September 25, 2023 • 27 mins
There are entities benefiting from Deion Sanders, and people need to take notice and not take for granted how the DEION EFFECT is really affecting the landscape of a state, city, college, advertisers, college football, and many more.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Colorado. They took it on the ten this past weekend
versus the organ Ducks. It was a lot of hype
built up for the game, a lot of prognosticating, analysis
by paralysis, all kinds of things going into the game,
the coverage, the hysteria surrounding college football's hottest team and
(00:22):
hottest figure, the Colorado Buffalo's and Dion Sanders. There have
been plenty of opinions and plenty of comments that have
come about discussing the topic as a whole and specific
and in general. For me, I wanted to touch on
on this whole entire topic because I think there's something
(00:44):
that's being missed here and I just kind of wanted
to kind of impart my vantage point of how I
see this all unfolding and how it's kind of developed,
or what is just my interpretation of everything that I'm seeing.
As I mentioned on my my short all these big
wins are taking place right now. Let's talk about this.
(01:08):
Dion Sanders takes over Colorado. He talks about everything that
he's going to do, how he's going to do it.
He continues to take you on that that journey social
media wise, which by the way, he has always taken
you on journeys visually and social media wise. He even
has documentaries on on Netflix. So he has always been
(01:32):
one to give you inside access to what he does.
He enjoys giving you, guys, the entertainment value of being
able to see how Dion primetime coach Sanders coach prime time,
how he lives. He has granted that access all right.
(01:52):
Now he goes to the HBCU. He has a ton
of success, turns around a program obscure, not very successful,
and turns it into a winning program. After he was
being passed up by schools that didn't think that he
(02:14):
had enough experience or it was worth taking the risk
of giving Dion Sanders the keys to their programs, one
including his own alma mater in Florida State ends up
taking Jackson State, does a very great job. And then
you have this team, this program in Colorado that is
(02:35):
a forgotten program, program that in some cases is in shambles, desperate,
a very very desperate Colorado Buffalo football. All you really
had were you know, well, I don't know what you had.
(02:55):
You just had a fine institution, a beautiful place where
it was situated, and heroes and legends of the past,
shots out the Cordell Stoart and Michael Westbrook and Charles
Johnson and guys like that, Eric b Enemy, you know,
Darien Hagen, those type of guys. But you didn't have
(03:16):
any names that you give me right now? And it
shots out to Chad Brown too, by the way, But
give me some names right now. All right, there could
be a few. But with that being said, the program itself,
you know, nobody cares. Nobody cared about it. Here comes
Dion Sanders, after having success at Jackson State, gets his opportunity.
(03:40):
Colorado did what it took to get Dion Sanders to
come in and make the move. All right, now, with
all those things being said, all the attention, all the
hype that has taken place, I think what has happened
is this whole thing created sides. Just like how we
(04:00):
are as a society, as culturally driven, we're driven to
take sides. And with everything that has been taking place,
when Deon Sanders came to Colorado, and Deon Sanders spoke
and prophesied and said the things that he was going
to do and the things that he was going to accomplish,
and everybody started taking notice and paying attention to it.
(04:23):
You had this side, he'll be able to do it.
I believe he can do it. He's deon Sanders. You
had this side, he won't be able to do it. It
won't happen. It doesn't happen like that. Trust the process.
Get somebody who understands the process. It's just so many
different opinions on both sides, both pro and con. He
gets in there, he starts doing what he's doing, and
(04:45):
the season gets here, and the man goes in and
upset TCU. In TCU, here's a win for the pro side.
Great win. Now there's momentum. He follow that up with
another nice victory against Nebraska, a big ten team. Here
(05:07):
we go. The pros are continuing to grow pro and
grow right. The CON is over here, and while the
CON is not growing in popularity, the CON is waiting
for its opportunity. It's not about seeing what's really going on.
It's about waiting for the failure. It's not about seeing
(05:31):
how amazing the opportunity is. It's about driving home the wins.
We're not paying attention to everything that's going on that
I'm about to put you up on. We're not really
we're talking about it. We're touching on it, but we're
not really digging into it. We're looking at the pros
of Dion coaching and how this attention is coming. Wow,
(05:52):
he's off to a two and oh start. Boom, next
thing you know, he goes in and he's off to
a three and oh start. And by the way, with
that threat no start, it was a party. Everybody's getting
in on the action, everybody, television stations. I'm gonna get
to it. I'm gonna get to it. I'm gonna get
to it. I got a little bit of time because
(06:12):
I put this on the podcast, so I'm gonna take
my time and I'm gonna walk through this. Everybody's benefiting.
So now Dion gets into game four and it is
a a formidable opponent, a formidable foe in the Oregon Ducks,
and it's the big build up. This is the one,
this is the one, this is the one. It's a
step up game. Da da da da da da, And
(06:34):
coming into it, no one really knew what to think.
