College football is full of superstitions. For some, it might be lucky socks or a pre-game ritual, or maybe they refuse to wash jerseys after wins. But Deion Sanders Jr. might’ve just found the most adorable scapegoat in the history of the sport. After Colorado stumbled to a 3-4 start in 2025, Bucky decided the problem wasn’t the offensive line getting manhandled or the defense looking like “hot garbage” (Deion’s words, not ours). Nope, the real culprit was his one-year-old nephew, Snow, who’d been attending games in his tiny Colorado gear and apparently bringing nothing but bad juju.

In a hilarious family moment captured on video, Bucky held Snow and delivered the verdict with all seriousness.. The kid was banned from Folsom Field.​ Bucky wasn’t messing around when he laid out his case, holding Snow while the toddler probably had no idea he was being accused of cursing an entire football program. “No! You’re not coming to the game, Snow. Every game you come to, we lose. We lose every game you at bro,” Bucky said, sounding genuinely convinced that his nephew’s presence was the common denominator in Colorado’s losses. 

Snow had been front and center for the Buffaloes’ brutal 16-point blowout loss to Houston in Week 3, where the defense couldn’t stop the run and the offense stalled in critical moments. He’d also been there for the season-opening loss to Georgia Tech, a 27-20 heartbreaker where Colorado blew a fourth-quarter tie. The math was simple in Bucky’s mind: Snow shows up, Colorado loses. Case closed.​

But Deiondra Sanders, Snow’s mom and Deion’s daughter, wasn’t about to let her baby take the fall for the Buffaloes’ struggles. She jumped in to defend her son with the logic only a protective mother can deliver. “No, y’all lost the game when he wasn’t there. It’s not Snow. Say ‘It’s not me, uncle,’” Deiondra shot back, trying to get Snow to exonerate himself. But Bucky wasn’t budging. “It’s you. Snow is the problem,” he said, doubling down on the superstition with the kind of commitment usually reserved for actual game film analysis.

The whole exchange played out like a comedy sketch, with Snow sitting there oblivious to the fact that he was being blamed for Colorado’s defensive breakdowns and missed tackles. Even Deion Sanders got pulled into the Snow-gate controversy, addressing it with his trademark sense of humor. “I hate to ban my only grandchild,” Deion said with a laugh. “I don’t really believe in the superstitions and all like that. But when I saw it, I thought it was humorous when Bucky goes to Snow, you know, you got to go dog.” 

The 57-year-old grandfather clearly found the whole situation hilarious, even as Colorado faced serious questions about their Big 12 championship hopes. Snow, born on August 9, 2024, the same day as Deion’s birthday, has been a fixture around the program since birth, attending games in full Buffs gear and bouncing around locker rooms with players twice his size. His arrival made Deion a grandfather for the first time, and the kid has already become one of the most recognizable sideline figures in college football.​

Snow’s curse is finally broken

Well, it turns out maybe Snow wasn’t the problem after all. Or maybe Bucky’s ban actually worked. Either way, Colorado finally stopped the bleeding with a massive 24-17 upset win over No. 22 Iowa State. They snapped a brutal stretch that had the Buffaloes sitting at 2-4 and looking like their season might implode. This was Colorado’s first Big 12 victory of the season, and its first ranked win at home since 2019. It was also only the second time Deion had beaten a Top 25 team in three years at Boulder. The victory improved the Buffs to 3-4 overall and 1-3 in conference play, giving them actual hope heading into their bye week instead of existential dread about a lost season.​

Before kickoff, Deion did what he does best. He found a quiet moment with God at his secret prayer spot on campus, a bench overlooking a small lake surrounded by trees. “I’ve claimed that as my prayer spot, and I went there this morning to pray and be good with decision-making and understanding all the different nuances of the game so I could be on my game and sharp,” Sanders said afterward. “So I kind of felt in my spirit that the outcome would be what it was. I thought it would be greater, that we would win by 14, actually.” 

The Buffs didn’t win by 14, but they did something they hadn’t done in their previous two games. They held onto a lead instead of blowing it. Quarterback Kaidon Salter went for 255 yards and two scores. Moreover, he wasn’t sacked even once. Whether it was divine intervention from Deion’s lakeside prayers or just Bucky successfully banning Snow from the stadium, Colorado finally caught a break when they desperately needed it.