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Whether Deion Sanders stays or leaves Colorado, his importance is immeasurable

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BOULDER, Colo. — I spent two days in Colorado this week. Unlike previous trips to Boulder, this visit had nothing to do with the college’s head football coach, Deion Sanders, Prime’s irrepressible coach. I used to be on campus to seek advice from journalism students, student-athletes, sports administrators, and students within the Critical Sports Studies program.

Consistently, whatever the setting, the subject of Colorado football and the Prime Effect got here up. Despite all the good things which have happened on the university, the last two years have been dominated by Sanders.

I made several trips to Boulder last 12 months as a part of my fascination with the Sanders story. Chapters 1 and a couple of of this story cover Sanders’ first two high-profile seasons at Jackson State University, including his controversial departure to Colorado. Chapter 3 covered Sanders’ first season in Colorado, where he was tasked with rejuvenating a struggling football program that had finished 1-11 the season before his arrival. The team finished 4-8 in its first season, but Prime brought the energy back.

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We are currently halfway through Chapter 4, through which Sanders has put the university community back on target to victory. Colorado finished the season 9-3 and got here near securing a spot within the Big 12 title game. The current excitement on campus is over which Colorado bowl game might be played: the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, the Holiday Bowl in San Diego or, most coveted, the Las Vegas Bowl in Sin City.

There are other issues on campus for the football program: Will two-way star Travis Hunter grow to be the second Buffalo to win the Heisman Trophy? Will Shedeur Sanders be the primary quarterback chosen within the 2025 NFL Draft?

By far the largest query on campus is whether Sanders will remain in Colorado for a 3rd season.

Colorado Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders greets fans before the Big 12 game against the Kansas Jayhawks on November 23 at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri.
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The urgency of answering yes depends upon which a part of the university you might be studying. For DaWon Baker, associate athletic director for diversity, equity and inclusion, Sanders’ importance goes beyond wins and losses.

Baker got here to Colorado from the University of Nebraska in May 2021. He has seen how Sanders’ presence has modified the culture and created an environment of diversity and inclusion. In some ways, Prime has made it easier to evangelise the gospel of inclusion.

“It gives me an example of what embracing diversity and inclusion can look like,” Baker said during an interview Wednesday.

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Baker said attracting Sanders, a black man from southern Florida “who feels like he can really fully be who he is and embrace his individuality, his background, his culture,” Baker said took some inside work.

“It took a lot of internal work to provide an environment where he felt like he could be himself,” Baker said.

Baker’s job is to assist create that kind of environment throughout the athletics department and maybe beyond.

“Bringing in Deion Sanders and actually allowing him to do what he does not only changes our bottom line, it could change the structure of the university,” he said. “It’s changing who comes and who’s watching, it’s changing who wants to come to the games, who wants to visit Boulder and who potentially wants to go to school here. This change is something we can actually use to change the way we do things. If we’re going to invite people, we have to be willing to create an environment for them where they actually want to come here and stay here.”

For Baker, Sanders’ importance to the university is immeasurable.

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“As a university, people knew what Colorado was, but they didn’t really have a reason to watch it or pay attention to it, whereas now they do, and there’s a lot of interest around it that he obviously played a huge role in,” he said.

Before Sanders arrived, there have been student-athletes just like Prime. “But we didn’t have leaders, coaches and administrators like Deion,” Baker said. “I feel like I might be myself because we gave the keys to someone who has no qualms about being himself. We have arguably the preferred coach in all of school football who preaches people being themselves and is unapologetically being themselves.

So will he stay or will he go?

Colorado Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders (right) talks with cornerback Travis Hunter (left) during a game against the North Dakota State Bison at Folsom Field on August 29 in Boulder, Colorado.

Rica Tapii/Getty Images

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On Wednesday, in what some might interpret as an indication that Sanders will stay put, the five-star quarterback Julian Lewis signed a contract with Colorado. Lewis is Sanders’ highest-ranking recruit since landing the winger Travis Hunter, the No. 2 prospect within the 2022 class, from Florida State and put him at Jackson State. Sanders also talked to reporters about his plans to enhance special teams, especially Colorado’s flawed kicking game.

While I actually have no word on whether Sanders will remain or leave Colorado, a few of those that speak to him often say Prime sees his ministry as mentoring young men and ladies toward success in life.

According to Fox Sports college football analyst Joel Klatt, who said he spoke with Sanders and asked him point-blank if he planned to depart Colorado for the NFL, Klatt responded that Sanders said, “No,” and explained, “Because I don’t feel like I’m living out my calling.” and purpose if I were there.”

