Deion Sanders arguably has the most fitting nickname ever for
a star athlete. He actually has a case for the top two.
Whichever moniker you prefer – “Prime Time” or “Neon Deion” –
Sanders embodied it on the field, winning two Super Bowls and appearing in a
World Series. Now he’s manifesting his persona as head coach at Jackson State –
one of the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) –
where he’s drawn ultrabright spotlights and national attention to the FCS
school.
ESPN’s “College GameDay” usually sets up at Power 5 schools for heavyweight showdowns and fabled rivalries. But on Saturday, it’s slated to air from Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium for Jackson State’s home finale. The flagship show is hitting town roughly a week after Good Morning America anchor and HBCU alum Michael Strahan visited to celebrate JSU’s homecoming during a live broadcast. That week began with a Sanders feature on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” which drew nearly 11 million viewers.
Sanders was “really excited” when he heard “College GameDay” was coming. “But you gotta understand, I expect stuff like this,” he told reporters Tuesday. “Why not us?”
The Pro and College Football Hall
of Famer is accustomed to being a magnet for cameras and microphones.
Conversely, HBCUs have rarely gone hand-in-hand with mainstream media. They’ve
grown closer through association since “Coach Prime” came aboard in 2020, and
shocked the world in 2021 by signing top-ranked recruit Travis Hunter. Every
time Sanders appears in an Aflac commercial – just like every replay of co-star
Nick Saban accusing
him of cheating – HBCUs get a little more shine.
But Sanders is viewed as the sun that others merely orbit, understandable because he’s one of the biggest names in college football, period.
I’m all for athlete empowerment, for
players gaining power in their relationship with management and broadening personal
goals beyond sports to business. From media and fashion to vineyards and fast
food, athletes can branch into numerous areas and do well, even before they
retire.
Some players have gone on to
become great
entrepreneurs and executives, but tremendous athleticism only opens a door.
Staying in the room requires a willingness to study and learn, to surround yourself
with good people of sound mind and judgment.
Otherwise, you wind up at a marketing agency owned by Kanye West with former NFL star Antonio Brown as its president.
In July, he drove his #23 McDonald’s Toyota Camry around Chicago to promote NASCAR’s inaugural street race there next summer. In August, he signed a multiyear contract extension with 23XI Racing, which is co-owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan and fellow driver Denny Hamlin. In September, Wallace earned his second career victory in the Cup Series, making him the first Black driver to win multiple Cup races.
He has five top 5 finishes this year, compared with six in his Cup career entering the season. His top 10 finishes have tripled from last year to this year (nine). He even won his first career pole position, clocking a lap of 190.703 mph at Michigan International Speedway in August. “About time,” he told NBC Sports. “Took me five years to get my first pole.”
But how many years before Wallace is just another driver? Perhaps never. Sunday’s conduct won’t help, making him just the fourth driver in 11 years who NASCAR suspended for an on-track incident.
“23XI is aligned with NASCAR on the one-race suspension issued to Bubba, and we understand the need for the series to take a clear stand on the incidents that took place at Las Vegas Motor Speedway,” the team said in a statement Tuesday. “Bubba’s actions are not in keeping with the values of our team and partners. We have spoken to Bubba and expressed our disapproval of how he handled the situation.”
Wallace already stands out, for obvious reasons, as the Cup’s only full-time Black driver. His celebrity and sponsor far outstrip other drivers whose career average finish is closer to the back than up front. The national platform grew massively in summer 2020, supersizing all the bad and ugly headed his way.
Anything good is lost at this moment, obscured by viral videos of him trying to fight NASCAR Cup driver Kyle Larson.
Tommy Tuberville spent 21 seasons
as a college football head coach – primarily in the deep South – before Alabamans
elected him to the U.S. Senate in 2020.
He likely visited hundreds of
Black families over his career, sitting on their couches and eating their pie,
hoping to sign their sons for his team. He led hundreds of Black players on the
field and shared his personal insights in meetings. His job included pouring
into players, like a father figure, helping them grow and develop into solid, responsible
young men.
I bet he didn’t share his racist thought that Black players and their families are criminals, in cahoots with the left to steal America.
“(Democrats) want crime because
they want to take over what you got,” Tuberville
told an overwhelming white crowd Saturday at a Donald Trump rally. “They
want to control what you have. They want reparations because they think the
people that do the crime are owed that. Bullshit! They are not owed that.”
Such thinking is traditional Southeastern
Conference, the nation’s biggest and baddest for college football, where
Tuberville spent 14 years as a head coach. True to its Dixie roots – member schools
are located in nine of the 11 confederate states – the SEC wasn’t fully
integrated until 1972; the league continues to make painful racial history a
thing of the present, again and
again.
Twenty-six years ago, Nike
unveiled a brilliant ad with dozens of multi-hued, multicultural boys and girls.
