Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes began fall camp last week with a new look that created questions, so we here at Denver7 Sports launched a very important investigation into why the Buffs are wearing social media handles on the back of their practice jerseys.
“I can’t honestly answer that question,” Shedeur Sanders, CU’s junior starting quarterback and the son of head coach Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders said. “You’ll have to ask [Coach Prime] or the equipment staff about that.”
And just like that, the investigation was off to a rousing start.
But a little research showed the 'wearing of handles’ was first put into practice while Coach Prime was in charge at Jackson State University.
So, we took Shedeur’s advice and went straight to the source, asking Coach Prime why they’re wearing their Instagram tags during practice.
“Everybody wants to be noticed,” Sanders responded. “Everybody wants to be followed, everybody wants to be that person, so why not help them.”
From there, we tracked down Buffs offensive coordinator Sean Lewis to get his take on the uniform change.
“It’s awesome,” Lewis said. “Give the guys an opportunity to build their brand and I think it’s an outstanding job by [Coach Prime] to think outside the box and offer that unique perspective and that vehicle so it’s out there, it’s for the guys, and they’re able to get that identity. That’s really cool.”
However, with Deion Sanders everything tends to have a deeper meaning. The man is constantly playing chess while we’re all playing checkers.
“Anybody in here don’t want more followers?” Asks the man who’s amassed more than 3.4 million followers on Instagram to a room full of reporters who, combined, perhaps would scrape together 10K. “Why do you get on social? You want more followers, right? So why don’t I help them? That’s my obligation to my team. I help them.”
The autonomy created by letting these guys wear their social media handles strikes at the heart of what this new Buffs culture is all about.
“We got to get to know these young men, they’re helping us win. We have to get to know them and understand who they are.”
Sanders’ coaching doctrine focuses on the man behind the face mask. His ethos is empathy. Understanding the humans that wear black and gold is more important than any game plan.
“Wherever we’re from, the journeys that have taken us here, it makes us who we are,” Coach Lewis said. “We’re chasing degrees and we’re helping these guys grow as young men and we’re chasing results, but ultimately when you strip everything away the individuals and humans in this great organization need to be right because it’s a human system. Getting to know those individuals, building relationships with them, knowing what their handles are, that’s all part of the individual and what makes them tick. If it’s important to them, it needs to be important to us.”
The beauty of this Buffs organization is that the coaching staff does the philosophizing so that the players can focus on football.
“I’m not really focused on what’s on the back of my jersey,” Shedeur Sanders said, who’s set to take over quarterbacking duties for Colorado. “I’m focused on what’s on the front of my jersey, Colorado and representing.”
Deion Sanders is old school in a lot of ways, but not this one. And he may yet have a few tricks up his sleeves.
“I wish we could [wear our social media handles] in a game,” Coach Prime said, totally serious.
