Desmond Howard criticizes Jay Norvell's personal slight of Deion Sanders:  'He stepped over the line' 

ESPN analysts Desmond Howard and Ryan Clark were not fans of Jay Norvell‘s criticism about Deion Sanders, and both made it very clear during Friday’s episode of Get Up.

Norvell talked about doing promos for ESPN this week on his radio show Wednesday and said, “I told them, ‘I took my hat off, and I took my glasses off.’ And I said, ‘When I talk to grown-ups, I take my hat and my glasses off.’ That’s what my mother taught me.”

That dig has reached Sanders, who said the comments were “personal,” and others around the sports world. Howard, who was talking live from Boulder, Colo., said the comments were over the line.

“I was really disappointed when I heard about the comments,” Howard said. “I thought that they were unnecessary and very disrespectful. If you know anything about Deion Sanders — and I’m not even talking about Coach Prime — but if you know anything about Deion Sanders, he gives all credit to God and he gives all credit to his mother. He’s very, very close to his mother and the way she raised him. He’s been a perfect example of how to conduct himself for all of these young men that he’s been coaching, mentoring and bringing along. So for this coach to go out there, and that wasn’t even a low shot, that’s just below the belt line, so to speak, for him to say what he did.

“It was petty to say, ‘Okay, I take my glasses off and hat off when I speak to adults.’ But then for him to go over the line. He stepped over the line with the, ‘well and cause that’s how my parents raised me, my mom raised me or how I was raised.’ However he phrased it, that’s taking it to a whole ‘nother level that it never should’ve gone. It just speaks of that coach’s jealousy, his insecurity. We not even talking about him. Most people (don’t) even know this coach’s name if it wasn’t for that comment. I was very disappointed.”

Howard ended his answer with a reference to Ice Cube’s famous diss track, “No Vaseline.” In the song, there’s a refrain at the beginning where a sample of Dr. Dre saying “Here’s what they think about you” is followed by criticisms of Ice Cube.

In the eyes of Howard, that is what these last few weeks have been for Sanders. Everyone is getting their opinions on the Colorado head coach out there.

“One of the best diss raps song in the history of rap is No Vaseline by Ice Cube,” Howard said. “And at the beginning of that song, there’s like this: ‘Here’s what they think about you. Here’s what they think about you.’ And there’s a lot of people saying negative things about Ice Cube. Now Deion is just getting receipts because this is how certain people think about him. And it’s okay cause he knows where they stand.”

Ryan Clark says Norvell’s comments on Sanders were “extremely childish”

Ryan Clark responded next with his thoughts about the controversy, agreeing with Desmond Howard and criticizing Jay Norvell for his out-of-bounds comments on Deion Sanders.

“It’s extremely childish,” Clark said. “Because what Jay Norvell thought was that that was cute. He thought he said it in the morning or he said it at another time, now let me bring it up again in front of my home media, in front of the people who know me best. All of those folks of the media start clapping. Why are you clapping? That’s not that’s not something you want a leader of men to do.”

Clark then followed up on a comment from Howard about how these criticisms of Sanders, not just the one from Norvell, are revealing how shocked people are by the success of the Buffaloes.

“The other thing that (Howard) said was it brought up his insecurities,” Clark said. “It brought up his jealousy. I believe we’re seeing that from a lot of coaches. Because what Jay Norvell should be worried about is how Washington State scored 50 points on his team. Jay Norvell should be worried about the fact that he got beat by 26, But instead, a grown adult man has resorted to yo mama jokes, and I believe that it’s sad. But its reeks of the fact that Deion Sanders is so accomplished, so successful, so popular in every walk of life, and now these men who believed he couldn’t coach, believed he couldn’t do it, are astonished that he can and they can’t talk about his team. So they talk about the man.”