Deion Sanders speaks with his heart. It doesn’t matter whether his team is seeing success or failures; the approach remains the same. This time, though, Coach Prime perhaps went a little further with one particular comparison. 

In his weekly media appearance before the Week 11 game, a reporter suggested that Deion Sanders’ health should take priority over football. He quickly pushed back with passion in his voice.

“Football is not my business. Football is my passion, man,” he said, his intensity building as he continued. “It’s like my lady. She’s like my wife, like I love her, I do. So, it’s more than business. To me, business is this other stuff. That’s business. This is, my heart is in this.” 

When the reporter pressed him about his very real health challenges, Deion Sanders doubled down. He insisted that his physical struggles had nothing to do with the win-loss column. He even joked that he wished he could play cornerback himself, given Colorado’s defensive shortages.​

The irony wasn’t lost on fans who flooded social media. They pointed out reminders about Sanders’ track record with actual marriage. The Hall of Famer has been divorced twice, first from Carolyn Chambers in 1998 after nine years of marriage, and then from Pilar Sanders in 2013 after a particularly messy union that involved allegations of domestic violence, defamation lawsuits, custody battles, and even an arrest. 

The split from Pilar became especially contentious. Public feuds played out on social media and in courtroom proceedings. It revealed deep family dysfunction. Sanders himself has joked about his divorces multiple times. He once quipped to his staff that while they celebrated wedding anniversaries, he was celebrating his “second divorce.”​

But the thing about comparing football to a wife is that when you’re currently sitting at 3-6 with back-to-back blowout losses by a combined 105 points, it invites uncomfortable parallels. Just as Deion Sanders’ marriages crumbled under pressure, so too has his Colorado program in 2025. After a promising 9-4 season last year that earned the Buffaloes a bowl game and a No. 25 ranking, this season has been nothing short of catastrophic.

The offensive struggles have been particularly glaring without Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter, who both departed for the NFL. Sanders has cycled through quarterbacks all season, with transfer Kaidon Salter repeatedly benched for poor performance. The defense ranks 94th nationally in stop rate, allowing opponents to move the ball at will. Meanwhile, Sanders himself has been dealing with serious health issues, including blood clots in his legs that have left him coaching from a stool on the sidelines. 

Social media wasn’t having it

Not everyone bought into Sanders’ passionate proclamation about football being his wife. One fan actually tried to give him some grace, pointing to neuroscience to explain the connection. “It’s the athlete identity, we can see it mapped in the brain.” 

The comment suggested there’s a real psychological phenomenon at play when athletes define themselves so completely by their sport. But that lone sympathetic voice got drowned out pretty quickly by the chorus of critics who saw the metaphor as just another example of Sanders putting his foot in his mouth.​

The rest of the reactions came in hot and unforgiving. One person drew the obvious parallel that Sanders probably should’ve seen coming. “And you have failed in both of those areas……@DNVR_Buffs  and all his ex wife’s….” Ouch.

Another fan didn’t mince words about Sanders’ coaching abilities, stating, “I know he’s trying, but damn he’s bad at this.” The fatigue with Sanders’ whole persona was palpable in another response: “Damn, this act is getting old.” 

And perhaps the most direct assessment came from someone who cut through all the passion and metaphors to land on the bottom line: “This guy is a bad coach.” Given Colorado’s 3-6 record, the worst home loss in the Prime era, and the demotion of offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur after back-to-back shellackings, it’s hard to argue the critics don’t have a point.​