Coach Prime to the haters: "How you like me Now?"

“How you like me now?” Deion Sanders (below), shouting the popular Kool Moe Dee lyrics to a hostile crowd after a 70 yard punt return at Clemson back in 1988…

So, I know that I talk about racism and race relations quite a bit in my posts, and there are myriad reasons for that which can be rolled into one major heading: "race still matters!"

Race doesn't matter because I wish it to, it matters because from the moment that the first boat of stolen Africans arrived to be enslaved on plantations until today, the American colonies and eventual United (and Confederate) States have had race as THE central focus of the "bad" and "horrifically ugly" for over 350 of its 400 some odd years. 

Coach Deion “Primetime” Sanders meets the press after his 20 point underdog Colorado Buffaloes beat #17 Texas Christian 45-42

Such is why I was not shocked, mind you, when Deion Sanders, one of the greatest athletes of the past half century; a first ballot NFL Hall of Fame inductee, a World Series and Super Bowl champion, and a talented sportscaster before diving into coaching from the youth levels all the way to the collegiate ranks, has been hit with ALL sorts of overt and subtly racist attacks from fellow coaches, sports fans, sportscasters, and self styled "experts" who doubted (and still doubt) his ability to coach big time football. 

Mike Farrell is one of many popular sports pundits who were proven wrong about Coach Sanders last weekend…

I do not mean to suggest that everyone who dislikes or questions Deion Sanders does so because he is a Black man—I happen to even know Black people who, like my late father Charles Hobbs, did not like the "Primetime" persona during Sanders' playing days because he (and they) thought that he was too bold, too brash, and lacked "humility" on the playing fields and in post-game interviews. 

But my dad would balance the equation, so to speak, by adding that he loved Sanders’ talent, but feared that the "Primetime" persona would be deemed "uppity" by a white dominated culture that had always dealt with bold, brash, and confident Black men harshly, be it whippings, incarcerations, or brutal lynchings during slavery and Jim Crow—the latter of which ONLY ended "officially" with President Lyndon Johnson signing the Fair Housing Act of 1968—when dad was a 28-year old Army Captain fighting in Vietnam. 

Now, my dad and his ilk's fears for Deion Sanders back in the 80's and 90's never came to fruition because to keep it real, during that time period, so long as a Black man could entertain by their talents in athletics and stayed out of criminal trouble, they were relatively "safe." 

But even back in the late 20th Century, it was crystal clear to me that as salaries grew larger in the major revenue sports of football, basketball, and baseball, and as those sports grew more and more dominated by Black (🏈/🏀) and Latin American players (⚾), that the white owners on the professional levels, and the white athletics directors and coaches on the major college levels, were still ready, willing, and able to inject racism into the equation in so many ways. 

How?

When you learn that Deion Sanders was actually a star high school quarterback and defensive back who was moved exclusively to defensive back upon arrival at Florida State University in 1985, you realize that he was treated the same way that his new NFL Hall of Fame brother, FAMU legend Ken Riley, was treated when he was moved to defensive back in 1969 by the Cincinnati Bengals after a stellar career at quarterback for Coach Jake Gaither.

Before his NFL Hall of Fame career as cornerback, FAMU legend Ken Riley, Sr. was a star quarterback for the Rattlers…

The reason for those moves was race, and the fact that the quarterback position was always considered to be the primary role for the "smart," "heady," "cerebral" white boy or man because from time immemorial, racism in America held that Black men were brutish beasts of burden, first and foremost—not thinkers, gentlemen, scholars, or leaders!

Sanders, like Bo Jackson before him, starred in both professional baseball and football during his playing days…

Those of us who were born in the 60’s/70's and grew up in the 80's understand clearly why no matter where our sports allegiances may have rested, that we still instinctively cheered for Doug Williams when he was playing for Tampa Bay and winning a Super Bowl for Washington because he was a true pioneer along the same lines as Jack Johnson in boxing, or Jackie Robinson in baseball—death threats and vile letters laced with the “N-word” and all!

Doug Williams won a Super Bowl only a few years after some racist idiot in Tampa mailed him a gift box filled with rotten watermelons…

We supported Warren Moon and Randall Cunningham because they were the "lonely onlies" for many years not because Black players couldn't play the quarterback position, but because white coaches and management wouldn't ALLOW them to play the position in the college or professional ranks!

And it didn't matter whether you were "brash" like my dad called Sanders, because even when the sublimely gifted and extremely humble Charlie Ward got his chance to star at quarterback for Florida State in the early 90’s, it didn't matter that his arm talent was rated as good as then future NFL Hall of Famer Joe Montana's by many scouts, or that his ability to run was rated better than that of then future NFL Hall of Famer Steve Young, when Ward—a star in both football and basketball—told scouts that he would choose basketball if he wasn't selected in the first round of the NFL Draft in 1994, seven whole rounds passed that year without one NFL team selecting the 1993 Heisman Trophy winner!

Charlie Ward was passed over by the NFL Draft in April of ‘94, but was a first round pick of the New York Knicks two months later in June…

What remains bitter to me about the Ward snub is that less than a decade earlier, Stanford quarterback John Elway, a future NFL Hall of Famer himself, let it be known that he would choose major league baseball and the New York Yankees if the Baltimore Colts selected him—but he was STILL selected in the first round of the NFL Draft after the Denver Broncos worked out a deal with the Colts!

