What to make of Deion Sanders' viral press conference, singling out reporter

Deion Sanders went viral when he singled out a local CBS reporter during a recent Colorado press conference.

Now, this reporter was actually local, not affiliated with CBS nationally. So why did Sanders single him out and criticize him? On3’s Andy Staples had a theory.

Now, some may assume it had something to do with Shilo Sanders. The son of Deion had an incident with a security guard as a teenager.

But Staples pointed out many outlets reported that story, including this one. No, Deion Sanders was mad about something else.

“What CBS did do, a vote of the CBS Sports staff and the 247 Sports staff, because they’re all owned by the same company, ranked Deion 15th out of 16 Big 12 coaches,” Staples said on his show Monday. “That’s probably where he’s mad. That’s probably what he’s mad at. But he’s taking it out on a dude from the CBS local affiliate that pays to talk to Deion, who probably was gonna lob him another softball.” 

It all comes down to winning. If Sanders wants less criticism, he has to start winning games.

“But you got to make it a thing,” Staples said. “And of course, we’re going to talk about that like if you just answer his softball, we’re not saying a word. We’re probably not going to have this segment right now. But if you’re mad that’s your 15th out of 16th in the Big 12, then win games. You went 4-8 last year. That’ll raise your rating, sure enough, and the surest way to lower it is to lose more games.”

Things haven’t really changed for Sanders and Colorado. The team is simply just trying to improve from a 4-8 campaign in 2023. This is a program with a lot of hype, but not of results, at least yet.

But one thing’s for sure, Sanders can’t balk at the softball questions.

“These are the same bait questions from last year … They’re the same questions every coach gets,” Staples said. “Like Sam Pittman at Arkansas is getting questions about, ‘How will you be good on offense this year because you weren’t last year?’ Everybody gets these questions. Billy Napier in Florida, ‘How will you be good on defense because you weren’t last year?’ It’s the job.

“You’re gonna get those questions. But what’s funny is him taking these softballs and getting mad at them, because if you don’t like the softballs, you’re really not gonna like it if you start losing games.”