Oct 28, 2023; Pasadena, California, USA; Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders enters the field before the game against the UCLA Bruins at Rose Bowl. UCLA defeated Colorado 28-16. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
College FootballTwitterBy Andrew Bucholtz on

The idea of “punching down” as a negative has long been central in many arenas. The general principle there is that those with notable platforms should use their platforms to take on people with similar levels of influence or higher, not those with less influence. But Colorado Buffaloes’ head football coach Deion Sanders doesn’t appear to subscribe to that belief.

That was very clear with Sanders’ Twitter/X activity Wednesday. There, he argued with several former Colorado players who criticized him around an Athletic report on the players he forced out from the program. And he did so in his typically-acerbic fashion, going at those players rather than offering any level of support or empathy. Here’s some of that:

It’s certainly amusing to see some of the backlash that’s led to:

Of course, college football coaches are expected to take shots at their competition. And we’ve seen that before, and we’ve even seen unnecessarily moralizing over that before. For example, there has been a lot of handwringing over relatively-reasonable actions from Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin.

But even when someone like Kiffin has been controversial, that’s generally been about other coaches or about officials. We haven’t seen him fighting on social media with transferring players. And that’s part of what makes these moves from Sanders stand out. And that’s led to a lot of notable criticism. Here’s ome of that:

That’s a big part of what stands out with this story. A Power 5 head coach taking shots at players at other schools would be notable enough and surprising enough in its own right, especially following a lot of coach controversies over way less prominent topics. But this is all just so unnecessary. And as that Athletic story from Max Olson illustrates, Sanders’ unprecedented level of roster turnover led to massive consequences for players who had been on scholarship at Colorado.

And those consequences sure didn’t seem to produce anything better for the Buffaloes, who finished 4-8 after a 3-0 start that drew way more attention than they deserved. And even if Sanders had declined to comment at all, there would have been lots of negative coverage here. But his particular commentary here illustrates just how out of touch with the modern world he is. And the endorsements of his approach from some previously-respectable media figures add to that:

It remains to be seen if Sanders’ presence in college athletics produces any actual long-term benefit for his school or its conferences. (Funnily enough, the biggest proponent for him in college to date, and in a not particularly logical manner, was former Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff.) His work to date has drawn massive attention, but it certainly hasn’t always led to positive media coverage.

In any case, this week’s developments are notable for an illustration of how Sanders plans to wield his social media hammer at college players he thinks have wronged him. (Despite those criticisms coming from athletes he booted off their scholarships without ceremony.) We’ll see how that works out for him going forward.

 

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

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