Everybody coming out of it can say they knew exactly
what it was that was gonna happen and how it
was gonna happen. But nobody really was sure as to
what may or may not transpire in that game. Let's
be clear about that. There was enough that was established
track record wise going into this game that would say
Colorado had a fighting chance in this game. How much
(06:56):
of a fighting chance, I don't know, but enough of
one year three and oh beat Nebraska and you beat TCU, which,
by the way, check out what TCU is doing right now.
It's pretty impressive with how their season is is since
their loss to Colorado in week one. So so, now
we come out of the game and Oregon throttles Colorado,
(07:17):
beats them down, beats them to a pope, and all
I'm hearing is now the con side goes into there.
We're feeding the beast of the cons. Here's why we
knew it? Da da da, so on and so forth.
It is it a gimmick? Is it? You know? Is
this made for TV? It's just so many different things,
(07:38):
And what we're not taking taking inventory on is how
entertaining this has been. But not only how entertaining it
has been, how brilliant it has been by Dion Sanders
to have executed what he's executing at this point in time.
Let's let's take a deep dive into for me, Hey,
(08:00):
here's my deep dive into what I believe we're not
looking at. But ultimately, here's why we shouldn't have pros
and we shouldn't have cons about Deon Sanders and what's
going on at Colorado as him being the head coach.
Here's why you don't take take sides on it because
both sides are winning. So even though you have a
(08:22):
pro side that has to go to the con side
and the conside that has to go to the pro side,
both sides are winning. If you're in the media and
you're giving an opinion on this, it's a relevant topic.
People are paying attention to it. You have a polarizing,
you know statement, you have a good take on it.
It has opportunity where people are going to pay attention
to it because of how relevant the topic is. So
(08:46):
both sides are winning. If you're talking bad about it,
people are paying attention to it because they want to
come from the pro side and condemn you for talking
on the con side. Now that Dion and Colorado's lost
the game, the conside wants to do the exact same
thing to the pros. They want to take everything that
took went wrong in a game which they would deem
their their real game or real test, and they didn't
(09:08):
pass it because they didn't win. So now you want
to shoot back all of the things that were coming
towards you in terms of why Dion wins and why
Dion has to win, and why Dion Dion Dion. But
now you're able to say, well, no, it's not Deon
and no Dion isn't that good one. Regardless you're talking
about it. There's a dialogue and people buy into it.
(09:28):
You're getting clicks, you're you're getting subscribers, you're getting follows,
You're getting all kinds of people paying attention to it.
So that would lead to you saying that you look
at the ratings, the ratings are crazy. The ratings for
the games that Dion Sanders has been a part of
are crazy, all right. So when you look at the
media and you look at the television aspect of this,
(09:50):
it has been a tremendous win for them. Let's think
about some other wins. Colorado, the state, the amount of
money that this man is generating for the state of Colorado,
not just the university, which we'll touch on the university,
but the state of Colorado is bringing in a ton
(10:12):
more revenue based off of the Deon Sanders effect at Colorado,
their university, the university itself, enrollment, sell out, crowds, sell
out hotels and sell out apparels, sell out all kinds
of stuff. Everything sold out because of Deon Sanders. A
(10:32):
game in the spring that no one really attended, nobody
really buy tickets to sold out this past spring game.
The benefits have been astronomically amazing for the University of Colorado.
It just used to be cowboy boots, cowboy hats, and
(10:55):
yeah Buffalo's Bison. Okay, Well, now you bring in Dion
Sanders and you have Little Wayne in the house. You've
brought culture. It's been a who's who on the sideline.
You've had the Wu Tang Clan. You've had too being there.
(11:17):
We just heard Warren sapp announced that he's going to
join the coaching staff. You've had multiple social media influencers
that have been on the sideline of these games. It's
turned into a celebrity hub to go to the Colorado Games.
He has opened up this school to an entirely different
(11:42):
culture that it's been used to and whether for good
or for bad. It's bigger. It's larger, which makes it
more robust, which makes it more leveragable, which makes it
more investible, which makes it more profitable. Mhm. So Colorado,
(12:04):
the university profitable, the state of Colorado profitable. Let's let's
move on down the list. The television companies, the stations
carry in the game profitable. They've they've they've been doing
the college game day shows. They're pretty much every week
(12:26):
they're parked there doing the show live there. Profitable. Okay,
let's talk about the game against Colorado State, where yeah,
I take your hat off, take your glasses off. Where
I come from a mom, dad, tell who cares one
way or the other. You could you could subscribe to
(12:47):
the thought process of coach Norval or you could not,
and you could be like, I'm with team Prime, pros
and cons. Well, the winner in that one was Blenders,
you know, the sunglasses millions in sales, like four over
four million, four point five million in sales, just based
(13:08):
off of those comments and Prime working it and monetizing
it and using it to his advantage. Big win, big
win for the for the sunglass company, Nike, Nike. When
I don't know if you guys know this. When Prime
was playing, Prime never even met Phil Night. He just
met him for the first time not too long ago
(13:29):
at the game. Just METI. They're making all of this
money off of Dion shoes and the commercials and all
these things. Never even met the man. Then there was
the conversation of the royalties and all those things associated
with the shoe that was designed and created that he
did in collaboration that he didn't feel he was compensated
fairly for. It created a friction. But you know where
(13:53):
the friction is now dead and in the grave. You
know why because you're getting wins from Don again. You're
getting wins. Nike is winning Phil Knight's company that he's
a co founder for and CEO wins for Nike KFC.
