Shedeur Sanders still isn’t quite sure how Texas Tech football fans are allowed to throw tortillas onto the field during games in Jones AT&T Stadium.
His father, Colorado head coach Deion Sanders, said Saturday that it could’ve been much worse. Throughout his career in football and baseball, Deion said he’s had “everything but my momma” hurled at him at one time or another. It wasn’t much of an issue with the tortillas since they’re soft, but it became more of an issue with other items.
“When they start throwing water bottles and those other objects,” Deion said, “that’s when we’ve got to alarm the officials and say, OK, tortillas are one thing, but water bottles and other things. …”
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Colorado players are used to the kind of hate targeted at them delivered by Texas Tech fans in the Buffaloes‘ 41-27 victory Saturday, their fourth win in a row on the road. In fact, safety Cam’Rom Silmon-Craig said it felt like that was the only reason the sellout crowd showed up to the game.
“I didn’t feel like they was trying to make it loud,” Silmon-Craig said. “I feel like they were just trying to throw stuff at us. It wasn’t really a game. They just wanted to trash talk us, like they didn’t know what was going on on the field. They weren’t really too engaged into the game to me.”
Narratives around Colorado cover the spectrum, which they’re not ignorant of. For players like Shedeur Sanders, they tend to go a step too far when one of those stories takes on a life of its own.
“They were even talking about CU don’t like, what is it, the flag or something?” Shedeur asked. “Come on, brother. That’s sick at this point. Y’all (are) just fishing for content at this point. That was very disturbing.”
Shedeur continued that he feels bad for people who don’t really know the Buffaloes, who see stories surrounding their program and take them as gospel.
Joey McGuire is not one of those followers. Before Colorado even joined the Big 12, the Texas Tech coach began singing the praises of the one they call Coach Prime. He has good reason, having known the Sanders family since his days coaching at Cedar Hill. There, Deion’s eldest son, Bucky, played for McGuire.
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“The one thing I was always so impressed with Deion is what kind of dad he is and what kind of dad he was,” McGuire said on Monday. “Me being a high school coach, I dealt with a lot of helicopter parents, and he is the farthest thing. … I think the world of him.”
Deion has a similar admiration for McGuire. That’s why it wasn’t a surprise to him that McGuire got on the stadium mic and pleaded with Tech fans to stop throwing non-tortilla items onto the field, saying, “He handled it professionally and that’s indicative of who he is.”
Asked later about his bond with McGuire, Deion continued to heap praise.
“Joey is pure class,” Deion said. “I look up to Joey. Back in high school in Texas at Cedar Hill, he was him. Everybody wants their kid to have the opportunity to play with Joey. He’s still one of those guys that when I have a question, I can call him. … He’s one of my favorites.”
