The Colorado Buffaloes and head coach Deion Sanders saw their undefeated season come to a halt in a 42-6 blowout loss against the Oregon Ducks on Saturday, resulting in criticism and disparagement thrown in the direction of the team. The team was already dealing with an injury to star two-way player Travis Hunter, and Oregon entered the contest motivated to beat the story of the college football season, who head coach Dan Lanning claims are playing for clout and fame.
ESPN and FOX Sports have sent their signature sports programming to the university’s campus in Boulder, Colo. and split telecasts of the team’s first four matchups. In watching the team lose by a significant margin, fans took to social media to declare the end of the team’s storybook, phantasmagoric run. Sanders, however, still believes in his team and implored people to speak on the team now while they can.
“You better get me right now,” Sanders said during his postgame press conference. “This is the worst we’re going to be. You better get me right now.”
“Better get ‘me’ right now,” replied WFAN host Boomer Esiason on Monday morning. “It’s always about me, me, me, me, me.”
Esiason’s co-host Gregg Giannotti enjoyed the Colorado loss and believes that it will happen again in Week 5 against the USC Trojans. Additionally, he reminded the listeners that he had predicted the downfall of “Coach Prime” with the schedule facing the team. The next matchup has implications on the progress of the Colorado football program, along with the team’s hopes to qualify for a spot in the College Football Playoff (CFP). Twelve teams will qualify for the CFP when it expands next season, alleviating some pressure to finish with an undefeated record. Even though Giannotti was elated to see Colorado lose to Oregon in this manner, he did appreciate the way Sanders handled himself with the media.
“I’ll give him credit because the P.R. guy or the SID or [whomever] tried to end the press conference and he said, ‘No,'” Giannotti remarked.
“I watch these now every week,” replied WFAN anchor Jerry Recco. “He’ll say, ‘One more,’ and then before [Sanders] gets up, he’s like, ‘Anybody else need anything?,’ and then he’ll sit there for another five minutes.”
Esiason, being a former NFL quarterback, understands that Sanders is trying to elevate his own reputation and the University of Colorado Boulder itself. As a result, it is in his best interest to be accountable and accessible to media members looking for his perspectives or to interview him about the program. Sanders has already been on First Take and The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN, and has dominated discussion on studio programming across the sports media landscape.
“He’s promoting his brand, their brand and he’s doing it in the right way and doing it legally,” Esiason said. “In other words, if he were doing this five years ago, everybody would have a problem with it, but right now, it’s all legal to do it.”
The U.S. Supreme Court paved the way for college athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness in a ruling on National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston (2021), claiming that limiting education-related benefits violates federal antitrust law. States then passed and/or amended individual laws regarding the practice as a reserved power, which could supersede rulings from the institutions themselves. Various college athletes have inked lucrative contracts with different types of brands to supplement their athletic prowess and position themselves for steady futures.
“If you are a kid sitting at home or let’s say you’re playing at Alabama right now; you’re playing at Georgia [or] you’re playing at Auburn, and Deion calls you up and says, ‘Hey, we’ll take you here and give you $150,000,’ how do you say ‘No’ to that?,” Esiason said.
