Colorado Buffaloes football coach Deion Sanders upset many program legends by retiring Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders’ jersey numbers at the Black and Gold spring game on April 19.
USA Today’s Brent Schrotenboer caught up with Darian Hagan and Chad Brown about Coach Prime’s controversial decision.
In his report, Schrotenboer revealed how Sanders ignored protocols to honor his son and his top-rated recruit.
Those protocols are the ones that make it “college” football.
“Long before the recent controversy about jersey number retirements under coach Deion Sanders, the University of Colorado had different criteria for when a player could be eligible to receive such an honor,” Schrotenboer wrote.
“A player needed to graduate from the university first, according to the criteria from the 1990s.
“But that’s not the case with Colorado two-way football star Travis Hunter or Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders, Deion’s son. Both had their jersey numbers retired April 19 but have not graduated yet, according to an athletic department spokesman.”
Coach Prime was accused of playing “Daddy Ball” in Boulder during the 2023 and 2024 seasons, and Shedeur’s jersey being retired so soon certainly supports that idea. Sanders has also called Hunter a son, too.
Through the lens of Shedeur potentially getting cut by the Browns before the 2025 season even starts, after Cleveland selected him with a fifth-round pick following a third-round selection of Dillon Gabriel, it looks even worse.
Shedeur, for his father’s sake, has to prove his greatness in the NFL to avoid more uncomfortable conversations at the University of Colorado Boulder.