WHAT ELSE? DEION, GAMBLING, ALABAMA DIRT, HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND STALIONS
College football enters an era when rules are broken as if they don’t exist — including a ban that lets Sanders ignore questions — amid issues that forget young men should be learning about life
Why bother inquiring if college football players attend classes? As a new era begins today in Ireland, where Pat McAfee was drunk during his Friday show, there is so much commotion in the circus that money-makers forget they’re educating young men. Who cares about Kamala Harris, Donald Trump and America’s teetering future? Why teach them about investments, families and complete lives?
Pay attention to Deion Sanders, who ordered a ban through his Colorado superiors against a Denver Post columnist who can’t ask him questions. So what if Deion spent his first year coddling the media and convincing prominent stations and publications that he’s taking over the craft? He’s firing back at Sean Keeler, the first indication of any coach encountering major job problems. Recently, Sanders accused the writer of “always being on the attack” and said, “What happened to get you like this? No, I’m serious. I want to help because it’s not normal.”
Well, Coach Prime is running a smuthouse in Boulder. And unlike many media in 2024, who are involved for entertainment reasons (as a Chicago Tribune columnist lamely put it), Keeler trashes a coach who went 4-8 last season. He refers to him as “Deposition Deion” and “the Bruce Lee of B.S.,’’ calling him “Planet Prime” and “the Deion Kool-Aid.” Not exactly mean stuff considering how Sanders verbally assaulted enemy coaches and demoted his own, week after week. But after his son, Shilo, filed for bankruptcy recently in a direct indictment of his father’s absence of leadership, the only recourse is to pick on a local opinionist. I’ve been through this nonprofessional nonsense with various creeps. At least Keeler has the backing of his boss, also hard to attain these days.
“It's well within anyone's right to not take questions. The reasons listed here by CU, however, are entirely subjective,” sports editor Matt Schubert said. “It would be more accurate to say, ‘We don't like Sean Keeler's critiques of our program.’ ”
It didn’t stop Colorado from announcing Friday: “After a series of sustained, personal attacks on the football program and specifically Coach Prime, the Athletic Department in conjunction with the football program have decided not to take questions from Post columnist Sean Keeler at football-related events. Keeler is still permitted to attend football-related activities as a credentialed member of the media and other reporters from the Post are welcome to ask questions of football personnel made available to the media, including coaches, players and staff.”
The next question doesn’t involve how Sanders treats Keeler. It’s how much longer he survives in Boulder. He treats certain players like dog poo and handles the transfer portal like a sleazy Tinder site. At some point, national media will take on Sanders. He must win, and for the second consecutive season, he is supposed to finish 11th and far beyond the bowl hunt in a new 16-team Big 12. If he is allowed to hush Keeler, what happens when major media names arrive to break him down?
And what happens to Aidan Chiles? He’s the Michigan State quarterback who urged fans to “take the over” when asked about the Aug. 30 opener against Florida Atlantic. No one asked him about gambling odds. Predictably, the betting market moved quickly and picked the Spartans to cover against the 47.5-point spread. His public mission only describes how the offense is performing. This led the NCAA to declare it “encourages all athletics departments to provide media training for student-athletes. However, it is the school's decision to determine the content of training sessions.”
In other words, bet away. A single sweep brought Sanders silencing a reporter and Chiles adopting a DraftKings stance. Think that’s all? Heh. Alabama has been accused by the head coach at Miami of Ohio, Chuck Martin, of “illegally” recruiting placekicker Graham Nicholson. We knew Kalen DeBoer succeeded Nick Saban. Who knew he was playing dirty with mid-range programs, including one that finished 11-3 last year and won the MAC championship?
“We didn't lose him. He's at Alabama. We know exactly where he's at. You media people, it's all pretend,” Martin said. “Like, no, Alabama stole our kicker. They illegally recruited our kicker and stole him from us. That's a fact. But we act like it's not. ... We live in this la-la-type world, like, hey, let's not talk (reality). I don't know why. Everyone knows what's going on. Alabama stole our kicker. A couple of other schools tried to steal him.”
The difficulty of succeeding Saban will wear on DeBoer. He didn’t know the crevices would develop immediately. “I don’t know anything about it,” he said. “He entered the portal and we reached out to him, that’s how it goes, right? So we did everything the way we were supposed to.”
If a coach is crooked with the portal, what about Patrick Kugler? He was Austin Peay’s co-offensive coordinator when he was arrested for human trafficking. After he resigned, athletic director Gerald Harrison said, “That kind of situation does not meet our standard, regardless of where this goes. And we want to surround our student-athletes with the best possible people. We’ve turned the page.”
Unable to find a notebook is Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz, who will sit out the opener against Illinois State. His staff made impermissible conduct with quarterback Cade McNamara, who left Michigan in December of the 2022 season. The school suspended Ferentz and wide receivers coach Jon Budmayr for a game. Even when Ferentz’s father died in 2004, he coached. “I know some coaches missed during COVID, but this will be a first-time experience,” he said. “I’ve been away from the team during game week. That was unusual, but I guess if there’s a lesson learned going back 20-some years ago, our team just did a great job, staff did a great job, players did a great job. So, it’s hard to be away.”
Oh, there’s more. Remember Connor Stalions? He fled Michigan after illegal scouting missions led to punishment for former coach Jim Harbaugh and new coach Sherrone Moore. He landed a volunteer position at Detroit’s Mumford High, which has lost 16 of its last 18 games, but not until Berkley High rejected him. Referring to a Netflix show called “Sign Stealer,” which features him starting next week, Stalions told the school, “Legally, I cannot get into the details, but I have great news! While I understand what has come with my name over the last five months, very soon the media, the NCAA and all the misinformation about the entire NCAA ‘investigation’ is going to be exposed. I’m excited that Berkley schools will have the opportunity to be nationally portrayed in a positive light in this story.”
He was ignored by the school district. Mumford’s William McMichael called Stalions “the most hated man in college football’ and said he’s “getting bombarded.” How does he take a free role when Netflix refers to his program as “told directly by viral villain Connor Stalions, who forever changed college football” last year?
Because the sport is a farce, that’s why. We can’t even launch the season without Sanders declaring war on the media, a Michigan State quarterback tapping the spread, a Miami of Ohio coach accusing DeBoer of cheating, Ferentz accepting a suspension and Stalions bringing his “skills” to a high-school position. Should I mention how Saban motivated Alabama on ESPN by picking Georgia or Texas to win the Southeastern Conference, not the ethical purpose of any studio analyst?
No wonder McAfee was blitzed in Dublin. Welcome to a season requiring liquor in a genre of shams. Give me a big taste of the keg.
###
Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.