Colorado Football Needs To Embrace NWO Heel Persona Under Deion Sanders | Trey Wallace

Has Colorado coach Deion Sanders done enough over the past 18 months to finally embrace the ‘villain’ role in college football? 

If you've been living under a rock over the past year, Coach Prime has turned into a version of Hulk Hogan in the eyes of fans outside of Colorado, but with the iconic NWO colors. Whether or not this role was started because of how he approached his first six months on the job is up for argument, but it seems as though he's finally embracing the role after a number of interactions on social media this week. 

Following a well-reported piece from Max Olson this week that gave a voice to players who were processed out of the Colorado program over the past year, a number of players have pushed back on the narrative that Deion Sanders was some type of evil man with an agenda. 

The story centered around how many players have exited the program, either on their own, or pushed out by Sanders. Being that there were so many Colorado players to hit the portal, this was the first time we had actually heard their stories on the whole ordeal. Now, it's up to you to decide if you believe everyone who was interviewed, but a bigger story has come out of the ordeal. 

After Shedeur Sanders, along with a number of his teammates, took to social media to ‘set the record straight’, the backlash towards the Colorado football program has taken on a new life. 

ARLINGTON, TEXAS - MARCH 30: Former NFL player and Colorado Buffalos head coach Deion Sanders looks on prior to a game between the Arlington Renegades and Birmingham Stallions at Choctaw Stadium on March 30, 2024 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Sam Hodde/UFL/Getty Images)

So with this being the case, Deion Sanders and folks inside the football building have taken on the role as a ‘heel’, which is a term used in professional wrestling to describe a ‘bad guy’. For me, I wondered why it took so long for folks to start turning on Deion, and the way he runs his program. 

It's almost as if Sanders walked to the middle of a wrestling ring and started cutting a promo on the college football world, while the masses just sat there in shock. We haven't reached the moment similar to Hulk Hogan hitting the Macho Man with his leg drop, but we're getting close to a similar situation. 

RELATED: Shedeur Sanders' Online Nonsense Hints At Disaster Waiting To Happen In Colorado | Barrett Sallee

And guess what? Nobody inside the Colorado football program cares, and that's not a bad thing. If we're being honest, the folks inside the building in Boulder fit the mold. New guys that were brought in to save the program and turn things around in a positive way sounds like the former WCW boss Eric Bischoff bringing in the ‘Outsiders’, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall to spark a new revolution. 

This is almost the same thing that's happening in Boulder, minus the professional wrestling part, obviously. But I think you're starting to get the point. 

If Deion is Hulk Hogan, then Shedeur Sanders, Travis Hunter and Shilo Sanders are the crew that follows their leader out to the ring. . 

You've all seen it by now, but Deion Sanders told the world what he was going to do in his first team meeting after landing the job. He was going to bring in his own guys to takeover the program, and the ones who couldn't cut it were going to be sent into the transfer portal. Now this is really starting to sound like the old wrestling days of the NWO bringing in multiple guys to battle the WWE, which could be considered the blue bloods of college football. 

So why are you so upset or care how Deion is handling his business? 

Deion Sanders Doesn't Care About Outsider Feelings, Hired To Win

If you think ‘Coach Prime’ is sitting around the facility and worrying about your feelings, i've got news for you, he doesn't care. For a guy that's been in the spotlight since his own playing days at Florida State, none of this is new, it just took awhile for the story to come full-circle. 

Some may look at what Sanders and his coaching staff are doing with the transfer portal as disrespectful to the guys who put in the work before he arrived. Well, that team wasn't good enough, as you noticed on the field and with their record. 

RELATED: Deion Sanders Promises A Bowl Game For Colorado, While Shedeur Sanders Proclaims Negative Energy Is Gone

Do you think athletic director Rick George is worried about what folks are saying on social media about the football program? Absolutely not, he knew what he was getting when he hired Deion to resurrect the program, at least from an excitement standpoint. The long-term result is yet to be determined, but there's not a single media outlet that covers college football that hasn't profited off Deion Sanders in some way over the past eighteen months. 

Deion Sanders is already having a major impact at CU. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

The promos are there, along with the celebrities that show up to games. The whole situation in Colorado is unconventional, and that's the point of all this. Whether it's Shedeur Sanders celebrating every touchdown by holding up his hand for his signature pose, or his father having Lil' Wayne lead them out of the tunnel, there is nothing normal about Colorado football. 

For folks that want an inside look at the everyday actions of the program, there's a YouTube page run by Deion's son that documents everything that's going on inside the facility. It's not Colorado athletics profiting from the number of views each video gets, and reporters covering the team on a daily basis are getting practice updates from what they see on the social media platform. 

Lost in the craziness that is Colorado football is a head coach that is looking to build upon his legacy, and if it seems selfish to you, then so be it. College football is a business, and the athletic department loves the attention these social media interactions are bringing, especially when you consider that they've gone all-in with Deion Sanders as well. 

The Deion Sanders Storyline Will Have An Exciting Ending, Win Or Lose

The next hurdle in this story of the ‘villains’ is to win football games and at least reach a bowl game. If Deion cannot take advantage of having one of the best quarterbacks in the country on his roster, along with two-way star Travis Hunter, then the ‘bad guy’ storyline will enter a new phase. 

But the challenge of winning games and putting together a roster of outsiders has entered a new chapter, and the legacy of Deion Sanders as a head coach is at stake. For a man that doesn't like to lose, he's doing whatever is needed to put a winning product on the field. 

If he fails, it will look similar to how the NWO ended up being the downfall of WCW in the days of the Monday Night Wars of professional wrestling. 

But I've got a feeling that this team could end up surprising folks in the months of October and November next season, and if they do make a bowl game, it will piss off the people who were hoping they would fail. 

For now, Hulk Hogan, I mean Deion Sanders, is standing in the middle of the ring with his players and you can't take your eyes off what is happening. 

Do you remember the ending? The NWO ended up being the ‘cool guys’, until the story finally ran its course. 

Now we wait to see how this story comes to an end, whether that's a year from now, or a decade later.