SI

Kudos to Paul Finebaum for Calling Out Deion Sanders

ESPN’s Paul Finebaum rips the Colorado coach for refusing to answer questions from a Denver Post reporter.

Jimmy Traina

ESPN's Paul Finebaum takes aim at Deoin Sanders.
ESPN's Paul Finebaum takes aim at Deoin Sanders. / Ken Ruinard / staff, The Greenville News via Imagn Content Services, LLC
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1. Based on the coverage the media gave Colorado last season, you would’ve believed Deion Sanders and the Buffaloes won the national title. The reality is Colorado went 4–8.

The way Sanders talks, you also would’ve believed the Buffaloes won the national title. Colorado went didn’t even make a bowl game.

While the perception is that Sanders has turned Colorado around, the reality is they were 4–8 and finished 1–7. And maybe reality is too much for the head coach to take because he just pulled quite a bush league move.

Sanders will no longer take any questions from Denver Post columnist Sean Keeler.

According to the Denver Post, Colorado officials cited “a series of sustained, personal attacks” in Keeler’s coverage of the football program as the reason for the freeze out.

From the Post: “When asked for specific examples of how Keeler personally attacked Sanders and the program, a sports information staffer cited his use of phrases such as ‘false prophet,’ ‘Deposition Deion,’ ‘Planet Prime,’ ‘Bruce Lee of B.S.’, ‘the Deion Kool-Aid’ and ‘circus.’”

This is a classic case of can dish it out, but can’t take it. While “Deposition Deion” may be a little harsh, Sanders has to have thicker skin than this. Sanders loves to chirp, but now he can’t handle someone else chirping? This is also a terrible look for Sanders if he indeed does have NFL aspirations. Nonsense like this won’t fly in the NFL.

Since Sanders got a free pass from most in the media last season, it was refreshing to see ESPN’s Paul Finebaum speak the truth about this situation on Monday’s Get Up.

“Coach Prime is showing he is not ready for Prime Time,” said Finebaum. “I find this whole thing to be disgraceful. Deion may want to talk about love and joy and that’s been the cornerstone of what he seems to be spewing out, but treating reporters like this seems like we’re in some autocratic country. This is not America. And the fact that it’s in his contract is even more absurd. But don’t forget, he did this at Jackson State. This is a trait of Deion Sanders. He wants to have it his way. I find him to be a bully and a hypocrite and quite frankly, as someone who has been a fan of his throughout his entire career, even at Colorado, I am mortified by his actions.”

Who knows how Deion will react to Finebaum’s dead-on assessment, but kudos to the longtime college football analyst for not being afraid of Sanders and for speaking the truth.

2. The Chargers were in Dallas this weekend for a preseason game with the Cowboys. At their hotel on Friday, several Chargers players were stuck in an elevator for two hours.

As I’ve said a billion times in this column, football coaches are some of the weirdest people on the planet. So, naturally, Los Angeles head coach Jim Harbaugh was bummed he was not one of the people stuck in the elevator.

3. Here’s a plot twist for you.

4. Of course, the sportsbooks got off to a strong start on Saturday while the public took a bath.

5. I don’t know anything about EA's Madden NFL, so I don’t know what he’s talking about here, but I would imagine the folks behind the video game got totally rattled seeing LeBron James take his complaints about the game public.

6. The latest episode of SI Media With Jimmy Traina features a conversation with ESPN College GameDay panelist and Thursday Night Football analyst, Kirk Herbstreit.

Herbstreit discusses getting used to the grind of doing college football on Saturday and the NFL on Thursdays, what his in-season schedule is like and if he sees himself continuing with both gigs.

Other topics covered with Herbstreit include what it’s like to work with Al Michales on Amazon Prime and the backlash Michaels received last season, what Pat McAfee brings to College GameDay and how McAfee made Herbstreit reassess whether he wanted to stay with the show, the massive changes across the college football landscape, and how the expanded playoff will affect the regular season.

Herbstreit also addresses Ryan Leaf’s recent attack against him, and whether ESPN has ever confronted Herbstreit about tweets or podcast appearances.

Following Herbstreit, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week's topics include a big change to NFL Sunday Ticket, NFL betting, a new Sopranos docuseries and much more.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated‘s YouTube channel.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Since we started with Deion Sanders, I thought this would be a good day to remember this incident.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram.

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Jimmy Traina

JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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