then they went, and they slaughtered them.

“And so, we have to take that into account. Now, ‘Prime Time,’ and I believe in him. I believe in him as a coach, and I damn sure believe in him as a person. And I’ve known him for over two decades; I know that his purpose is higher than just winning football games. But he’s also somebody who has to understand that winning football is where it has to start. Because everything else, in terms of the media, nobody wants to hear all that…

“This is my brother. I love him, and I believe in him, and I know where he’s coming from. But there is evidence where you’ve gone against the media. There is evidence when you’ve been negative towards the media because they’ve been negative towards you. Maybe not as the head coach at Colorado, but as a player, you were that way. Over the years, you were that way. Last year, when you beat TCU when you were shooing folks off, you were that way. You can’t then turn around because of a columnist who’s been considered somebody…Now, I don’t know Mr. Keeler…I’m not casting any aspersions on him, but there are people in the media out there that said he’s been hypercritical, and he has been accused of being a shock jock, etc., etc.

“If anyone’s supposed to know how to deal with that, it’s supposed to be ‘Prime Time.'”

Smith didn’t stop there.

“Nobody has more power than Nick Saban,” continued Smith. “Nick Saban, you didn’t hear Alabama — you saw Nick Saban at the podium going off. That’s what you saw, or you saw him dismissing somebody. You didn’t see the program sort of coming to your rescue with a bunch of stuff. Because now you’ve put this guy in the spotlight, and now, we get to say, ‘What exactly is it that he said?'”

Keeler referred to Sanders as a “false prophet,” “Deposition Deion,” “Planet Prime,” and the “Bruce Lee of B.S.”

“It does seem a bit extreme…but I would remind everybody that this is not a reporter; he’s a columnist,” Smith added. “A columnist has the license to editorialize and express their opinion in the newspaper industry. You’re talking to a former columnist. This is the license that we had that reporters don’t have. So, his opinion, no matter how incendiary, no matter how put-offish is, or whatever it is, it’s actually his right and his job, according to The Denver Post, to do that.”

Smith said for the University of Colorado to put out a release, the program looks “very, very bad.”

“Sometimes, you consider how far and how much Deion has evolved over the years — he deserves so much credit for it,” says Smith. “And we got a lot of love for him. But you know what this is going to do. They’re gonna bring up what he did with Tim McCarver…and this is arguably the greatest athlete we’ve ever seen in history, OK? So, this is who we’re talking about here. We’re talking about the Crème de la crème, one of the all-time elite. Well, that ain’t Colorado’s football program at this particular moment in time. And so, your willingness to shoo aside others coincides with the struggles you’re having, that makes it even worse, because it makes it look like you’re not handling the losing as well as you claim to be able to handle it.

“And to give somebody that kind of ammunition to come at you, I just found it to be disappointing…But for the program to sanction it the way that they did, now, you’ve got a bigger problem because it means that somebody feels the need to come to your defense to protect you. And we’re not accustomed to seeing ‘Prime’ needing protection…”

[ First Take ]

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