Deion Sanders discusses significance of facing another Black head coach

Earlier this week, Colorado State head coach Jay Norvell spoke about how excited he was to play against Colorado and Deion Sanders. In particular, he’s excited for the game to be coached by two black head coaches at the same time.

Sanders responded, saying that he doesn’t know Norvell personally, but is happy that he said that.

“What I hear, I haven’t met this gentleman, but I hear he’s a good man,” Deion Sanders said. “I know he’s a great coach. He has those guys playing hard. I like that. I’m glad he said that, I like that.”

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For his part, Sanders also likes to see games played between two black head coaches. He just has one major issue. One of the two coaches is going to lose the game.

“Unfortunately, one of the brothers got to lose. When you face another black head coach, unfortunately, and you want to see us win. I mean, that’s the thing, but besides that, it’s just tremendous getting this opportunity and allowing the nation to see that we are more than capable of doing a sufficient and a great job,” Sanders said.

“So, I’m happy he pointed that out and have the utmost respect for him, truly.”

Notably, this is a very different reaction than what Deion Sanders had to Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule. In particular, there was the belief that Rhule had been disrespectful in some way. That was an idea that Rhule pushed back on and Sanders now wants to move past from.

“That was unfortunate,” Sanders said. “I didn’t know anything about it and they said they were praying in the middle of the field. So it’s cool with me. I mean I’m happy if that’s what they were doing. Amen. I’m all for that. Let’s turn the page. Let’s get on to Colorado State, that’s over.”

Deion Sanders on playing in a local rivalry

Ahead of the game against Colorado State, Deion Sanders compared local rivalries to divorce.

“Yeah, I had two divorces which was heck of a showdowns too. So don’t tell me about a showdown,” Sanders joked.

“Now you want me to understand better Rocky Mountain Showdown. You’ve got to give me some verbiage or some literature on something just to brief me, but trust me, this isn’t my first rodeo when it comes to that. I think the Falcons and the Saints were quite a showdown as well as playing against the 49ers, Cowboys-49ers, I could keep going, Cowboys-Philly, Cowboys-whoever was always there in a showdown. Baseball as well. So, it’s always some type of adversity that you have against someone in close proximity of you.”