BOULDER — The microphone ain’t big enough for the two of them.
Louis Riddick’s right. So’s Michael Irvin. The Dallas Cowboys need Deion Sanders. The NFL needs Deion Sanders.
But you know what Coach Prime doesn’t need?
Jerry in his ear. Jerry on his phone. Jerry picking the groceries. Jerry picking the menu. Jerry in his meetings. Jerry demanding the final cut.
Sanders is CU’s Jerry Jones.
Why would Prime ever want to cede that scepter to anyone else?
“I’m happy where I am, man. I’m good,” Sanders told reporters Tuesday during his weekly news conference at the Champions Center.
“I’ve got a kickstand down. You know what a kickstand is? A lot of people don’t … that means I’m resting. I’m good. I’m happy. I’m excited. I’m enthusiastic about where I am. I love it here. I truly do.”
His Buffs are 8-2, tied for first in the Big 12 and just climbed to No. 16 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings.
His Cowboys, meanwhile, are Big D’s biggest dumpster fire. Dak Prescott’s out for the year. Mike McCarthy’s been a lame-duck coach for what feels like two presidential terms.
At 3-7, it’s not just the sky that’s falling in Texas. A piece of sheet metal reportedly descended from the roof of AT&T Stadium while it was being opened Monday. Didn’t take long for the Cowboys to join in on the theme of the night, as they subsequently got pounded by Houston, 34-10.
The Giants, Raiders, Browns, Titans and Jaguars all have a head start in the tankathon to draft Shedeur Sanders, Travis Hunter, or both. America’s Team might have to lose out just to land a shot. Although based on what we saw against the Texans … they just might.
The Cowboys stinking is like the Yankees and Lakers stinking — all those bandwagon, front-running fans lose their collective minds, everybody’s got a take, and the morning talk shows eat it up.
Irvin played with Coach Prime on Dallas’ Super Bowl XXX champs, and the two have remained close ever since. The Pro Football Hall-of-Fame wideout raised eyebrows Monday during an appearance on Colin Cowherd’s “The Herd” show on FS1.
When asked if Sanders would ride in from Boulder to rescue the Cowboys if Dallas drafted Shedeur, Irvin replied: “100 percent … and I can tell you, good sources have told me that. Great sources have told me that.”
He even dropped Prime’s name, unsolicited, when interviewed this past Friday during Netflix’s coverage of the Tyson-Paul fight at Arlington, Texas.
“I give (Jake Paul) respect like I give (to) my great guy Deion Sanders, who didn’t go the normal route — who I’m gonna be in Jerry’s ear about later,” Irvin said, as Jones, sitting to his right, smiled uncomfortably. “That’s just something else we’re talking about.”
With that, Jones jumped in, interrupted Irvin, and changed the subject.
Come on. You think Jerry would ever give Deion the last word? On anything?
Jerry doesn’t do alpha coaches. Sanders doesn’t suffer fools gladly.
Jones hasn’t had a head coach with Prime’s gravitas since Bill Parcells — and that was 18 years ago.
Sanders needs space for his staff, his inner circle, space to breathe. Jones sucks all the oxygen out of every room he walks into.
“The NFL needs someone like Deion Sanders, quite honestly,” Riddick, who played with Prime in Atlanta, offered on ESPN’s “Get Up” show on Tuesday. “He fits the NFL. It’s a matter of whether or not the NFL fits him.
“That’s the issue, whether it’s Dallas or anywhere else. Let me just tell you this: Anybody who knows that man — he takes a backseat to nobody. Nobody. Not an owner, not players, not other coaches, nobody.”
The football business, like a good offensive line, is a leverage game. In Boulder, Deion holds all the cards. He’s turned a Power 4 coaching graveyard into a garden, risen a zombie football program back from the dead in a blink.
Sanders is also one of the biggest bargains in CU football history. He’s the fourth-highest-paid coach in the Big 12, per USA Today ($5.7 million), and trails No. 3, Utah’s Kyle Whittingham, by $800,000 this year. The same Whittingham his team just whupped by 25 points last weekend.
Among the CFP’s latest top 20, only two Power 4 coaches reportedly make less than Sanders’ $5.7 million — Indiana’s Curt Cignetti ($4.25 million) and SMU’s Rhett Lashlee ($2.36 million). You better believe Cignetti’s about to flip his magic-carpet ride in Bloomington — another graveyard — into checks his great-great-great grandchildren will be cashing.
And sure, Coach Prime doesn’t need the money. But as with players, compensating Sanders is about respect. About rewarding what he’s built relative to his peers. The coach of one of the top two programs in the Big 12 right now should want to be compensated like one. (Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy is the league’s current No. 1, at $7.75 million, followed by Kansas’ Lance Leipold, at $7.5 million, if you’re wondering where the bidding starts.)
“I don’t know if the pro game is necessarily what he wants,” Riddick continued, “but I can tell you this: If I was an owner and I spent some time talking to him like I’ve talked to him, and understand what makes him tick, I would be trying desperately to get him into my building, there’s no question about that. It’s just a matter of whether or not he wants it.”
In Jerry World, Jones is marooned, floating to nowhere, watching Jayden Daniels and Jalen Hurts drift away with the NFC East the way a bottle drifts in the open sea.
In Peggy World, Prime has the Big 12 right where he wants it — looking up at him. And hoping some desperate owner heeds Riddick’s advice before the Buffs become a dynasty.
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