Deion Sanders Might Already Be College Football’s Biggest Diva

• Deion Sanders might already be the biggest diva in college football less than a year after taking over coaching duties at Jackson State
• The NFL legend hasn’t put his ego aside based on how he’s treating the media
• Read more about Sanders here

When you consider what Deion Sanders managed to achieve during his legendary athletic career, it’s hard to blame him for being one of the cockiest people on the planet; if I was the only person to ever score a touchdown in the NFL and hit a home run in an MLB game in the same week, I’d probably try to figure out a way to work that fact into every conversation I have until going to my grave.

Sanders used his signature charisma to pursue a successful career in broadcasting after hanging up his cleats, but last year, he decided to make his grand return to the football field when he took a job as the head coach at Jackson State.

He kicked off his college football coaching career in February with a decisive 53-0 victory that marked the start of a three-game winning streak that was followed by a slide of the same length, and the Tigers sported a fairly unremarkable 4-3 record when his inaugural season wrapped up in April (with the final win coming courtesy of a forfeit).

It wouldn’t be fair to describe his new hustle as a publicity stunt, but there’s little doubt Jackson State is loving the coverage (and revenue) its newest coach has helped generate. When you consider Sanders is the kind of guy who needs attention like the rest of us need air to breathe, you have to imagine he’s enjoying his time in the spotlight.

With that said, he still has plenty of things left to prove. When you consider he’s basically sporting a .500 record as the coach in the largely unheralded Southwestern Athletic Conference, it’s hard to imagine FBS teams are clamoring to add him to their staff. However, based on his recent behavior, the man known as “Primetime” is wasting no time establishing himself as the biggest diva college football has to offer.

On Tuesday, Sanders spoke to members of the press at SWAC Media Day—a group that was not home to the Mississippi Clarion Ledger reporter who was banned from talking to him or any members of the team after publishing an article concerning the domestic abuse charges filed against four-star recruit Quaydarius Davis.

While the Clarion Ledger‘s Nick Suss was allowed to ask him a question, things took a bizarre turn when he had the gall to refer to Sanders as “Deion,” which resulted in the coach cutting him off before essentially comparing himself to Nick Saban and abruptly walking away from the call.

https://twitter.com/UConnHasAFBTeam/status/1417681820485885956

Deion—sorry: “Coach”—attempted to clear the air after the clip began to make the rounds and all but admitted that’s exactly what happened, supplementing his explanation with a weird video that didn’t do really anything to actually address the temper tantrum.

Again, given his reputation, this shouldn’t really come as a huge shock, but he might want to wait until he actually manages to achieve a sliver of what Nick Saban has during his storied coaching career before expecting to get the same treatment.