(14:13):
We eating chicken as a family, the whole family in
that joint. So let's let's transition to the Sanders name.
All this content that you're seeing, that's his son's content
company benefiting killed it, Young BUCkies killing it, killing it
in the content game. Absolutely brilliant what Bucky Sanders is
(14:37):
doing with well Off Media. Absolutely shots out to your
hats off to you. I remember when you was a
baby coming on to the now Commanders practice field as
a baby doing warm ups, dressed like your daddy when
we was practicing. Yeah, I was. That was my teammate. Brilliant.
It's just super brilliant what he's doing with the media company.
(14:59):
Now you take a step and you look at Shador Sanders,
look at his nil value. One of the most valued,
if not the highest valued player in NIL in all
of college football, at least at least in college football.
(15:20):
It's a brand. So when the brand is monetizable, and
the Sanders brand is growing, it's monetizable. So even the
rest of the family can benefit from the brand growing
the way that it is, so the family don't done it.
The Chicken company then benefited the state, the university, the
(15:44):
peril companies, the HBC used. Let's talk about the HBCUs.
HBCUs did exactly what Colorado did, and Colorado did exactly
what Jackson State did. Jackson State was death needed a kick,
a boost in the arm. They take a shot on
(16:04):
Dion Sanders. Dion comes in, knocks the buildings down, builds
a winner. Everybody loves him, but then he leaves. Now,
while some of y'all might have looked at Dion and
thought he was a sellout. He sold out. He went
to the bigger school. You're damn right. He went to
the bigger school. He had more money, he had more resources,
and he was able to do more with what he's
(16:26):
trying to get done by going to a major university
such as Colorado. All Right, y'all took him from high school.
He went from high school. He was looking the job,
seeking the job. He came to y'all. Y'all knew he
was using you for credibility. He left, y'all something valuable,
something very valuable. If you want to know what the
win is validation When you look at what is going
(16:51):
on with Deon Sanders and what he has been able
to accomplish and the little bit, the small piece of
time that he's done at the major college football level
as a head coach. All it does is says that
the people who chose to higher Jackson State or at
Jackson State, who chose the higher Dion Sanders, have a
ton of credibility now for decision making. It also validates
(17:17):
the HBCU circuit of football because now you're talking about
a guy who actually got beat in championship rounds while
he was at that school. So it validates that you
can get fine coaches from HBCU schools. It's a win.
(17:37):
The conversations that are taking place around HBCUs and their
programs and the football that's being played is now on
magnified status. It's on mega status. You know why, because
Dion made it relevant. It's a win, and I can
guarantee you those wins are two as so monetized, monetizable.
(18:03):
You build it more of a brand, You create it
more of a brand by leveraging what Dion brought to
your program. What what Dion brought to HBCU football. It's
a win. So I'm gonna wrap it up right here.
Here's where I wrap it up, and I tell you
it's it's so interesting to me that one man's willingness
(18:27):
to accept all of the liability. What do I mean
by liability. Let's go through it. If Dion Sanders doesn't work,
he put the target on on the program at Colorado,
you put put the put the target right on him.
Every single game is a big game that Dion's playing
(18:47):
and playing in because he's put the target so large
on his back and on the program's back. The whole
entire country is paying attention if it doesn't go wrong
or go right. If it does not go right, and
you gotta back up, you gotta pull back. We can't
(19:07):
keep Dion here as the coach. We got to move
on from Dion everything that could go wrong, because Dion
has been Dion in every aspect, in every fashion of
being Prime Time Dion Sanders. He alleviated the pressure of
the decision makers to bring in a Dion Sanders and
(19:31):
my humble estimation, because he put all of the attention
on him and all of it on the program. This
falls solely on me. Easy to make the decision. We're
a one win team. What do we have to lose
if it doesn't work. We did what we felt was
right because he was winning where he was at. It
(19:51):
was a nice try, it was a miss, but nonetheless
we gave a legend, an NFL Hall of Fame or
an opportunity. It didn't work. You got credibility from from
certain circles because you took the chance. How much worse
could have gotten for you? Right, But the liability falls
at the feet of one coach, Don prime Time Sanders.
