Over the last few days, Coach Deion Sanders and his son Shedeur Sanders have been on the receiving end of social media heat. The duo was embroiled in a controversy after former Buffs player Xavier Smith revealed to the Athletic how Deion Sanders ignored him to the extent that he was forced to enroll for the portal. While it is normal for coaches to make the hard call, Smith reasoned that Coach Prime didn’t even try to know him well before asking him to leave.
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Deion Sanders was massively criticized after the revelation. However, his son Shedeur soon came to his rescue claiming he doesn’t even remember who Xavier Smith was, and implying that he must have been “mid at best”. While this tweet added gasoline to the controversy, Pat McAfee and his panelists decided to take this up on the latest edition of their show. The host started the proceedings by saying how people who already hate Coach Sanders are just relishing the hate being piled on him.
However, the host did admit that there is a distinction between the greatest cornerback criticizing your abilities and a QB prospect doing the same. Pat found Shedeur’s attitude sketchy and wondered if NFL teams would be impressed by such behavior. Moreover, he insisted that Coach Prime and his boys had to win their first game to silence their critics.
So everybody that has hated the Colorado Buffalo’s from the beginning through now saw this as another reason to bury Deion Sanders. In the Colorado Buffalo’s, a lot of people are saying like yeah Deion was a corner and one of the greatest athletes ever, so whenever he talks these sh*t, it’s a little bit different than a starting quarterback coming out and talking sh*t. But I think this is Shedeur just being exactly who we think. He just opened for Lil Wayne the other day. Now will NFL teams question this? I do wonder if they lose especially that first game to North Dakota State, boy all of this is going to get very loud!
However, after discussing with his fellow panelists, Pat had a change of heart and played the Devil’s Advocate in true McAfee style. He presented the other side of the story where he argued that Shedeur will still be opening for Lil Wayne and remain a top draft prospect for next year even if they don’t win the opening game.
Besides, even though McAfee still believed that Shedeur’s statement was disrespectful coming from a QB and that NFL teams would look into it, it wasn’t much cause for concern since Deion has chosen the four teams where he wants his son to go.
They don’t have to win. They didn’t win, you know [he will] still open for Lil Wayne. Yeah they didn’t win a lot of games last year but he’s going to be a top five pick… His odds did go down a little bit after the Tweet last night which was yeah cuz I think there will be some NFL people who obviously have a lot of respect for Dieon and everything he’s got going on and Shedeur’s talent but like quarterback is just a different animal yeah because you’re the face of the program, face of the organization. So him saying I don’t even remember this guy is like okay we didn’t get to know his teammates like people can hold that against him but Dieon has said I only want him going to like four teams anyways so what are we even talking about?
Pat McAfee was joined on the show today by three NFL veterans AJ Hawk, Adam Pacman Jones, and Darius Butler. The trio’s composed and unique insights on the issue have given a new perspective to the whole controversy.
Pat McAfee Show Analysts Come In Support of Deion Sanders
Former Packers linebacker AJ Hawk started the proceedings by defending the stoic nature of college coaches. College football is growing at a rapid pace with an impressive influx of talent. Moreover, to keep the players rolling, some have to be cut off from the team, and this shouldn’t be such a big deal for coaches, argued Hawk.
“I think they should be better than they were last year. I think Deion’s just being honest and he’s being upfront. There’s a lot, like think how many players are on scholarship in college teams? I don’t know, 85… a crazy amount so if you want to bring players in the portal you need players to leave throughout the portal.”
Ex-Bengals player Adam Pacman Jones expanded on AJ Hawk’s point that the reason Smith’s statements got so much traction was due to the involvement of Sanders. If that weren’t the case, none would be talking about this. As far as Shedeur’s prospects for the drafts are concerned, Jones opined that the QB is improving every week and will certainly be a top 5 pick. While he doesn’t guarantee Coach Sanders and his boys to win 10 games, he certainly believes they will put up an improved showing. And lastly, he justified Sanders’ action by pointing to the transactional nature and growing fiscal stature of college football.
“It’s always going to be loud when you got Sanders on the back of your jersey. Everywhere you go, it is going to be loud like they’re used to being loud. It ain’t never not been loud. When it ain’t loud then that’s when it’s a problem but Shedeur is getting better and better every week like he is going to be a top-five pick. Will they win 10 games, I don’t know. Will they be better than next year? Hell yeah and college got to realize it’s no more just College bro, you get paid to play this is like the NFL. Now all that yeah you know you could have did it better, hey bro I’ve been watching you for 6 months, you suck, and you might well enter the portal.”
Meanwhile, Former Patriots Safety Darius Butler had a similar stance to Pat and believed that Shedeur’s statement was sour although he has no problem with Deion’s actions. Overall, like others, he believed that the Buffs would show an improved showing amidst all the controversy.
“It’s a Cutthroat business and now it’s more of a business than anything. [I] didn’t love you know Shedeur coming out and saying. I just think it makes him look bad as a teammate you know what I mean, a quarterback is just different. It’s a different set of rules for quarterbacks but I think they will win.”
“I think they’ll definitely be better on the field and I think this is just kind of how things get made behind the scenes like hey, sh*t like this happens. The coaches aren’t happy-go-lucky with every player player. They are treated differently sometimes. Is it right, is it wrong that maybe whatever you say but you know this is nothing new.”
Pre-season hasn’t exactly gone the way of Coach Sanders and his men. Hence, even though the outcome might not change much, there will be immense pressure to win the first game of the season.
