Colorado safety Shilo Sanders, the son of Deion Sanders, is the CEO of the “Headache Gang.” His self-proclaimed title is as self-explanatory as it sounds.
Sanders wants to cause the opposing teams headaches with his play on the field.
That is meant in both a literal and figurative sense. He wants to be a nuisance for the opposing offense and he wants to crack skulls. Sanders often lays the lumber.
This will be the 24-year-old’s final year of college football. He picked up right where he left off.
However, a recent collision was not the best look for Sanders.
Freshman running back Micah Welch caught the ball in the flat. The Buffs defense wrapped him up.
A whistle was very clearly audible as Welch pulled up and scampered out of bounds. You can hear it blow the play dead 10 times. Sanders either did not, or chose to ignore it.
He continued to get downfield and laid a vicious hit on Welch.
There is no way to see it as anything other than a late hit. Sanders was late. It was after the whistle.
Upon further review, the hit also may have been targeting— which is something that followed Sanders on a few different occasions last season. Helmet-to-helmet contact occurred.
All-in-all, the Headache Gang CEO did what he sets out to do. However, for Sanders to be taking out a teammate with a late hit during spring practice is worthy of an eyebrow raise.
Should that be happening? Was it really necessary?
Sanders should have adhered to the whistle. He could have continued downfield to tackle the ball-carrier and get a rep in without taking him out in such a violent manner after the play was already over.
If a similar play was to occur during a real game, Shilo Sanders would have been flagged.