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Deion Sanders Asks Reporters Not Refer to Him by His First Name at SWAC Media Day

Deion Sanders told reporters to not refer to him by his first name and added "you don't call Nick Saban, 'Nick.' Don't call me Deion."

Joseph Salvador

Deion Sanders Asks Reporters Not Refer to Him by His First Name at SWAC Media Day
Deion Sanders Asks Reporters Not Refer to Him by His First Name at SWAC Media Day /

Jackson State head coach Deion Sanders took issue with when a reporter referred to him by his first name during SWAC Media Day on Tuesday. 

Sanders, who finished 4–3 in his first season as a head coach, asked that reporters not refer to him by his first name after he was called Deion by the Clarion Ledger's Nick Suss. 

"You don't call Nick Saban, 'Nick.' Don't call me Deion," Sanders told Suss, per the Clarion Ledger's Langston Newsome. "If you call Nick (Saban), Nick, you'll get cussed out on the spot, so don't do that to me. Treat me like Nick."

The Clarion Ledger reported that Sanders walked out of a SWAC Media Day event after he was referred to by his first name a second time. But Sanders addressed the situation later that day via Twitter. 

"Never walked out of media day," Sanders said in a Tweet. "I prolonged my time to answer another question and the person thought it was cute to address me the way he did so I dropped the call and went to the next outlet."

Following the Tweet, Sanders posted a video of the interaction on Instagram that features Sanders taking off his headset while on a video call and walking off. He also added the song Walk It Out at the end of the video.

Suss mainly covers Ole Miss but crosses over several beats from time to time. This was his second time covering Sanders at SWAC Media Day, per the Clarion Ledger.

"When I interview people, I call them by their first name," Suss said. "Whether it's someone I've been working with for years or someone I'm talking to for the first time. This is true of the coaches and players on the Ole Miss beat, the coaches and players at Mississippi State and Southern Miss when I help out covering their teams and, as recently as January, even Sanders, too."

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