Deion Sanders' Rich Privilege

CNN claims that Deion Sanders’ ‘audacious Blackness’ makes him the hero African Americans want right now.

What?

According to CNN's John Blake, White America is "threatened" by Deion Sanders' success at the University of Colorado. Why? Because the coach is Black and the team is "75%" Black.

Uh, does John Blake really not pay attention? Right now, in America's 'Power 5' football conferences, the student-athletes are 52% Black. 56% of NFL players are Black.

"Deion Sanders is destroying stereotypes against Black Coaches."

Again, the 3rd winningest college football in history is Grambling's Eddie Robinson, who retired in 1997. Mel Tucker just signed a $100 million contract to coach Michigan State last year.

John Blake's problem isn't that Black Players are overrepresented by population ratios in college, but Black Coaches are underrepresented in the college ranks. John Blake prattles on about Barack Obama not being president anymore and the days of Muhammed Ali.

But Blake's Blinders are a little more sinister in nature when it comes from a corporate news agency.

Let's create a fictional football player named John Sanders. John Sanders would be White.

John Sanders had a great career in the NFL. After 12 years, he made over $30 million in salary and over $20 million endorsing things like Milk and Paper Towels. For a decade, John was a local broadcaster and spoke at local school events as a motivational speaker.

When John's son Jack turned 18, John set aside all his other endeavors in order to coach his son. Jack Sanders had a ton of raw talent, so local Division III Baldwin Wallace hired John, and his Hall of Fame credentials, and signed Jack to a football scholarship.

Within 2 minutes of the tandem of Sanders and Sanders arriving on campus, CNN would report on John Sanders' White Privilege. How in the world could someone with Sanders' thin resume just walk on campus and get a head coaching job and then name his own son as the starter? "You know how many black-coordinators would love that BW coaching gig?" They would bemoan.

10 minutes after that, CNN would be calling Jack Sanders a "Nepo Baby."

Now if young Jack set Division III on fire and John collected victories by the armful, of course Division I schools would come a calling.

What if John and Jack continued their act at Division I's Nebraska. John says everyone at the program is welcome to leave through the transfer porthole. He's looking "corn-fed farm boys" and "fundamentally sound" players like Joe Thomas. The media would howl that John was using code words for "white." If Nebraska went from 50% Black to 80% White in one off season, reporters, like John Blake would scream RACISM from the top of their lungs.

Now the story of John Sanders, although fiction, begets a more interesting question.

Why can't Deion just be described as a good coach, not a good Black Coach? John Sanders' story was nothing more than a mirrored version of Deion. Why couldn't John Blake focus on Shedeur's rise to fame? Instead of a Black Story, Deion and Shedeur should be celebrated as a heart-warming Father-Son Story.

John Blake would describe John Sanders' success as White Privilege in action.

John Blake describes Deion Sanders' success as Audacious Blackness in action.

Now you see CNN's overarching Race Philosophy.

Fred Hunt sees 2 guys who made over $50 million in their career making sure their sons didn't sit on the bench in college. In both examples that's Rich Privilege.

And in 10 years, you'll be reading obscure articles about how Jackson State's Program was ultimately HURT by the Sanders' Era, and how the Colorado Buffalo's Program wasn't ready for Deion to leave after 2 years.

Deion Sanders in a Cowboy Hat is the phoniest thing I've ever seen. He is leveraging the Colorado job for something bigger and better.

Again, Rich Privilege in action.