Deion Sanders: Some media members ‘really mad’ Colorado didn’t lose

After his Colorado Buffaloes escaped Week 1 with a 31-26 over North Dakota State, Deion Sanders said that some media members attending his postgame press conference were probably mad that his team got the W.

And he’s not wrong.

But it just goes to show that Colorado’s head coach is unable to let bygones be bygones when it comes to his detractors. In his follow-up remarks, which lasted nearly 14 minutes, Sanders used the last question as an opportunity to show his true colors as a coach who can’t resist a good jab at his critics.

That question and none from the postgame presser came from the Denver Post’s Sean Keeler.

Colorado had barred him from asking questions in press conferences this season, from what Sanders and the University described as personal attacks. The columnist had previously referred to Sanders as a “false prophet,” “Deposition Deion,” “Planet Prime,” and the “Bruce Lee of B.S.,” and according to Mark Jones, Sanders said that (Keeler) attacked his faith and crossed the line.

Ironically enough, the question in question did come from CBS Colorado. Sanders had previously said he wouldn’t take any questions from the outlet. It had nothing to do with Eric Christensen but something that happened nationally with CBS. That was his first run-in with a reporter prior to the season, but he quickly mended fences with CBS and Romi Bean, for that matter.

Sanders looked around the crowd of reporters and tried to find the CBS Colorado reporter postgame, asking if she had any questions.

“Where’s Romi? I saw Romi,” he implored. “You want anything? You good? Come on. Come on, you’re family…First of all, you know Romi’s with CBS, right? Y’all forgot that, right? This is my girl. So, that’s why you can’t read into a lot of stuff because a lot of stuff is — I’m setting you up for something else — but y’all forgot that.”

Sanders asked Bean, “Don’t we do a show every week?”

They do.

“You know this was a team that wasn’t going to beat themselves…What did it take for you guys just to wear them down and be able to beat a team that didn’t make a lot of mistakes?”

“Well, you gotta understand that we knew that we had tremendous amount of athletes that we knew was going to be tough covering them on the backend,” replied Sanders. “And the way with Sheduer and his accuracy, we know that was going to be tough on them. We just had to hold them and get stops so we could get the ball. I think they almost tripled us in time of possession in the first half, so we didn’t really get the ball much, but we knew that was going to turn once we made the adjustments defensively so we could get some stops.

“And that’s what we did, but we knew they weren’t gonna lay down. We wanted to win decisively, and if we hadn’t given up that last touchdown, it would’ve looked better, but we’re not for looks, man. It’s a W or an L. That’s what you remember. You guys can pick it apart — and you ladies, I apologize — all you want, but you’re here for the W or the L. Some of you are upset that we got a W. Some of you are really mad that we didn’t get the L. So, god bless you all, you’ll have to wait again ’till next week…

“Y’all be safe on the way home, please?”

Deion Sanders to the media “Some of you are upset we got the W, some of you are really mad that we didn’t get the L, gotta wait until next week” pic.twitter.com/NuSh7GzIv6

— Gifdsports (@gifdsports) August 30, 2024

That shows who Sanders is. He can navigate the often adversarial media environment while still fostering personal relationships with certain reporters. Yet, he’s unable to get past the prickliness that comes with his brash persona, taking a second to needle the detractors whenever he sees fit.

Sanders isn’t the first college head coach to do this, and he certainly won’t be the last.

But his specific need to get one over the media and his inability to bite his tongue seemingly highlights his inability to fully let go of grudges, even when it might be in his best interest.