Colorado coach Deion Sanders explains social media comments: ‘I was bored’

Colorado Football coach Deion Sanders explained his controversial comments on social media last week, saying he needed to do better but was bored, meant no harm and was misunderstood in one case.

Sanders made two comments last week on social media that garnered more than 37 million combined views on X, formerly Twitter, while also generating commentary on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” and Fox Sports’ “Undisputed” about whether his conduct was appropriate .

“I have to do better at this and not move on, but I was bored,” Sanders said in an interview published over the weekend in Pre-game show, one of Sanders’ favorite YouTube channels. “I was bored and didn’t say anything hurtful. I don’t attack people.”

What was Deion Sanders’ explanation?

In one case, Sanders said he was defending his quarterback son, Shedeur. One person on

Sanders replied that Wednesday in front of her 1.8 million followers.

“He will be a top-5 pick,” wrote Sanders, whose team finished 4-8 in his freshman year last year. “Where is your son going? Lol today I have time. Hahahaha.”

Deion Sanders was unapologetic about that comment, saying “that was real” in the interview published over the weekend. Shedeur Sanders is expected to be a first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.

Was what he said misinterpreted?

In the other case, Sanders appeared to be amused by a derogatory comment made by someone else (not Deion Sanders) to a player at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee named Jaheim Ward.

“Jesus Law”, Sanders wrote in response on Wednesday.

Sanders said he did not intend to ridicule Ward, but was following the verbal exchange on social media after Ward mocked the statistical production of Colorado receiver Kaleb Mathis.

“Dude you had 38 yards last year, stop trying to tackle someone,” Ward wrote to Mathis on the X.

Another group then stepped in to defend Mathis and posted Ward’s own 2023 stats, which included just eight solo tackles.

“Dude, sit down,” the Colorado fan wrote when posting Ward’s stats.

It was then that Sanders intervened and responded to the last comment with “Lawd Jesus.”

He explained this in the recent interview.

“I try my best to hold back, but like when you posted stats, I said, ‘Lei Jesus,’ like, damn, he actually went at him, like he actually shot him,” Deion Sanders said in the interview. what I meant, and I think that was misconstrued. I think that was pushed aside or something else.”

What triggered all this?

An article in The Athletic last week revisited how Sanders reshaped his roster last year after inheriting a 1-11 2022 team. One of the many Colorado players Sanders effectively ran away from was Xavier Smith, who transferred to Austin Peay and was quoted in the article criticizing how Sanders handled the situation . He said Sanders was “destroying young men’s confidence and belief in themselves.”

Shedeur Sanders came to his father’s defense on X, saying he didn’t remember Smith and that “the brother had to be very average (average) at best.”

Mathis also attacked Smith on the X, prompting Austin Peay’s Ward to defend his own teammate.

Deion Sanders said he didn’t understand why the article was revisiting it a year later with Smith, who he said he barely remembers.

“You’re going to find someone to talk bad about us who isn’t with us — why aren’t you talking about the team you’re with or getting ready to go?” Deion Sanders asked on intraview. “Because we?”

Sanders said he never said anything bad on the field as a player. “But every once in a while I want to play, you know, and then I get petty, you know, every once in a while,” Deion Sanders said.

He said he is used to the outside noise.

“I don’t lose sleep over this,” he said in the interview. “I could have had a tumultuous day in the eyes of others, but for me it was a good day. Because you know why? They talking. They talking. They talking.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

This article originally appeared in USA TODAY: Deion Sanders explains social media posts in defense of Shedeur