This is really long, and I don't blame you for not wanting to read the column. If you want cliffs, just know Joseph Goebbels is smiling from his grave reading this propaganda:
Commentary: In the court of public opinion, Deion Sanders and his family keep their eyes on the prize
When you are in a position like Deion Sanders, you become a target.
Carl Reed38 mins0
As
Deion Sanders walks into season No. 2 of his
Colorado rebuild, the noise is at a fever pitch. Why is he challenging the media? What about all the transfers, those coming in and going out? The staff changes? Why doesn't he do home visits? Visit high schools? And why won't he just cut the check for Shilo to pay off the lawsuit? These are the questions people ask me every day. Very rarely do people really want to talk about just football.
In football there is really only one thing that matters, winning and losing. And I know what you are going to say, 4-8. I know, I know, I know. If I type 4-8 in my search bar for my text messages it comes up a thousand times. Because that's what people say when they want to put Deion Sanders in his place. But we must be honest, he didn't take over
Notre Dame, or
LSU, or
Oregon, or Georgia. He took over a one-win team at the University of Colorado, a team with one of the least talented rosters in college football. This is a major rebuild, and it takes time, and at a place like Colorado it takes Prime Time.
But you didn't open this up to hear me talk about football, and the new o-line, and what a great job Rob Livingston is doing, or how Damione Lewis, and
Warren Sapp have brought great energy to the d-line, or how the Buffs' football program has a record-breaking GPA, or how
Shedildo Sanders and
Travis Hunter are likely top-5 picks. You came here for the juice.
You want to know what is really going on with Shilo?
There are pages and pages and pages of court documents from the 2018 case "John Darjean v. Deion Sanders et al," a case that has found its way into becoming one of the top storylines in college football during the 2024 offseason, purely because creating content about Deion Sanders is a vertical-feeding, career-making, multi-million dollar business.
The legal team representing Deion's son,
Shilo Sanders, has made the case, time and again, that suing him can be, too.
By now you have probably read all about the case.
The two parties dispute key facts about the dispute they had at a school when Shilo was a ninth-grader and Darjean was a security guard – a dispute over a cell phone. Darjean claims Shilo inflicted permanent neurological damage and harm to his spine. Sanders' team has argued that Darjean was the aggressor. It has devolved into a bankruptcy case and a court has ordered Shilo to pay Darjean $11.89 million.
Recently, a judge partially granted Sanders' motion to dismiss Darjean's lawsuit, which accuses Sanders of misusing the bankruptcy discharge process and limited liability companies to avoid paying.
Donald Mackenzie, M.D., a fellow of the North American Spine Society, reviewed records from the case (surveillance footage, medical records, CT scans, portions of Darjean's testimony) and arrived at the following conclusion. His opinion, as captured in the documents, reads as follows:
Shilo's team has witness statements that claim Shilo was grabbed by Darjean – first by his arm and then by his neck and slammed. Pictures of Shilo's neck taken by an administrator show very visible bruises on his neck.
We'll let the facts speak for themselves and the experts continue to do the talking. But it does not take much reading between the lines to understand what is going on.
It is also important to point out that Shilo Sanders has not been found guilty of any accusations. He lost a default judgment for not showing up to court, which is not the same thing. His legal team will have an opportunity to present facts in bankruptcy court of the case. I was able to catch up with his attorney Victor Vital and he said this on the matter:
"We have seen the recent press coverage; however, we will not litigate this case in the media. We have been, and will continue to be, open and cooperative with the United States Bankruptcy Trustee in all aspects of the bankruptcy case. It is important to recognize that this is a civil proceeding as a result of a default judgment against Shilo. Since he did not have the opportunity to present his case, the trial in the Bankruptcy Court will be the avenue for Shilo to present evidence of what happened and we look forward to vindicating Shilo's rights in Court."
If you have ever worked in a school before, as I did for many years, you know as soon as t
echnology boomed that cell phones in schools became a major issue. The governance and policing of technology put young people who were accustomed to being able to talk and freely use phones at odds with schools, parents, and faculty who were adjusting to the change in technology.
Shilo Sanders as a high school freshman was being disciplined. That is not in question. What is in question is who was assaulted. Shilo's team has several witness statements that say clearly that Shilo was grabbed by Darjean – first by his arm and then by his neck and slammed. Pictures of Shilo's neck taken by an administrator show very visible bruises on his neck.
Unfortunately, these things happen more often than they should. Most security officers and disciplinarians in schools are not properly trained nor do they have the proper emotional control to deal with teenagers. Oftentimes conflicts do become physical. I've seen it too many times. They rarely result in lawsuits, though of course this case was different.
How has it gone this long?
When Deion Sanders did not cave to the pressure and was removed from the lawsuit, the energy and effort went to pursue Shilo directly. There was an increased effort to go after Shilo after the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rules came into effect.
NIL money has been all of the rage in college football recruiting. It has become a huge guessing game on who has made what, and what deals are really out there. What is the true value of any player from an NIL standpoint? Our own John Talty did an incredible job of researching this in a May 20 article and came up with a
value of $120,000 - $225,000 range for Shilo's position of defensive back — a far cry from an $11 million default judgment rendered because of Shilo's
supposed NIL valuation.
When you are in a position like Deion Sanders, you become a target. When you have money you will always be a target, whether it be for jealousy, for envy, and many other emotions that people muster up as they watch your rise. Money will make people do strange things, especially when you have it and they don't.
But if Deion Sanders has shown you one thing in his life it's when you target him he is always ready to pick it off and go the other way. When I talked to him last night he told me that he hasn't been home since camp started. He has slept in the office everyday, and is focused on work. No matter what is said outside the building, he knows that winning is mandatory — it is the only way to silence the critics. In football no matter where you play or where you coach, noise is everywhere. The chatter doesn't matter, only the results. You have to bear down on whatever is in front of you on gameday.
Deion Sanders is locked in, Shilo's lawyers will present his case while he is being the backbone of the Buffs' defense, and Shedildo is ready to lead his team. Football is big business, and if you turn on your TV or your news feed there is no bigger business right now than the Sanders Brand. Some people are coming to cheer for him, some are coming to hate on him, but make no mistake they are all tuned in to see him. And no matter what the outcome, it will be talked about, because Deion Sanders is big business and business is booming.