According to Klatt, Sanders said, “Listen, my calling is to influence and mentor young men. I occur to do that through coaching. I feel like I can do that higher at the school level than with a gaggle of pros who may or may not hearken to me due to amount of cash they’re paid.

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Should Sanders stay or should he go? If I had a vote, I might vote for Sanders to remain in Colorado, within the tradition of the legendary African-American football coaches who played such a vital role within the lives of players who historically attended black colleges and universities. Many of those coaches remained in a single place for a long time. In many cases, they stayed because there weren’t many options outside of the Black college universe. Many were simply committed to identifying outstanding residents who happened to play football.

When segregation reigned supreme, tons of of NFL stars at HBCUs had the chance to play for legends similar to Jake Gaither, Eddie Robinson, Earl Banks, John Merritt, Marino Casem and plenty of others. Sanders has options, but he’s cut from that cloth.

Very few current black players within the NFL have had the experience of playing for an African-American coach in college. Today, a handful of players from Power 4 programs like Penn State (James Franklin), Michigan (Sherrone Moore), Syracuse (Fran Brown), Notre Dame (Marcus Freeman) and, in fact, Sanders, have experience playing for an African-American coach. These coaches may also help create a snug atmosphere through which players, and even black students on campus, might be themselves.

If Sanders were to stay in Colorado for an additional decade, he would definitely create such a sustainable environment.

“I don’t think he’s been here long enough to have built the infrastructure for it,” Baker said. “But I think he’s been around long enough to show us what it means to accept what it takes to be good at football.”

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Colorado Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders leads his team onto the sphere before their game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys on November 29 at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado.

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Of course, there isn’t any certainty even when Sanders stays in Colorado. Familiarity breeds contempt, and winning programs ebb and flow. What happens when the shine fades, when the high bar Prime sets becomes the rule quite than the exception? What happens if too many star players get upset and leave?

These are questions for an additional day.

For an administrator like Baker, Sanders’ strength shows the institution how it may possibly achieve growth by embracing diversity and inclusion.

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“If we really take diversity seriously and really allow people to be themselves, we can see this kind of growth in a lot of different areas,” Baker said. “Not just football.”

William C. Rhoden is a columnist for Andscape magazine and the writer of Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete. He directs Rhoden Fellows, a training program for aspiring HBCU journalists.

This article was originally published on : andscape.com
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Jalen Milroe can follow the Jalen path in NFL

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Star Black playmakers aren’t any longer an exception – they’re the rule. Throughout the entire football season, this series will discover the importance and influence of black QB from bottom -up to NFL.


Indianapolis-keep me, should you heard it earlier: playmaker Alabama born in Texas, who’s a stronger runner than a passerby, will probably be called outside the first round of the NFL Draft.

The playmaker was undefeated in Sec as a primary -year starter.

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The playmaker never played for the same offensive coordinator.

The name of the playmaker is even Jalen.

But it isn’t clear that Jalen hurts. This winter he was busy winning the Super Bowl MVP, and he didn’t play Iron Bowl or against Michigan.

Instead, it’s a former playmaker of Crimson Tide Jalen Milroewho last week Combine Combine tried to convey the case to the trainers and evaluators that he – like his namesake – is price being their playmaker franchise in the future despite questions on his ability.

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“I went through adversity. I saw everything as a quarterback, “Milroe said on Friday. “I played at the most difficult conference in the country. It would be easier to play at other conferences, but what I could see in Sec catapulted me that I was ready to play NFL. “

Alabama, Jalen Milroe, talks to the media during the NFL mix at the Lucas Oil stadium on February 28 at Indianapolis.

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Departing from Katy in Texas, she originally got involved in Texas in 2019, but a 12 months later she fell to Alabama. After he was sitting behind the Crimson Tide Starter Bryung for 2 seasons, Milroe took his reins in the 2023 season. He helped Alabama survive Sec (8-0) this 12 months, won by the conference rival and two-time defender Georgia in the SEC championship, which caused Crimson Tide to the play-off collection.

But while Milroe had a big arm (his 10 yards for the test took third place in Sec in 2023), the pass was not his strong suit. For two seasons as a starter Milroe never achieved 3000 yards in one season, the first starter of Alabama, who did it because it … hurts.

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Hurts, from Houston, led Crimson Tide to the National National Championships in 2016–17, but during these two seasons were lower than 5,000 yards. While Hurts was a singular Rusher (1,809 yards and 21 sticks) at the moment, his weakness as a passerby is known for led to the spare Tua Tavailoa during the break of the national championships in 2017.

In the mix, Milroe decided that despite his pedestrian passes, he was still worthy of being a start at NFL.

