Whitlock ‘Way Down In The Hole’ On Deion

By Kyle Golik

The way Colorado head coach Deion Sanders is dealing with the fallout from the Athlon Sports report can be questioned. During a recent press conference, Sanders' lack of maturity as a head coach was on full display with a contentious exchange with CBS affiliates.

“CBS, I’m not doing nothing with CBS. Next question,” Sanders said after the first question came from a CBS affiliate. Athlon Sports happens to be a media outlet owned by CBS. “It ain’t got nothing to do with you. This is above that. It ain’t got nothing to do with you. I’ve got love for you. I appreciate you. I respect you. It ain’t got nothing to do with you. They know what they did.”

Sanders' hurt feelings continued when he began to spar with Denver Post’s Sam Keeler , “Why do you – you always on the attack,” Sanders said. “What did we do? What happened to get you like this?”

Sanders' behavior has gotten many takes, including from the Blaze Media’s Fearless podcast right-wing host Jason Whitlock. Whitlock is no stranger in his attacks on Sanders during his time at Colorado and took to X (Twitter) over the weekend to lob another attack at Sanders.

“Deion Sanders needs help. This isn’t about wins and losses. It’s about a man so fragile, fraudulent, and feminine that he can’t take questions from men who mean him no harm. It’s embarrassing. He’s wearing sunglasses and constantly snorting like Bubbles from The Wire. It’s being glossed over because he’s black and everyone is scared. This dude needs help. He finished in last place in the PAC-12 and is so insecure about it he won’t answer questions from reporters unless they “like” him. A 10-year-old girl has thicker skin. He’s 57 and makes everyone call him a childhood nickname. This isn’t leadership. It’s malpractice. Softer than baby poop,” Whitlock said of Sanders on his X account.

A portion of Whitlock’s tweet that left my scratching my head is the comparison to the character Bubbles from the landmark HBO drama The Wire .

For those who haven’t heard or know the landmark drama, it aired for five seasons on HBO between 2002 and 2008 that originally centered around being a police drama, but evolved into various walks of life in a major city whether it was troubled unions with local stevedores (Season 2), political machines (Season 3), broken education systems and how children end up in street life (Seasons 4 and 5), and local media with the newspapers (Season 5) all the while shifting and making the main character truly the city of Baltimore.

Throughout the series, there was a character named Reginald “Bubbles” Cousins, portrayed by Andre Royo that followed his life around being at first an addict and trusted informant for the local police. As “Bubbles” addiction was not giving him the high he once enjoyed and had a desire to want a better quality of life, one of the greatest arcs done on television was witnessing the path of addiction. The ultimate triumph of “Bubbles” was watching him get sober, tell his story, and (spoiler alert) being able to welcomed upstairs for dinner with his sister and her children.

The character arc has been lauded as an achievement in television, “I think it’s one of the greatest — not just television shows but pieces of art — in the last couple of decades,” former President Barack Obama said to creator David Simon in a sitdown interview.

I don’t feel Whitlock is on the same page as Obama when talking about The Wire, but it goes to show Whitlock’s comparison is offbase and beneath him for the caliber of writer and creator he is. Whitlock is trying to get attention, and yes he got mine, but do we need to compare Sanders breathing to one of an addict? I don’t think that is necessary.

Sanders, all by himself, is seemingly unraveling with the pressure beginning to mount about his program. If the Athlon Sports allegations are false, why is Sanders allowing it to bother him? I truly feel the weight of expectations and realizing how tough it is to build a Power 4 program is on full display. The attraction to the Colorado circus is Sanders himself, and the questions are not going to come any easier. Sanders has to produce, the criticism isn’t going away anytime soon.

As for Whitlock, stealing a lyric from The Wire theme song, is any more ‘way down in the hole’ in getting attention. I get it, people anymore want sensationalized content, and that is what fuels Jason Whitlock because he appeals to a demographic. I feel that to compare Sanders to a fictional character that battles addiction is a low blow, he didn’t need it.