(20:16):
He's shouldering it. He's shouldering that the state. They can
blame it on don you're too flashy. That's not how
we get down here. We're we're we're very we're very
blue collar. We we work, we work in the phone,
at the farms, we handle our cattle, stuff like that.
Like we're simple and we smoke a little weed. Right.
(20:42):
You can blame it on Prime kiss of goodbye. If
I'm if I'm the the TV stations, I go find
the next hottest thing. I go find the next big story.
That's how it works. If I'm the Peril company, the same.
If I'm the Chicken Company, it's the same. Everybody else
(21:03):
gets to move on to the next person. The blenders.
Hell now, they could go get whoever they want to get,
and you move on and you use somebody else to
wear your sunglasses. It's sane. You can look at it
and be like, well, it was a good run while
it while it worked out. It was a good run
while it happened. So while I understand, I do understand why,
there are pro sides that make it hard and and
(21:25):
and concides that make it hard for people to really
do their jobs. You know why it makes it really
hard to do your job because when you're talking about
Dion's everything but football in real life, I can't sit
there and say Dion Sanders and his team may struggle
or may lose because of this, because of this fraction,
this faction of people over here, I can't sit there
(21:47):
and say that, well, I knew that that Dion Sanders
was going to have success and get recruits to come
in and have an opportunity to win, because this side
over here is sitting there like a you're a Deon lover,
You're in a pologies out. They need time, they need
time before they become a team. That everybody's sitting there
(22:07):
putting that that are pro people putting Dion in Colorado
in a national championship game. Why you're not thinking logically,
you're not thinking sensibly but nonetheless because you bought into
all of the hype, you're placing him in the national
title game. All of the people that are like that's
crazy to think that, are like, we told you, you
(22:29):
just played a real team and you got your asses kicked,
Like done, what's the what's the conversation? Here's the conversation.
Dion Sanders brilliance of making you want to love him
or hate him has made them the largest story in sports,
not just in college football, in sports, it's the largest story.
(22:54):
It's monetized all these different ways. It has been monetized,
and you love it. You love to love it or
you love to hate it, but nonetheless, either way you
love it. It's brilliant, Dion, what you're doing, coach, keep
doing what you're doing. As a teammate, I'm proud. As
(23:16):
a friend, I'm proud. I watched the process in what
you built with a youth organization to high school and
doing a school, to going to another school, to ascending
to college and doing Jackson State and now Colorado. It
has been a pleasure to watch your growth as a
(23:36):
person and as a leader, and to see you put
together a plan where you built the bonds with your
coaching staff. A lot of the guys from the youth
league level on up through a long period of time.
A lot of people don't know how long your process
was to become an overnight star coaching the way that
(24:00):
you do. Some of us do. Some of us paid
attention to the process in which you took and how
you were taking your coaches on trips, how you were
doing coaches clinics and trips on your trips like I
get it, I get it now. Y'all were training, y'all
were learning, y'all were preparing, and so you were very
much further ahead than a coach that would come in
(24:24):
and try to assemble their coaching staff as they got
the job. Your coaching staff has actually been with you
and been loyal to you for a very very long time.
Maybe people don't realize that the trick was on them
if you thought that this man just was in the
studio one day recording a TV show and thought to himself, well,
I think I might coach today. I'm neon Dion, I
(24:47):
do everything great. I'm a coach today, and I'm a win.
They don't understand how you're wired. So for that, for
you taking advantage of it and showing that your process
as a player actually cakes continued to work as a coach,
and how you are able to masterfully unload so much
(25:09):
that it becomes a movement all in itself. I can't
say I've ever seen it the way you've done it.
And you've always been innovative with what you're doing, and
you've always been creative, and it's always been inspirational to
guys like me. So while that might have been a
personal moment of giving props, you still have to stop
(25:32):
and you have to look and know that Dion Sanders
made college football even more relevant than what it already was.
He made Colorado more relevant than what it was. He's
made everything associated and attached to him more relevant than
what it was. And for that, people should be appreciative
(25:55):
of what they're witnessing and seeing with Dion Sanders. Whether
you like it, whether you agree with it or you don't.
Either way, you should still be giving those props. I'm
LeVar Arrington. Make sure you follow me on up on
game and up on game presents so you can get
these movements of my reactions to things that are going
(26:17):
on in sports. So I figured I'd just start talking
it through here and giving y'all the opportunity to respond
and give me your opinions. Make sure you're on my
Instagram King of the Mammals or on Twitter at LeVar Arrington.
Just leave me your responses. You may have responses that
are different than mine, different takes than mind. All I'm
doing is coming here and giving some conversation and creating
(26:39):
a conversation. All right, y'all, enjoy. I appreciate y'all. Until
next time, I'm signing out. I'm gonna catch y'all. Stick City, Baby,
it is a place, all right. Check out two pros
and a cup of Joe too. By the way, that's
every day, weekday from early on it's three to six,
but on the East Coast it's six to nine. Your
(27:00):
boy out, all right, peace, i'ma holler at y'all.
