Coach Prime, Shedeur Sanders star in new KFC commercial

KFC is going all in on the Deion Sanders experience at Colorado.

The fast-food chain released a new commercial with the Sanders family on Wednesday. KFC has previously worked with the family to promote its Fill Up Box and chicken nuggets. Now the Sanders’ are promoting the restaurant’s new hot and spicy wings.

Coach Prime is heavily featured in the commercial, along with his sons and current Colorado players, Shedeur and Shilo Sanders. The athletes both signed NIL deals to appear in the campaign.

Working closely with SMAC Entertainment and Constance Schwartz-Morini, the father and sons have a wide swath of endorsement deals this fall. Deion Sanders is with Nick Saban in Aflac commercials and a new campaign with California Almonds. Shedeur and Shilo have their own portfolio of partnerships, but they’re now starring in the national Kentucky Fried Chicken ad.

The video starts with Shedeur Sanders eating wings on his father’s white carpet, which is pointed out by his sister. The camera pans over to Deion Sanders, seen with Shilo looking over the “Sanders Playbook.”

Shedeur and Coach Prime lock eyes, as the quarterback says, “when you’re like me, you can do that.”

Shilo adds: “I never do that.” After the two square off, Deion cracks a smile.

“Cut me the bulljunk and give me one of those wings,” he says.

The commercial ends with a shot of Deion’s mother, Connie Knight, saying, “mhh hmm.”

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Deion Sanders finding success early at Colorado

All eyes have been on Colorado through two weeks of the college football season, as Coach Prime has yet to disappoint.

The TV ratings back up the attention Sanders has received. One week after attracting 7.26 million viewers for its season-opening victory over No. 17 TCU, Colorado saw 8.73 million tune in for its home-opening win over rival Nebraska.

It was the best Pac-12 regular season game ever on FOX; the 10th-most watched regular season college football game ever on the network; and FOX Sports’ second-most streamed college football game in history. 

The spotlight will be on the 18th-ranked Buffaloes again this weekend. FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff and ESPN’s College GameDay will both be live from Boulder on Saturday morning, despite Colorado playing at 10 p.m. EST against Colorado State on ESPN. It speaks to just how many people are entrenched in following Sanders and Colorado this season.

Shedeur, Shilo Sanders continue building NIL brands

Shedeur and Shilo Sanders have not shown any problems in making the jump from Jackson State to the FBS level. Shilo has a team-high 15 total tackles through two games. Meanwhile, Shedeur’s thrown for more than 900 yards and seven total touchdowns with no interceptions and entered the Heisman Trophy conversation.

They starred next to their father in a Super Bowl commercial for Oikos this past winter, but they’ve each built their own major NIL brands, too.

Shedeur Sanders has been cashing in on NIL since 2021. He’s signed with Gatorade, launched his own barbecue sauce, been tabbed as the BRADY brand’s long-term ambassador and promoted Mercedes Benz. Most recently, he was named to the “Beats Elite” class along with 14 other college football players. The athletes will be featured across various marketing campaigns and wear custom Beats products.

The quarterback holds a $4.1 million On3 NIL Valuation, which ranks No. 1 in college football. With more than 1.5 million followers, Sanders has become a top-tier name for brands to partner with in NIL.

His brother, Shilo, has an On3 NIL Valuation of $546,000. The valuation ranks in the top 60 of college football. He has more than 900,000 followers and signed a long-term deal with the apparel brand Actively Black last October.