Deion Sanders was just kidding.
The Colorado Buffaloes coach told reporters on Tuesday that he actually would not be willing pay them or any of their colleagues to refrain from covering him, despite what a close associate of his said during a livestream days earlier.
“Oh, no, no, no. I think you misinterpreted that,” Sanders said. “That was a joke. That’s what we were saying, like, some people live on your name.”
YouTube host and documentary maker Christopher Neely brought up the topic on Saturday during a livestream on “Thee Pregame Network.” A longtime videographer for Sanders, Neely mentioned that some members of the media seem to thrive off of negative coverage of Coach Prime.
“For the most part, the people that attack him wouldn’t be making the money they were making if he wasn’t here to attack,” Neely said, “which is why he told some of them, ‘Hey man, let’s just do this. I’ll give you $50,000 to not mention my name for a year.’ And ain’t nobody took the deal yet.”
Neely added: “You love talking about this man so much, and you make so much talking about this man that you turn the deal down. That’s what we’re dealing with.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Neely addressed the matter on “TMR Live,” the daily livestream he co-hosts with BiggDogg Chico. Neely clarified that Sanders made the so-called offer while joking around on the show in May and hadn’t actually floated the idea to actual media members.
“This was clearly a tongue-in-cheek, joking example to prove a point that there’s so many people who are negative toward us and they’re making so much money being negative toward us that even if I offered them what they were making or more, they still wouldn’t stop,” said Neely, who played the clip of a smiling Sanders making the comment in the spring.
“All I did this weekend was say, hey, by the way, ain’t nobody still reached out to Coach Prime and say, ‘Hey, give me that 50, I’ll stop talking about you.’ And then what do they do? ‘Neely says Coach Prime’s feelings are hurt and he wants to pay people to not talk about him.’
Neely added: “He was clearly playing. Do you think this man with all he’s worth and been through and been talked about since he first caught a ball that he would literally pay somebody in Colorado to stop talking about him? He’s got better ways to blow $50,000.”
Although amused by the notion, Sanders made it clear that reporters aren’t going to get a dime from him.
“I would never offer a man money not to say — I don’t give a darn what you say about me,” Sanders said. “That was really a joke about someone who is prospering off of your name and your brand but they don’t like you.”
A two-time Super Bowl champion, one-time NFL defensive player of the year and a 2011 inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Sanders became Colorado’s head coach in 2023. Since then, the Buffaloes have gone 18-26, including a 9-4 effort from a 2024 roster that including his son Shedeur Sanders (now with the Cleveland Browns) and Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter (now with the Jacksonville Jaguars).
The team is 2-5 and 0-4 in the Big 12 Conference this year. It hosts conference foe Kansas State (4-3, 1-3) on Saturday.
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