BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Instead of chatting about how the world saw Colorado get " our butts kicked” by Nebraska, Deion Sanders opened his weekly news conference talking about the school’s fight song.
It's just the latest sign of how no topic is too remote in a program run by Sanders.
The Buffaloes coach began Tuesday by addressing the “main thing,” which was local radio station 104.3 The Fan's report that he had asked the school's band not to play the fight song at Folsom Field after a score by Shedeur Sanders so his quarterback son's theme music could run.
“Whoever reported that I told the band not to play the fight song, that’s idiotic. Y’all know that,” said Sanders, whose team travels to Colorado State on Saturday after a 28-10 loss at Nebraska last weekend. “Get the facts before you run with false narratives.”
The school issued a statement denying the report that Sanders instructed the Colorado band to refrain from playing the fight song during a 31-26 win over North Dakota State during the season opener in Boulder. The stadium briefly played other pieces of music — including for Shedeur Sanders and kicker Alejandro Mata — before the band took over.
“The fight songs ‘Glory, Glory, Colorado’ and ‘Fight CU’ have been played after CU touchdowns and field goals for years and were played every time the Buffaloes scored against North Dakota State earlier this season,” the statement said. "It’s common throughout college football for individual players to have small snippets of songs played during games.”
These sorts of reports are nothing new for Deion Sanders. He said he's used to them, but expressed concern when it drags others — he mentioned the band — into the drama.
“Oftentimes in life, we believe the first thing we hear in which we shouldn’t,” Sanders said. “I just would challenge you to be more responsible with your reporting. I never wanted to get personal. So when it gets personal, you got to really think about that. You’ve got to understand — I have a huge platform. I could really get personal if I wanted to, but I choose not to do that, because that’s not right. Some things in life are just not right.
“We were brought up to love thy neighbor as much as we can.”
Earlier this season, Sanders barred a newspaper columnist from asking questions at football-related events over what he deemed as pessimistic coverage.
On a football note, Sanders said one of his other sons and starting safety, Shilo Sanders, had surgery Sunday to fix a broken right forearm and could be back in two or three weeks.
“He woke up medicated highly, said he was going to play this week,” Sanders cracked. “But that’s just Shilo.”
In addition, an already struggling running game will likely be without tailback Dallan Hayden on Saturday. The transfer from Ohio State is banged up.
As for any sort of simmering feud with Colorado State coach Jay Norvell or Norvell's family stemming from last season, Sanders downplayed it. Colorado rallied to beat the Rams 43-35 in double overtime last season at Folsom Field.
“I had the honor and the pleasure at the Big 12 meetings to meet his wife. She's delightful,” Sanders said of Norvell. “I don't judge people based off what they say when they're emotional. I can't do that. My heart ain't built like that.”
Sanders also addressed a post on social media by Corey Phillips, the director of player personnel for the team. He wrote about hearing a racial slur as the squad left the Nebraska game Saturday.
“If they said it happened, though — when you guys say it happened, don’t it mean it happened?” Sanders quipped. “You guys said a lot of things happened that really hadn’t happened. I don’t know anything about racist, so I try to stay out of the race stuff. I don’t like to play that card until I’m dealt that hand profoundly in front of others.”
Sanders closed his news conference with a cautionary reminder.
“Remember, validate everything before you run with it,” Sanders said.
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