Opinion: Whether in college or NFL, Deion is change agent football needs
There’s this thing about kickstands, they flip up as easily as they do down.
They’re inherently temporary, a steady support when needed and easily retracted when escaping.
“You know what a kickstand is? That means I’m resting,” Colorado coach Deion Sanders said earlier this week. “We ain’t going nowhere. We’re about to get comfortable.”
To this I say: who cares where Sanders coaches football in 2025? At Colorado, a college football blue blood or with the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.
We should only care that he does more.
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More Deion, more Prime. More of that unique brand and bravado to impact others outside his orbit of here and now. This is going to sound absurd, but I don’t think Deion fully comprehends the power of Prime away from the field.
Deion is the ultimate Man in the Arena. And now it’s time, in the words of Teddy Roosevelt, to dare greatly.
He’s too far into this coaching thing now. It has transcended far beyond blocking and tackling.
Two years ago, when Deion was entertaining the idea of leaving what he quickly built at Championship Subdivision school Jackson State for an Bowl Subdivision job, I said Auburn would be foolish to not hire him. He grew up in the south, was a prep legend at North Fort Myers High School in Florida and an All-American at Florida State.
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If anyone knew the south and how to recruit the talent-rich footprint, and at the very least stress Alabama and then-coach Nick Saban, it’s was Deion. More than that, he could be a change agent on the biggest stage in college football: the mighty SEC.
That’s where this story begins and ends, where the presence and full promotional might of Deion can work wonders.
If Deion were the coach at Auburn, his big, bold personality could’ve convinced – wait, willed – SEC presidents to play annual non-conference games against HBCU schools, those million dollar paydays for guarantee games alleviating financial strain for some of the 54 football-playing institutions. Maybe even allowing them to survive and thrive.
That doesn’t mean he can’t do the same at Colorado and the Big 12, even though the level of financial investment is clearly different. It doesn’t mean he can’t do much more in the NFL, where 32 of the richest, savviest businessmen and women run the most efficient, money-making sports machine on the planet.
The NFL makes $12.4 billion annually in media rights deals. Read that again: $12.4 billion.
It wouldn’t take much for a change agent to get the ear of an influential owner — I don’t know, say, Cowboys king Jerry Jones — and convince him (and by proxy, the other 31 owners) of the greater good in direct financial support of football-playing HBCUs.
Two years ago when Deion arrived at Colorado, he told USA TODAY’s Jarrett Bell that he was a “hope agent.” He has also proven, at the FBS level, that he has the coaching thing figured out.
Jackson State was a mess when Deion arrived, on and off the field. Locker room, practice field, weight room, stadium; all out of date. All changed (rehabbed or replaced) by the Prime brand and bravado.
At one point, Jackson State had sponsorship deals with Under Armour, Pepsi, American Airlines and Proctor and Gamble — a smorgasbord of American advertising.
Deion won two Southwest Athletic Conference championships at Jackson State before leaving for downtrodden Colorado, and in Year 2, is two wins from playing for a spot in the College Football Playoff and making fools of those who believed it couldn’t be done (ahem, guilty).
But this is more than Deion, the coach. The is Prime, the hope agent.
It doesn’t matter where Deion coaches in 2025. All that matters is how he affects the game on and off the field.
If Colorado does reach the CFP, Deion’s presence will loom even larger on the sport’s biggest stage, in its first 12-team playoff. It’s an advertising bonanza made in heaven.
Prime, the hope agent, can’t let that moment go to waste if he returns to Colorado — or flips the kickstand and leaves for the NFL.
He’s too far into this coaching thing to not dare greatly now.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.
