Getty Image
Deion Sanders and the University of Colorado Buffaloes narrowly escaped a disastrous start to their season on Thursday night as they narrowly avoided defeat to FCS school North Dakota State (at home, no less).
Trailing the North Dakota State Bison at halftime, the University of Colorado would ultimately escape with a 31-26 victory, preventing their season from unraveling before it even really began.
During the game, plenty of college football fans were rooting for Deion Sanders and Colorado to lose, which prompted recently-fired ESPN analyst and former Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III to suggest that people were rooting against them “for the wrong reasons.”
So many people want Colorado to lose for all the wrong reasons.
— Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) August 30, 2024
Barstool Sports personality and former NFL linebacker Will Compton was quick to respond to RGIII, brushing off Griffin’s concerns by simply saying “And so it begins…”
And so it begins.. https://t.co/03zX2kS493
— Will Compton (@_willcompton) August 30, 2024
While we cannot speak to what Griffin meant by “the wrong reasons,” a swath of the responses on X, formerly Twitter, seem to suggest that the former NFL QB was implying that people are rooting against Sanders and Colorado either due to racial reasons or because they’ve been overhyped by the media.
“Because the team is manufactured on hype and not football is the wrong reason?” says the top reply to RGIII’s post.
“Here we go with the: ‘If you root against Colorado, you’re probably racist’ nonsense… This is the same manufactured nonsense surrounding the WNBA ROTY convo… Critique Reese and you’re ‘racist,'” read another popular response.
Sanders’ recent treatment of the media — he banned Denver Post reporter Sean Keeler from future press conferences — also seems to be a common reason that people have turned against him and his program.
“Deion’s crybaby attitude with reporters, nothing more,” another reply to RGIII said.
After escaping Week 1 with a close win over NDSU, Sanders and the Buffalos will travel to Lincoln to take on the Nebraska Cornhuskers in Week 2.