Gwinn: Deion Sanders’ Colorado Team Doesn’t Follow His Christian-Focused Coaching Style

Deion Sanders and his Colorado Buffaloes became one of the “feel good” stories of the college football world both before the start of the season and in the immediate aftermath of their thrilling win against TCU in the season opener. However, three weeks later, let’s just say there’s a lot less to feel good about.

The bloom began falling off the rose quickly after Sanders strayed from his pro-Christian, God-first message and invoked race in his post-game comments following the TCU win.

“We do things that had never been done, and that makes people uncomfortable,” Sanders said and continued:

“When you see a confident black man, sitting up there talking his talk, walking his walk, coaching 75% African Americans in the locker room, that’s kind of threatening. Oh, they don’t like that. Guess what? We gonna consistently do what we do because I’m here and ain’t going nowhere. And I’m about to get comfortable in a minute.”

Fast-forward three weeks, and the situation has done nothing but regress. Following Oregon’s 42-6 thrashing of Sanders and his Buffaloes, the Oregon football program’s X account released video of Colorado players – including Sanders’ own son, Shilo – threatening Oregon players and their coaches and generally engaging in behavior that could most charitably be described as horrendous.

There’s a large amount of disrespect being shown by Colorado players throughout this video, stomping on Oregon’s logo, laughing at opposing players during warm-ups, etc., but pay particular attention to Sanders’ son Shilo, who patrols in front of Oregon players and staff threatening violence.

This is the son of the same Deion Sanders who has consistently preached holding his players to a high standard of respect and character going back to his days at Jackson State. Where is any of that in this video?

But wait, there’s more. In another video, we see who appears to be Colorado safety Jahquez Robinson talking smack to the events guy of all people in the tunnel before the Buffaloes took the field.

As if that weren’t bad enough, Robinson does this directly in front of Sanders, who does absolutely nothing about it.

The full video can be seen below, and yes, there are other horrendous things, but you get the point.

I have zero doubt that Deion Sanders is a man of deep and abiding faith, and it’s not anyone’s place to question that. However, the fact of the matter is he can say “God bless you” to as many reporters as he wants to. He can wear the most enormous golden cross he can find on the outside of his shirt all he wants, but at the end of the day, the message rings hollow if that same Christian message is not reflected in the character and behavior of your players.

Plain and simple.

It’s especially bad when that decidedly unChristian behavior comes out in the conduct of his son, who should know better than anyone how to act, given his prolonged exposure to his father’s Christ-centered way of life. And this isn’t the first time Shilo Sanders has been seen threatening people. Just last week, he threatened to “whoop” Colorado State player Henry Blackburn for his late hit on Travis Hunter.

“I really wanted to whoop that dude that did that to him for real, like after the game or something,” Sanders said. “If I see him just around here somewhere, he’s got to watch out. That really made me mad, just seeing him trying to play dirty like that. That was crazy. I thought something would happen like, punishment-wise. If one of us did something like that, if I did that, I think it would be way crazier than that. They would have kicked me off for sure.”

The irony of Shilo lamenting another player’s “dirty” behavior a week before he threatened to attack Oregon coaches and players for no reason at all is not to be lost on anyone.

Oregon Ducks running back Noah Whittington (6) celebrates his touchdown against Colorado Buffaloes safety Shilo Sanders (21) in the first quarter at Autzen Stadium on September 23, 2023. (Andy Cross/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

And yet, here is the Sanders paradox: Right around the same time Deion Sanders was condemning those making death threats against Blackburn for his hit on Hunter, his own son was threatening to attack Blackburn.

So, what is really going on here?

Oh, and Shedeur Sanders? Deion’s other son? He’s not exactly innocent, either. Just before the game against Nebraska, Shedeur Sanders went to midfield and disrupted what appeared to be a team meeting/prayer session Nebraska coach Matt Rhule was holding at midfield because he felt Nebraska was disrespecting Colorado by standing on their logo. A charge vehemently denied by Rhule, who invited Sanders to pray with his team and told reporters he has always held these types of meetings before games.

As someone who has been on many pro and college football fields, I can assure you that teams commonly hold midfield meetings before games. It’s a football field, not a cathedral. But, as evidenced in the video posted by Oregon, Sanders’ players have absolutely zero respect for the logos of the teams they’re playing against. Which probably, no definitely, tells you all you need to know about the Sanders brothers and how they view “respect.”

So, again, what is really going on here?

Deion Sanders preaches Christian fellowship and liberally dispenses “God bless yous” to anyone in earshot while adorned with one of the largest gold crosses ever seen. Meanwhile, his sons, the two players who should be the best-behaved and most Christian-like, are running around threatening people and being disrespectful. And not just threatening or disrespectful to any people – but to coaches! Adults! Who, if one were raised with a strong Christian ethic, would be absolutely off limits.

If Deion Sanders is indeed the man of faith he professes to be ( and I believe he is), will the real Deion Sanders please stand up? If he’s not the man he professes to be, and this is all an act, well, just keep doing what you’re doing.