Deion Sanders did not seem prepared for the question that came his way at Colorado’s press conference on October 27. Had he offered people money to stop criticizing him?

The question followed a claim that the Buffaloes coach had floated a $50,000 deal for critics to keep his name out of their commentary for a year. Sanders immediately pushed back.

“Offered money? For somebody not to… Oh no, no, no,” he said at Colorado’s October 27 presser. “I think you misinterpreted that. I said, like, some of y’all in here right now. I would love to give you money and not mention my name.

“And I want to see how far that goes. That was a joke. That’s what we’re saying, as some people live on your name.”

The exchange followed comments from Christopher Neely, known as Uncle Neely, who works as Sanders’ family’s videographer. Speaking on BuffBoys Live, Neely claimed that Sanders had offered some of his critics $50,000 if they agreed not to mention him for a year.

According to Neely, the people approached had declined because talking about Sanders was helping their own businesses.

“He told some of them, ‘Hey man, let’s just do this. I give you $50,000 to not mention my name for a year.’ And ain’t nobody took the deal yet,” Neely said.

The timing makes the question harder to brush aside. Sanders might have preferred to leave the exchange as a joke. Colorado’s season, however, has made almost every question about the coach more pointed.

Colorado’s season has gone downhill fast. After beating Georgia Tech and Weber State to start 2-0, the Buffaloes have dropped five games in a row. Oklahoma State handed them their latest loss on October 24, with a 57-24 win.

Colorado is now stuck near the bottom of the Big 12 standings, with Kansas State coming to Folsom Field on October 31. Neely’s claim comes as Colorado struggles to stay competitive.

Deion Sanders took over in Boulder in December 2022, bringing a level of fame rarely seen in college coaching. Cameras followed him, recruits paid attention, and Colorado suddenly had a much bigger audience.

The team gave people plenty to talk about in 2023, too. The Buffaloes won their first three games, edged Colorado State in a double-overtime rivalry game and became a regular subject of national sports coverage.

Then came CU’s historic 2024 Heisman season that saw Travis Hunter win the award playing both ways, and the program’s popularity skyrocketed. Now, for two years, Sanders has underperformed massively. Even then, Sanders has never been shy about confronting critics.

After Colorado’s 52-17 loss to Arizona in November 2025, Sanders kept players and assistant coaches from speaking to reporters and told the media to direct criticism at him.

“It’s on me,” he said then. “Come at me.”

Sanders had taken the blame for the team’s poor showing without throwing his staff or players under the bus. This latest exchange was different. Rather than discussing what went wrong on the field, he was responding to the people talking about him.

That can become a distraction of its own. Every minute spent answering critics is another minute of a press conference that could have been spent discussing the team’s problems and how to fix them.

The story then feeds itself. Deion Sanders responds; the response becomes another headline, and the football can slip further down the agenda. But the scrutiny is not happening in a vacuum.

Colorado has lost five consecutive games, and the 57-24 defeat to Oklahoma State was not a narrow loss that could be dismissed as a few unlucky breaks. Sanders and his staff have to answer for what is happening on the field, regardless of whether some commentators also benefit from discussing him.