Elway at Stanford University circa ‘83

Elway was considered "shrewd" and "confident" by the sports pundits, not "cocky" or "arrogant" as Ward, one of the most humble human beings I've ever personally known, was deemed by some detractors back in '94. 

Now, if you've read this far and are saying to yourself, "ok, Hobbs, I get what you're saying but that's ancient history because there are Black quarterbacks playing all over America in college and the pros," I counter by noting that while there has been progress on that front, that there are still so many more miles to trod towards removing racism from the sporting world—specifically within the coaching, management, and ownership ranks. 

Go ahead and pick a major revenue professional sport, and I will show you one DOMINATED by white ownership and management, with Black majority owners like Bob Johnson and Michael Jordan (Charlotte Bobcats) being as rare as the Blue Moon that was in the heavens just last week.

Pro franchise ownership by Black men, like the above depicted Bob Johnson and Michael Jordan, is more rare than a bloody steak…

Pick a major college sport, and I will show you one that's dominated by white athletics directors, coaches, and college presidents. This is the case NOT because there aren't Black billionaires or sporting professionals who are talented enough for the jobs, but because that original form of affirmative action, the one more commonly known as the "good ol' boy system," ensures that the overwhelming majority of those who make the most money—and the most decisions—are white men (and women)!

My last point captures the heart of today's matter, which is that over the past several years, I have watched, listened to, and read comments from thousands of sports journalists, former players, and every Tom, Dick, and Bubba on social media trashing Deion Sanders after he let it be known that he was ready to coach at the collegiate level. 

I have listened as men and women who never put on a pair of football pads in their lives CLOWNED Deion's ambition to coach at his football alma mater, Florida State. 

I have listened as the same doubters CLOWNED Jackson State University for naming Deion Sanders as head coach of its football program in 2020 and after he proved successful at J-State, I observed how they CLOWNED his record by saying that the only reason he won 27 games and only lost six was because he was playing an "inferior" level of HBCU ball. 

While I had hoped that Coach Sanders would stay at Jackson State and build a new HBCU dynasty, I wrote in this very blog last December that I understood the allure of a $4.5 million dollar raise and the challenge of resurrecting a University of Colorado program that won only one game last year—while losing 11. I also understood (and still understand) the competitive part of Sanders that wanted to see how his coaching skills stacked up against the supposed "greats" at the FBS level, and whether his son Shedeur, a talented quarterback just as his father had once been in the 80's, could dominate the highest level of college football the same way he dominated HBCU level teams during his freshman and sophomore years. 

Now, the scheduling gods granted Coach Sanders no favors, mind you, as his first game was slated against the defending national runners-up, Texas Christian University. In anticipation of what many prematurely concluded would be an easy win for TCU, I observed all off-season as the doubters didn't just cast doubt, but they rolled out the old racist tropes about Coach Sanders "lacking intelligence" or being "way in over his head”— and far worse and profane words that aren't worth mentioning in today's piece. 

Such is why I could hardly wait for last weekend to arrive as I knew that Sanders had brought in tons of talent from Jackson State, his “Louis (Vuitton) luggage” as he called it, and that he spent the entire winter and spring in the transfer portal enticing all sorts of major and small college talent to join him at Colorado. I knew that no matter how much the "experts" said that his roster was "trash" and that the "culture" would lack "chemistry," all that I knew in the back of my mind was that Sanders had been a winner everywhere he had gone and that while there would be some lumps, that the idea that this year's Colorado team would be exponentially worse than last year's 1-11 squad was patently absurd. 

Well, my instincts were right, as Coach Sanders and his team served notice that he and they are not to be underestimated this year—and in years to come—with a 45-42 victory over TCU last Saturday. His now Heisman Trophy candidate son, Shedeur Sanders, said it best after throwing for a Colorado record 510 yards and four touchdowns, "I didn't throw for that many yard against HBCU's."

Indeed, young man, indeed...

Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders scrambling for yard against TCU

Now, today's post was written not with any grandiose thoughts of winning converts among the racists in America—I know that most lack the discipline or desire to read pieces like mine, or the care to change their foolish, racist assumptions about the talents and abilities of Black coaches like Deion Sanders. 

No, I write this post because Sanders, in many ways, is like so many millions of Black professionals across the country who are used to being doubted, underestimated, and ultimately discriminated against due to "assumptions" about their skills and abilities. It reminds me of the time over two decades ago after I won an attempted murder trial and one of my friendly new white colleagues, after watching my closing arguments, casually said in the hallway that she was "pleasantly surprised by how articulate and convincing" I was in my closing argument. I cocked my head sideways and asked her sarcastically, "well, what did you expect from the son of a college English professor who minored in English himself at Morehouse College?" She turned red...and never responded...but she didn't have to respond, because while I already knew that she was far from a KKK type of race hater, I still knew that she was still vexed by her own latent racial biases—biases that place Blacks into certain boxes until we break out of those boxes due to God given talent and sheer will.

Well, Coach Sanders broke out of the proverbial box this past weekend, and while he will win and lose some games for the rest of his coaching career, his resounding success against a team that was just one game away from being champs last year has opened the door for more talented Black coaches to follow in his footsteps in the years ahead!