Colorado. They took it on the ten this past weekend
versus the organ Ducks. It was a lot of hype
built up for the game, a lot of prognosticating, analysis
by paralysis, all kinds of things going into the game,
the coverage, the hysteria surrounding college football's hottest team and
(00:22):
hottest figure, the Colorado Buffalo's and Dion Sanders. There have
been plenty of opinions and plenty of comments that have
come about discussing the topic as a whole and specific
and in general. For me, I wanted to touch on
on this whole entire topic because I think there's something
(00:44):
that's being missed here and I just kind of wanted
to kind of impart my vantage point of how I
see this all unfolding and how it's kind of developed,
or what is just my interpretation of everything that I'm seeing.
As I mentioned on my my short all these big
wins are taking place right now. Let's talk about this.
(01:08):
Dion Sanders takes over Colorado. He talks about everything that
he's going to do, how he's going to do it.
He continues to take you on that that journey social
media wise, which by the way, he has always taken
you on journeys visually and social media wise. He even
has documentaries on on Netflix. So he has always been
(01:32):
one to give you inside access to what he does.
He enjoys giving you, guys, the entertainment value of being
able to see how Dion primetime coach Sanders coach prime time,
how he lives. He has granted that access all right.
(01:52):
Now he goes to the HBCU. He has a ton
of success, turns around a program obscure, not very successful,
and turns it into a winning program. After he was
being passed up by schools that didn't think that he
(02:14):
had enough experience or it was worth taking the risk
of giving Dion Sanders the keys to their programs, one
including his own alma mater in Florida State ends up
taking Jackson State, does a very great job. And then
you have this team, this program in Colorado that is
(02:35):
a forgotten program, program that in some cases is in shambles, desperate,
a very very desperate Colorado Buffalo football. All you really
had were you know, well, I don't know what you had.
(02:55):
You just had a fine institution, a beautiful place where
it was situated, and heroes and legends of the past,
shots out the Cordell Stoart and Michael Westbrook and Charles
Johnson and guys like that, Eric b Enemy, you know,
Darien Hagen, those type of guys. But you didn't have
(03:16):
any names that you give me right now? And it
shots out to Chad Brown too, by the way, But
give me some names right now. All right, there could
be a few. But with that being said, the program itself,
you know, nobody cares. Nobody cared about it. Here comes
Dion Sanders, after having success at Jackson State, gets his opportunity.
(03:40):
Colorado did what it took to get Dion Sanders to
come in and make the move. All right, now, with
all those things being said, all the attention, all the
hype that has taken place, I think what has happened
is this whole thing created sides. Just like how we
(04:00):
are as a society, as culturally driven, we're driven to
take sides. And with everything that has been taking place,
when Deon Sanders came to Colorado, and Deon Sanders spoke
and prophesied and said the things that he was going
to do and the things that he was going to accomplish,
and everybody started taking notice and paying attention to it.
(04:23):
You had this side, he'll be able to do it.
I believe he can do it. He's deon Sanders. You
had this side, he won't be able to do it. It
won't happen. It doesn't happen like that. Trust the process.
Get somebody who understands the process. It's just so many
different opinions on both sides, both pro and con. He
gets in there, he starts doing what he's doing, and
(04:45):
the season gets here, and the man goes in and
upset TCU. In TCU, here's a win for the pro side.
Great win. Now there's momentum. He follow that up with
another nice victory against Nebraska, a big ten team. Here
(05:07):
we go. The pros are continuing to grow pro and
grow right. The CON is over here, and while the
CON is not growing in popularity, the CON is waiting
for its opportunity. It's not about seeing what's really going on.
It's about waiting for the failure. It's not about seeing
(05:31):
how amazing the opportunity is. It's about driving home the wins.
We're not paying attention to everything that's going on that
I'm about to put you up on. We're not really
we're talking about it. We're touching on it, but we're
not really digging into it. We're looking at the pros
of Dion coaching and how this attention is coming. Wow,
(05:52):
he's off to a two and oh start. Boom, next
thing you know, he goes in and he's off to
a three and oh start. And by the way, with
that threat no start, it was a party. Everybody's getting
in on the action, everybody, television stations. I'm gonna get
to it. I'm gonna get to it. I'm gonna get
to it. I got a little bit of time because
(06:12):
I put this on the podcast, so I'm gonna take
my time and I'm gonna walk through this. Everybody's benefiting.
So now Dion gets into game four and it is
a a formidable opponent, a formidable foe in the Oregon Ducks,
and it's the big build up. This is the one,
this is the one, this is the one. It's a
step up game. Da da da da da da, And
(06:34):
coming into it, no one really knew what to think.