He is aware of his weaknesses and swore that he worked in the ass to enhance outside being “one dimension.” He could move when his legendary trainer, Nick Saban, retired after the 2023 season, but decided to not fall off. He traveled six miles a day to ensure that that something was left in the fourth quarter in the fourth quarter. He studied progression and reads after I-SNAP to lift his IQ in football.

Unlike the forecast sorts of the first round, Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders, Milroe threw a mix on Saturday, hoping that he would show the bands that he has mechanics to do that to the playmaker NFL. It turned out to be a mixed bag. Milroe showed strong arm strength and a very good location of sail routes, curls and it while throwing exercises, but fought accuracy on intermediate and on the routes.

“That’s so many things that I can learn more where I am today and where I will be when it comes to day 1, starting with NFL,” said Milroe before Saturday exercises. “Always be a game student, at all times attempt to develop, because it would be so many opportunities in which I can look back and say that it was the moment after I grew up as a playmaker.

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“That’s right now, I’m just trying to grow as much as possible, put my best foot forward and just look for development.”

Jalen Milroe warms up during seniors training at the Hancock Whitney stadium on January 29 at Mobile, Alabama.

Derick E. Hingle/Getty Images

Milroe was asked that he was one other playmaker in Alabama to succeed in the mix, following in the footsteps of the role (who moved to Oklahoma in 2019), Tavailoa, Mac Jones and Bryce Young. Milroe said he appreciates being in the company of others, but he added that it’s difficult to check him with others.

“We had different bands, we had different players around us, we had a different system,” he said.

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But when he specifically asked what he could study the journey of Hurts-from the first manager of the game after the super Bowl-Milroe master said he inspired him his companion Alabam.

“The most important thing I learned from J. Hurts is how he kept his head (I) always continued to work,” said Milroe. “He at all times raised his game, he has never been self -deserved, and all the pieces you see is great progress from him.

“And I have to applaud him as a person, he as a man, because he is definitely inspiring for many playmakers of my image, as well as many playmakers throughout the country. He leads to all of us. “

The couple isn’t completely similar. Hurts had about 20 kilos on Milroe when he was in college. Milroe has a stronger arm, while Hurts played more and not using a mistake of football: Milroe threw 17 interceptions and ate 67 bags for 2 seasons as a starter in comparison with 10 captures Hurts and 43 bags.

But they can each be changing the game when their teams need them. In a highly publicized match against Georgia at the starting of the last season, Milroe finished almost 82% of his passes on 374 yards and two appointments, adding 117 yards to the ground for the next two results.

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Milroe can also match the wounds in the so -called “Jalen-ISMS. “

“Climbing upstairs is not easy, but when you reach the top of this mountain, you will learn so many things when it comes to adversity when it comes to difficulties, things along the way,” said Milroe in a mix.

Martenzie Johnson is an older author for Andcape. His favorite film moment is that Django said: “You all want to see something?”

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This article was originally published on : andscape.com
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Like Tommie Smith and John Carlos from 1968. Black Power Salute inspired me to find my goal

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I’d say that I grew up within the household to be sure that that me and my siblings were aware of the black history. My parents invested in the gathering of black encyclopedias. On the duvet we had a version of the Bible with Black Jesus. Our house was stuffed with books of black novelists and thinkers, and if a black document appeared, we watched it. I watched all movies made on television about Dr. King, each “Roots” and “Alex Haley’s Queen” and I sat for all 14 hours “Eyes on the reward”-as a toddler. Bless my heart.

Having said this, there have been pockets of black history, and more likely that I had no opportunity to delve into once I was a toddler. The college was where all the will for information and understanding of the combined. I attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga., One of a very powerful historically black universities within the country. It was there that I met people from around the globe whose knowledge about black history differed (often depending on the colleges and the communities by which we lived), but everyone had hunger to learn more.

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One day, through the first yr, I remember one among my friends in a T -shirt by which I had definitely seen before, but I never paid attention to. There was a black and white screen printing on the shirt (what I do know now) the enduring moment on the Olympic Games in Mexico in 1968, where on the rostrum for 200-meter medals, Tommie Smith, John Carlos (races 1. And 3. Place Finaners) Everyone gathered a black fist in gloves while he played “Star Spangled Banner”. Peter Norman, the second place from Australia, wore a human rights badge, like Smith and Carlos.

Not only did they raise the fist of black power (although they each said it was for human rights), they received medals in black socks to represent poverty within the black community, and Smith wore a black scarf for black pride. Carlos showed solidarity with blue-wheeled employees, unpacking the jacket and wore a necklace from the beads for individuals who were lynched. Due to the state of Black America in 1968 and a continuing struggle for equality and civil rights, there have been calls to a boycott of the Games. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was also killed in April this yr – and all three athletes were inspired enough to find a way to do it on the rostrum, which led to one of the crucial durable images of public protest.

