Saturday Night Live is known for its sports parodies.
In fact, it recently spoofed the NFL’s Taylor Swift mania, with her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs All-Pro TE Travis Kelce, making a surprise cameo. In the same episode—the premiere of Season 49—Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders (played by Kenan Thompson) joined the Weekend Update desk with host Colin Jost.
The episode coincided with Colorado blowing a 29-point lead to Stanford in a 46-43 overtime loss. And soon after, the Buffaloes entered their bye week. So, reporters haven’t had the chance to ask Sanders about Thompson’s impression of him on the late-night institution.
This week, Sanders said he was a “fan” of Thompson, who made the seamless transition during the Oct. 14 episode from Fox’s Curt Menefee to the biggest name in college football.
“I’m a fan of Kenan, let’s just get that straight,” Sanders said. “I love him. I love what he’s brought to comedy over…It’s gotta be over a couple of decades, it seems as so. I had the pleasure and honor to host Saturday Night Live before, and I would never forget those moments. But it, it was good.”
Sanders hosted SNL just three weeks after winning Super Bowl XXIX with the San Francisco 49ers. Sanders was the host of the show with Bon Jovi as the musical guest on Feb. 18, 1995. Thompson is the longest-tenured cast member in the show’s history but didn’t join the cast until 2003 — eight years after Sanders hosted the NBC sketch comedy series.
Doing his best imitation of Sanders, Thompson had the Colorado head coach’s signature look down to a T. He had a white Colorado sweatshirt pulled over his CU hat. He even had the shades and a gold-plated whistle dangling from his neck.
With the episode airing a day after Stanford’s loss of the season, Thompson and SNL made sure to not only poke fun at that, but Sanders’ brash persona.
“We just keep winning, man. Every game. Every minute. We’re winning at life,” Sanders (Thompson) said.
Jost reminded Sanders (Thompson) that his team was 4-3 and that they had lost a few, including the team’s double-overtime loss to Stanford the night prior.
“Wasn’t that crazy?” Sanders (Thompson) replied. “Man, we were up 29-0 at the half. So, I went home and fell asleep. I woke up this morning, as shocked as anyone. But c’mon man, nobody’s perfect. Name one team that’s undefeated.”
Georgia.
Michigan.
Ohio State.
Florida State.
Okahoma.
Penn State (not anymore).
Washington.
North Carolina (not anymore).
Air Force.
While Sanders was a fan of Thompson’s impersonation, he admitted that he thinks the person who has him down the most is Lou Young, a former football player and current YouTuber/comedian.
“I hate to admit it, but Lou is good,” Sanders said. “Lou Young is really, really good.”
He then conceded that his son, Shilo, wasn’t bad either.
We doubt this will be the last time that Sanders crosses over into pop culture. And he can’t accuse SNL of not believing the hype, as he was featured in the show’s first episode since the SAG-AFTRA strike.
[Fox News]
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.