They were pictured playing golf or carrying clubs, filmed on golf courses and
city streets, looking into the camera or into the distance. Several made an
adorably bold proclamation:
That’s my thought on the dust-up
between Alabama State football coach Eddie Robinson Jr. and Jackson State
counterpart Deion Sanders. After a brief postgame altercation
following Alabama State’s 26-12 homecoming loss on Saturday, Robinson explained
his grievance.
“I’m living on the shoulders of
the SWAC,” Robinson told reporters. “He
ain’t SWAC. I’m SWAC.”
I am Tiger Woods!
Make what you will of Robinson’s straight-arm
after objecting to a bro-hug. He accused Sanders of speaking disrespectfully ahead
of the contest, walking through ASU’s pre-game warm-ups, and trying to run up
the score instead of taking a knee. Those could be reasonable gripes depending
on your perspective, but the most interesting assertions are theoretical:
1) Robinson is representative of
the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
Intriguing
drama and juicy storylines never cease in the NBA, where happenings outside the
lines – trade demands, rumored deals, and players’ beefs command equal billing.
It’s like their on-court exploits are merely subplots in a soap opera.
Is Russell
Westbrook destined to be a short-timer with the Lakers? Can the Nets fully depend
on Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons showing up? How will the Celtics respond without
Ime Udoka as their head coach?
Wednesday
night, news broke of “an altercation” between Green and Jordan Poole. By
Friday, TMZ Sports obtained and released video of the incident, and it’s not a
good look for anyone involved, especially Green. The volatile forward, standing
6-6 and weighing 235 pounds, attacked the wiry guard (6-4, 194 pounds) with a
vicious right cross.
Considering our
appetite for messiness, the punch provided a full-course meal for those who
care to consume. “That boy would’ve had to see me until I retired out the NBA,”
Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson
tweeted. Atlanta Hawks guard Trae
Young tweeted: Draymond is tryna get to LA. Damn!”
Just like that, Green inserted a twist in Golden State’s quest to defend the championship. “It’s the NBA,” Warriors GM Bob Myers told reporters Thursday. “It’s professional sports. These things happen. Nobody likes it. We don’t condone it, but it happened. Draymond apologized to the team this morning. Jordan was there in the room.”
Despite concerns in some quarters about
hiring practices, social justice, domestic violence, and sexual assaults, the
NFL continues to dominate televised entertainment. Last year, NFL games were 48
of the country’s top 50 shows and 91 of the top 100. CBS reports that games are
averaging 18.55 million viewers this season, the network’s best start since
2010.
Congrats to everyone who stopped
watching due to any aforementioned reasons. You’re clearly stronger than us who
haven’t turned away since Colin Kaepernick was blackballed, Deshaun Watson was
rewarded, and Brian Flores and them were
mistreated.
Tua Tagovailoa getting concussed is unlikely to make a difference.
The Miami Dolphins QB suffered a scary
concussion on Sept. 29 against Cincinnati, but we won’t change our viewing
habits. Just in case though, the
league is adjusting to ease any pangs of guilt. Tagovailoa set a meeting
with representatives from the NFL and the players union to reviews his injury evaluation
on Sept. 25 against Buffalo, when he staggered and fell while walking to the
huddle after a play.
The Dolphins say our eyes lied and a back injury
caused Tagovailoa’s rubbery legs. Yeah, right. He passed a neurological
evaluation at halftime (a
doctor was subsequently fired) and played without event through game’s end.
The NFL tightened up the following week, when at least a dozen players were removed
from games under concussion protocols.
Only three players fell in that category during Week 3, although Tagovailoa should’ve made it a quartet.
Jackson State football coach Deion Sanders was born and
raised in a place that I called home as this century began. We’re both intimately
familiar with an area that suffered catastrophic devastation from Hurricane Ian.
“Praying for all of Ft. Myers Fla.,” he
tweeted Wednesday. “God please watch over all of them.”
His 4-0 team didn’t have a game last weekend, giving him extra
time to check on loved ones. The break also provided a moment to pause and
reflect on swirling rumors about his future. At least three predominantly white
institutions (PWIs) reportedly could
be interested in luring him away. The most intriguing is Auburn, which would
put Sanders in the acclaimed Southeastern Conference. His fiercest rival would
be perennial championship contender Alabama and coach Nick Saban, co-star
in insurance commercials.
Sanders has lived up to his
nicknames – “Prime Time” and “Neon Deion” – in less than two full seasons at
Jackson State. The football program has vaulted into national conversations and
enjoyed glowing reviews. Visit Jackson, the city’s marketing bureau, calculated
a $30
million impact from JSU football last season, nearly double the 2019 estimate.
On the field, Sanders is 19-5, including a Southwestern Athletic Conference
title and Coach of the Year award. His recruiting prowess sent
shockwaves through the industry, garnering more attention for JSU and other
historically Black colleges and universities.
I think it’s been great for the SWAC, definitely for Jackson State,” Texas Southern coach Clarence McKinney told reporters at media day. “But it’s been great for the SWAC because we have more cameras on us now. We have more eyes watching us. People are paying attention to the SWAC a lot more since coach Prime has been in the league.”
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