Deion Sanders makes most of rival coach’s comments that he always wears sunglasses and a hat.

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — When Jay Norvell threw shade at Deion Sanders for wearing sunglasses during interviews, Coach Prime responded by handing out some of his signature sunglasses.

Sanders handed out pairs of Prime 21 sunglasses to his players during a team meeting: “I just want to see what you look like in them.” You look well ! — then gave some to the hosts of ESPN’s “First Take” and “The Pat McAfee Show” to wear on set Friday.

“College GameDay” airs this weekend from Boulder, where Sanders has led the Buffaloes to an 18th-ranked finish and a 2-0 start after taking a 1-11 team and signing more than 80 new players. They started the season with an upset at TCU against national runners-up, then beat Nebraska last weekend.

Before big games against Oregon and USC, Colorado hosts 0-1 Colorado State on Saturday night, and on his weekly radio show, Norvell criticized Sanders’ habit of wearing his cap and sunglasses during media interviews.

“I sat down with ESPN today. And I don’t care if they hear it in Boulder. I told them: “I took off my hat and my glasses. » And I said, “When I talk to adults, I take off my hat and my glasses.” That’s what my mother taught me,” Norvell said. “They won’t like us no matter what we say or do. It does not matter. So let’s go up there and play.

Although it motivated Colorado, who is a three-touchdown favorite against the Rams, Sanders told McAfee he didn’t appreciate Norvell’s comments after a week of respectful banter.

“I didn’t like that it happened because it’s another (black coach),” Sanders said. “We started well. He complimented me, I complimented him, but he just walked away quickly. What happened?”

When Sanders handed out the stylish sunglasses to his players Thursday, he said Norvell’s criticism of him was going to backfire not only in a red-hot Buffaloes team Saturday, but also by helping sunglasses sales.

“They didn’t realize they were just helping me with my business,” he told his team.

“GameDay” host Rece Davis and his colleague, analyst Desmond Howard, had very different views when asked Friday about Norvell’s dig at Sanders.

Davis said he didn’t think Norvell’s comments were anything other than a message to his own players that they weren’t going to back down from a team and its charismatic coach who hold back so much. national attention.

“Who do you think he’s talking to?” Davis said. “He speaks to his players: ‘We are not afraid. We go there, we are not intimidated by all the attention they receive, nor by the force of his personality nor by the talent of Travis Hunter or Shedeur Sanders. We are not intimidated by any of this. We’re going to play and we’re going to do our thing.

Davis said Colorado rightly used Norvell’s words as fodder for the scoreboard, “but I didn’t think for a second” that Norvell meant to insult Sanders.

Howard called it petty that Norvell was complaining about Sanders wearing sunglasses or a hat and should never have involved anyone’s mother in the discussion.

“If you know Deion Sanders, not even Coach Prime, but if you just know Deion Sanders, he’s really, really close to his mom. Like extremely close to his mother,” Howard said. “So… when you bring it to the way you were raised, then it’s almost beyond personal. I guess at this point he wants to apologize for that because it wasn’t necessary.

Howard said that picking on Sanders “about his fashion seems silly because you’re talking about a guy who doesn’t swear, doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, doesn’t do drugs.” He is a great example for young men and women. And you want to sit there and argue if he wore sunglasses and a hat? How petty and ridiculous are you for going there? Why does this bother you?

“Shouldn’t your attention be on something else?” How is your team doing? How are your players doing? How are his players doing? How is his team doing?

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