Deion Sanders and the University of Colorado have upset the media by ordering them not to report on open practice, or they will lose their credentials. Members of the media received this message in a rather thorough PR email.
During the Deion Sanders era, the football team previously conducted preseason workouts at Colorado in a restricted setting, with only players allowed inside. However, this year, they welcomed the public, and fans could purchase free tickets online.
However, in an email, Colorado officials explicitly forbade reporters and other attendees from reporting on anything that occurred during open practice. The school also required fans and media to hand over their phones, which they kept and returned after the practice ended.
“Nothing observed at practice may be reported, published, posted, broadcast or otherwise shared in any form, on any platform, at any time,” Colorado wrote in the email. “If you are uncertain whether something is reportable, the answer is that it is not.”
Tony Farmer, host of the Last Men Standing podcast, shared a copy of the email and wrote, “Holy crap! I’ve never seen anything like this and my sources tell me that there are non-football reasons for it.”
The rules upset many fans and media members
While the policies Deion Sanders’ football program enforced aren’t completely unprecedented in college football, they still didn’t sit well with many fans and members of the media.
“Why would you even go to practice? Just close it at that point instead of insulting everybody involved,” Jason Scheer, a senior editor at Wildcat Authority, commented.
“Just close practice. Period. And I feel like I don’t need to point out that the reasons Colorado football is struggling have nothing to do with the media covering it,” wrote sportswriter Tim Fitzgerald.
“I was in the media for almost 20 years. If I got this, I would get with my News Director, etc. and strongly consider scaling back the coverage of this program. We all had to abide by certain rules covering a team, but [this is] over the top,” a former media member wrote.
“Clown show Mickey Mouse program,” X user CFBTalkDaily commented.