Everybody coming out of it can say they knew exactly
what it was that was gonna happen and how it
was gonna happen. But nobody really was sure as to
what may or may not transpire in that game. Let's
be clear about that. There was enough that was established
track record wise going into this game that would say
Colorado had a fighting chance in this game. How much
(06:56):
of a fighting chance, I don't know, but enough of
one year three and oh beat Nebraska and you beat TCU, which,
by the way, check out what TCU is doing right now.
It's pretty impressive with how their season is is since
their loss to Colorado in week one. So so, now
we come out of the game and Oregon throttles Colorado,
(07:17):
beats them down, beats them to a pope, and all
I'm hearing is now the con side goes into there.
We're feeding the beast of the cons. Here's why we
knew it? Da da da, so on and so forth.
It is it a gimmick? Is it? You know? Is
this made for TV? It's just so many different things,
(07:38):
And what we're not taking taking inventory on is how
entertaining this has been. But not only how entertaining it
has been, how brilliant it has been by Dion Sanders
to have executed what he's executing at this point in time.
Let's let's take a deep dive into for me, Hey,
(08:00):
here's my deep dive into what I believe we're not
looking at. But ultimately, here's why we shouldn't have pros
and we shouldn't have cons about Deon Sanders and what's
going on at Colorado as him being the head coach.
Here's why you don't take take sides on it because
both sides are winning. So even though you have a
(08:22):
pro side that has to go to the con side
and the conside that has to go to the pro side,
both sides are winning. If you're in the media and
you're giving an opinion on this, it's a relevant topic.
People are paying attention to it. You have a polarizing,
you know statement, you have a good take on it.
It has opportunity where people are going to pay attention
to it because of how relevant the topic is. So
(08:46):
both sides are winning. If you're talking bad about it,
people are paying attention to it because they want to
come from the pro side and condemn you for talking
on the con side. Now that Dion and Colorado's lost
the game, the conside wants to do the exact same
thing to the pros. They want to take everything that
took went wrong in a game which they would deem
their their real game or real test, and they didn't
(09:08):
pass it because they didn't win. So now you want
to shoot back all of the things that were coming
towards you in terms of why Dion wins and why
Dion has to win, and why Dion Dion Dion. But
now you're able to say, well, no, it's not Deon
and no Dion isn't that good one. Regardless you're talking
about it. There's a dialogue and people buy into it.
(09:28):
You're getting clicks, you're you're getting subscribers, you're getting follows,
You're getting all kinds of people paying attention to it.
So that would lead to you saying that you look
at the ratings, the ratings are crazy. The ratings for
the games that Dion Sanders has been a part of
are crazy, all right. So when you look at the
media and you look at the television aspect of this,
(09:50):
it has been a tremendous win for them. Let's think
about some other wins. Colorado, the state, the amount of
money that this man is generating for the state of Colorado,
not just the university, which we'll touch on the university,
but the state of Colorado is bringing in a ton
(10:12):
more revenue based off of the Deon Sanders effect at Colorado,
their university, the university itself, enrollment, sell out, crowds, sell
out hotels and sell out apparels, sell out all kinds
of stuff. Everything sold out because of Deon Sanders. A
(10:32):
game in the spring that no one really attended, nobody
really buy tickets to sold out this past spring game.
The benefits have been astronomically amazing for the University of Colorado.
It just used to be cowboy boots, cowboy hats, and
(10:55):
yeah Buffalo's Bison. Okay, Well, now you bring in Dion
Sanders and you have Little Wayne in the house. You've
brought culture. It's been a who's who on the sideline.
You've had the Wu Tang Clan. You've had too being there.
(11:17):
We just heard Warren sapp announced that he's going to
join the coaching staff. You've had multiple social media influencers
that have been on the sideline of these games. It's
turned into a celebrity hub to go to the Colorado Games.
He has opened up this school to an entirely different
(11:42):
culture that it's been used to and whether for good
or for bad. It's bigger. It's larger, which makes it
more robust, which makes it more leveragable, which makes it
more investible, which makes it more profitable. Mhm. So Colorado,
(12:04):
the university profitable, the state of Colorado profitable. Let's let's
move on down the list. The television companies, the stations
carry in the game profitable. They've they've they've been doing
the college game day shows. They're pretty much every week
(12:26):
they're parked there doing the show live there. Profitable. Okay,
let's talk about the game against Colorado State, where yeah,
I take your hat off, take your glasses off. Where
I come from a mom, dad, tell who cares one
way or the other. You could you could subscribe to
(12:47):
the thought process of coach Norval or you could not,
and you could be like, I'm with team Prime, pros
and cons. Well, the winner in that one was Blenders,
you know, the sunglasses millions in sales, like four over
four million, four point five million in sales, just based
(13:08):
off of those comments and Prime working it and monetizing
it and using it to his advantage. Big win, big
win for the for the sunglass company, Nike, Nike. When
I don't know if you guys know this. When Prime
was playing, Prime never even met Phil Night. He just
met him for the first time not too long ago
(13:29):
at the game. Just METI. They're making all of this
money off of Dion shoes and the commercials and all
these things. Never even met the man. Then there was
the conversation of the royalties and all those things associated
with the shoe that was designed and created that he
did in collaboration that he didn't feel he was compensated
fairly for. It created a friction. But you know where
(13:53):
the friction is now dead and in the grave. You
know why because you're getting wins from Don again. You're
getting wins. Nike is winning Phil Knight's company that he's
a co founder for and CEO wins for Nike KFC.