I remember how I learned history and realized that on the most important scene these brave men used their moment of triumph and victory to quietly protest against the conditions of underrated communities in America. I felt strengthened; We often discuss standing on the arms of giants, however the more I got into the history of black in America, the more I spotted what number of giants there have been. In college I used to be very bad and for a while ready to burn every part that represented the establishment or any obstacle to black liberation. I felt like all those individuals who even saw their space on the planet in reference to individuals who could never give you the option to speak as heroes whose lives were to be modeled later. Especially since it was also fastidiously that putting people in front of him can often bring an enormous personal loss.

When Smith and Carlos took their position, they were booed on the stadium and ordered to be sent home by the International Olympic Committee. The athletes returned home, but they weren’t welcomed by the hero, but as a substitute of rough sleds, and even in some cases the specter of death. They were also not beloved by athletes. Two men, associated eternally in history, even have a good relationship –Carlos even claims that he let Smith go within the race Because “Tommie Smith would never put his fist in the sky if I won this race,” the claim that Smith denies.

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History ultimately has a way of rights, but it surely took a few years and realizations on the front of social policy, in order that the actions of those persons are perceived as brave and needed, not only selfish and smug.

The lessons that I learned from College and continuous reading and education I gained (my head remained within the book about black history) were one among the best advantages in HBCU. The very variety of books I learned about about which I actually have never heard of – I actually have upheld me all my life.

That is why I remember sooner or later I used to be walking around Washington, the eastern Washington market and a street seller was selling different photos of moments in black history, and he had a 40 -inch photo within the Tommie Smith and John Carlos frame. I paid for it in money and spent it across the capital of the country until I returned home. I do know that it happened in 2005 (I finished Morehouse College in 2001) because I just moved to my first apartment with no roommate and it was the very first thing that I actually have ever suspended on the wall. This picture within the frame still hangs on the wall in my home in 2025 and I used it to teach my children about sacrifice and privilege and how you may have to discuss individuals who cannot.

Teenage students of Stax Music Academy Mark 25th anniversary, black history month with a concert

The query that my youngest children often ask: “How do I know who can’t speak for herself?” Which is an incredible query. For this I answered an easy fact, pointing to the photo:

“These men have made a gesture that gave people whose most of us, including them, would never see or never know them, but on which life negatively affects the alternatives of the wealthy and the federal government. Sometimes you may have to take this chance to say something because you do not know in the event you’ll ever have such a big platform.

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Son, there may be at all times someone who cannot speak for himself, and you may have to use it in a voice, because perhaps the thing you say or a stand that can help someone you understand, live a greater life. ”

I take advantage of words that may understand a little bit higher, but I can inform you that my children have a look at this photo on a regular basis, and once one among my sons said: “These guys are heroes, right?”

I say yes, they’re. They are the heroes of the Black History.

They will live eternally for speaking, and even quietly, in solidarity with those that couldn’t.

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Panama Jackson Thegrio.com

(Tagstranslate) @Ap

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Main Treasury Official Morgan State University, Sterling Steward, died

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Morgan State University, Sterling Steward


Morgan State University announced that his older associate athletics director and tax director, Sterling Steward, died.

No reason for death was disclosed, but the college has confirmed his contribution since he was employed in December 2022.

Steward died on February 26. In Morgan State he was accountable for the event of university programs, supporting partnerships and strengthening the financial and operational success of the Faculty.

“Sterling was more than a colleague-he was a respected leader, mentor and friend,” said in a written statement by Den Freeman-Patton, vice chairman and director of inter-university athletes. “His passion for athletics and commitment to raising Morgan programs were visible in everything he did. He worked tirelessly to ensure that our sports students had resources and the possibilities of distinction, and its impact will be felt for many years. We expand our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones, especially his three sons and sister when we mourn this huge loss. “

While the steward worked in Morgan, strategic growth and cooperation occurred. His work with the institutional development department helped to offer more opportunities and created lasting relationships to support sports programs.

Steward earlier he worked At the University of New Orleans (UNO) as an assistant to the college athletics director for strategic income generation. He also made stays on the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Savannah State University, Mississippi Valley State University, Alabama State University, Kentucky State University, Eastern Oregon University and Xavier University in various roles, including for a senior consultant athletics director and sports director.

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He was from New Orleans, who received the title of bachelor and master’s degree on the University of Southern Mississippi. He won a bachelor’s degree in the sphere of coaching and administration/history of sport and his master’s degree in the sphere of sport management.

(Tagstransate) Morgan State Universiry

This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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