(14:13):
We eating chicken as a family, the whole family in
that joint. So let's let's transition to the Sanders name.
All this content that you're seeing, that's his son's content
company benefiting killed it, Young BUCkies killing it, killing it
in the content game. Absolutely brilliant what Bucky Sanders is
(14:37):
doing with well Off Media. Absolutely shots out to your
hats off to you. I remember when you was a
baby coming on to the now Commanders practice field as
a baby doing warm ups, dressed like your daddy when
we was practicing. Yeah, I was. That was my teammate. Brilliant.
It's just super brilliant what he's doing with the media company.
(14:59):
Now you take a step and you look at Shador Sanders,
look at his nil value. One of the most valued,
if not the highest valued player in NIL in all
of college football, at least at least in college football.
(15:20):
It's a brand. So when the brand is monetizable, and
the Sanders brand is growing, it's monetizable. So even the
rest of the family can benefit from the brand growing
the way that it is, so the family don't done it.
The Chicken company then benefited the state, the university, the
(15:44):
peril companies, the HBC used. Let's talk about the HBCUs.
HBCUs did exactly what Colorado did, and Colorado did exactly
what Jackson State did. Jackson State was death needed a kick,
a boost in the arm. They take a shot on
(16:04):
Dion Sanders. Dion comes in, knocks the buildings down, builds
a winner. Everybody loves him, but then he leaves. Now,
while some of y'all might have looked at Dion and
thought he was a sellout. He sold out. He went
to the bigger school. You're damn right. He went to
the bigger school. He had more money, he had more resources,
and he was able to do more with what he's
(16:26):
trying to get done by going to a major university
such as Colorado. All Right, y'all took him from high school.
He went from high school. He was looking the job,
seeking the job. He came to y'all. Y'all knew he
was using you for credibility. He left, y'all something valuable,
something very valuable. If you want to know what the
win is validation When you look at what is going
(16:51):
on with Deon Sanders and what he has been able
to accomplish and the little bit, the small piece of
time that he's done at the major college football level
as a head coach. All it does is says that
the people who chose to higher Jackson State or at
Jackson State, who chose the higher Dion Sanders, have a
ton of credibility now for decision making. It also validates
(17:17):
the HBCU circuit of football because now you're talking about
a guy who actually got beat in championship rounds while
he was at that school. So it validates that you
can get fine coaches from HBCU schools. It's a win.
(17:37):
The conversations that are taking place around HBCUs and their
programs and the football that's being played is now on
magnified status. It's on mega status. You know why, because
Dion made it relevant. It's a win, and I can
guarantee you those wins are two as so monetized, monetizable.
(18:03):
You build it more of a brand, You create it
more of a brand by leveraging what Dion brought to
your program. What what Dion brought to HBCU football. It's
a win. So I'm gonna wrap it up right here.
Here's where I wrap it up, and I tell you
it's it's so interesting to me that one man's willingness
(18:27):
to accept all of the liability. What do I mean
by liability. Let's go through it. If Dion Sanders doesn't work,
he put the target on on the program at Colorado,
you put put the put the target right on him.
Every single game is a big game that Dion's playing
(18:47):
and playing in because he's put the target so large
on his back and on the program's back. The whole
entire country is paying attention if it doesn't go wrong
or go right. If it does not go right, and
you gotta back up, you gotta pull back. We can't
(19:07):
keep Dion here as the coach. We got to move
on from Dion everything that could go wrong, because Dion
has been Dion in every aspect, in every fashion of
being Prime Time Dion Sanders. He alleviated the pressure of
the decision makers to bring in a Dion Sanders and
(19:31):
my humble estimation, because he put all of the attention
on him and all of it on the program. This
falls solely on me. Easy to make the decision. We're
a one win team. What do we have to lose
if it doesn't work. We did what we felt was
right because he was winning where he was at. It
(19:51):
was a nice try, it was a miss, but nonetheless
we gave a legend, an NFL Hall of Fame or
an opportunity. It didn't work. You got credibility from from
certain circles because you took the chance. How much worse
could have gotten for you? Right, But the liability falls
at the feet of one coach, Don prime Time Sanders.
(20:16):
He's shouldering it. He's shouldering that the state. They can
blame it on don you're too flashy. That's not how
we get down here. We're we're we're very we're very
blue collar. We we work, we work in the phone,
at the farms, we handle our cattle, stuff like that.
Like we're simple and we smoke a little weed. Right.
(20:42):
You can blame it on Prime kiss of goodbye. If
I'm if I'm the the TV stations, I go find
the next hottest thing. I go find the next big story.
That's how it works. If I'm the Peril company, the same.
If I'm the Chicken Company, it's the same. Everybody else
(21:03):
gets to move on to the next person. The blenders.
Hell now, they could go get whoever they want to get,
and you move on and you use somebody else to
wear your sunglasses. It's sane. You can look at it
and be like, well, it was a good run while
it while it worked out. It was a good run
while it happened. So while I understand, I do understand why,
there are pro sides that make it hard and and
(21:25):
and concides that make it hard for people to really
do their jobs. You know why it makes it really
hard to do your job because when you're talking about
Dion's everything but football in real life, I can't sit
there and say Dion Sanders and his team may struggle
or may lose because of this, because of this fraction,
this faction of people over here, I can't sit there
(21:47):
and say that, well, I knew that that Dion Sanders
was going to have success and get recruits to come
in and have an opportunity to win, because this side
over here is sitting there like a you're a Deon lover,
You're in a pologies out. They need time, they need
time before they become a team. That everybody's sitting there
(22:07):
putting that that are pro people putting Dion in Colorado
in a national championship game. Why you're not thinking logically,
you're not thinking sensibly but nonetheless because you bought into
all of the hype, you're placing him in the national
title game. All of the people that are like that's
crazy to think that, are like, we told you, you
(22:29):
just played a real team and you got your asses kicked,
Like done, what's the what's the conversation? Here's the conversation.
Dion Sanders brilliance of making you want to love him
or hate him has made them the largest story in sports,
not just in college football, in sports, it's the largest story.
(22:54):
It's monetized all these different ways. It has been monetized,
and you love it. You love to love it or
you love to hate it, but nonetheless, either way you
love it. It's brilliant, Dion, what you're doing, coach, keep
doing what you're doing. As a teammate, I'm proud. As
(23:16):
a friend, I'm proud. I watched the process in what
you built with a youth organization to high school and
doing a school, to going to another school, to ascending
to college and doing Jackson State and now Colorado. It
has been a pleasure to watch your growth as a
(23:36):
person and as a leader, and to see you put
together a plan where you built the bonds with your
coaching staff. A lot of the guys from the youth
league level on up through a long period of time.
A lot of people don't know how long your process
was to become an overnight star coaching the way that
(24:00):
you do. Some of us do. Some of us paid
attention to the process in which you took and how
you were taking your coaches on trips, how you were
doing coaches clinics and trips on your trips like I
get it, I get it now. Y'all were training, y'all
were learning, y'all were preparing, and so you were very
much further ahead than a coach that would come in
(24:24):
and try to assemble their coaching staff as they got
the job. Your coaching staff has actually been with you
and been loyal to you for a very very long time.
Maybe people don't realize that the trick was on them
if you thought that this man just was in the
studio one day recording a TV show and thought to himself, well,
I think I might coach today. I'm neon Dion, I
(24:47):
do everything great. I'm a coach today, and I'm a win.
They don't understand how you're wired. So for that, for
you taking advantage of it and showing that your process
as a player actually cakes continued to work as a coach,
and how you are able to masterfully unload so much
(25:09):
that it becomes a movement all in itself. I can't
say I've ever seen it the way you've done it.
And you've always been innovative with what you're doing, and
you've always been creative, and it's always been inspirational to
guys like me. So while that might have been a
personal moment of giving props, you still have to stop
(25:32):
and you have to look and know that Dion Sanders
made college football even more relevant than what it already was.
He made Colorado more relevant than what it was. He's
made everything associated and attached to him more relevant than
what it was. And for that, people should be appreciative
(25:55):
of what they're witnessing and seeing with Dion Sanders. Whether
you like it, whether you agree with it or you don't.
Either way, you should still be giving those props. I'm
LeVar Arrington. Make sure you follow me on up on
game and up on game presents so you can get
these movements of my reactions to things that are going
(26:17):
on in sports. So I figured I'd just start talking
it through here and giving y'all the opportunity to respond
and give me your opinions. Make sure you're on my
Instagram King of the Mammals or on Twitter at LeVar Arrington.
Just leave me your responses. You may have responses that
are different than mine, different takes than mind. All I'm
doing is coming here and giving some conversation and creating
(26:39):
a conversation. All right, y'all, enjoy. I appreciate y'all. Until
next time, I'm signing out. I'm gonna catch y'all. Stick City, Baby,
it is a place, all right. Check out two pros
and a cup of Joe too. By the way, that's
every day, weekday from early on it's three to six,
but on the East Coast it's six to nine. Your
(27:00):
boy out, all right, peace, i'ma holler at y'all.
Host
LaVar Arrington
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