'Deion was always beloved by us': Yes, Colorado is still Black America's football team
As Deion Sanders continues to capture the fascination of college football, even when his team gets blown out, something else is happening. It may not make headlines, but it's happening all across the country. In Black homes. In Black businesses. Black fathers and sons, Black moms and daughters, Black friends and workmates – so many in the Black community are talking about Sanders.They are saying that Colorado is Black America's team.
Yes, they still are, despite being obliterated by Oregon on Saturday. No one thought Colorado was going undefeated or that there wouldn't be brutal patches. Sanders is rebuilding a broken program and it was always going to take time. The bandwagon is still full. Of Black fans.
"Not since the Los Angeles Raiders of the 1980s or Michigan's men's basketball team The Fab Five of the 1990s has a team captivated Black America and hip-hop culture like the Buffs have so far," wrote Axios.
There have been stories written like the one by Axios over the past month. They all remain viable. That's because I think Black fans are going to stick with this program through all of its ups and downs as long as Sanders is the coach.
The idea of Colorado as Black America's team may seem absurd, and this is a topic that is certain to infuriate some. The idea that an historically white football program like Colorado's is suddenly a Black team, on the surface, seems goofy. Yet Georgetown was a white program until John Thompson turned them into Black America's basketball team. The Fab Five transformed the image of the University of Michigan. Decades before Doug Williams became the first Black quarterback to start in a Super Bowl, the Washington Commanders were owned by a notorious racist. Williams became Black America's quarterback. Years later, Colin Kaepernick became the same.
Things are one way until they're not.
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There's data that illustrates the phenomenon of what's happening in Colorado, but it goes beyond the numbers. We've seen something like this before. Go back in time to the 1980s and the Hoyas.
Thompson transformed that program into an unapologetically Black one, and like the Buffaloes now, the Hoyas became a team that Black America felt invested in. Also, the more whites hated them, the more Black Americans loved them.
“He created that environment, and that worked for us,” former guard Gene Smith told The Georgetown Voice. “But also for Black America, it was like, ‘Okay, we’re not taking any (expletive). We’re not apologizing.’”
And now, the more people say they don't like Sanders, the more he's embraced by Black Americans.
You have to understand what's in play here. I don't speak for all Black Americans (that job belongs to Beyoncé) but I think this is the main current flowing through this entire notion: Sanders represents something that a lot of non-Black Americans don't understand. He represents stolen opportunities amid Jim Crow. Or the fight against redlining. Or the NFL's long history of discriminating against Black head coaches. Or the lack of Black head coaches in college football now.
He represents an American Presidency that has spent centuries keeping Black people out of that office with one exception. Companies that won't hire people of color. Or companies that do and ostracize them.
Sanders represents a history denied, a middle finger to racism, a head nod to Black Americans who get all of this.
"Deion was always beloved by us because of how he's played the game," said longtime journalist Jemele Hill, who is a contributor for The Atlantic and author of Uphill: A Memoir, to USA TODAY Sports, "and you know we really latch onto any Black figure who is upsetting the traditionally white apple cart."
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Hill added: "I don't think there would be this much excitement had Deion gone the traditional route. Like, we didn't get this excited about (former Notre Dame coach) Tyrone Willingham … no matter how many Black folks were on that team, we didn't care."
The reaction of Black fans to Colorado losing, and also to what appeared to be an incredibly strong social media reaction to the pre-game video from Oregon coach Dan Lanning, only strengthens the notion of a Black community backing Sanders. All over social media, Black fans were furious with Lanning for trolling Sanders in that speech. They shouldn't have been. That speech is normal fodder for coaches but it showed a sensitivity to the treatment of Sanders.
"Black folks are taking this (loss) personal and mourning like he was supposed to go undefeated," Hill said. "It's also why we've reacted so strongly to the Oregon coach's pre-game speech." Hill then joked, referring to the movie Black Panther: "A Wakanda layer of Black protection has been formed around him."
None of this is to cast Sanders as Martin Luther Sanders or the second coming of Barack Obama. Or the third coming of, well, the Black Panther. What is true is that Sanders has become an avatar where many Black Americans (again, I don't speak for all of us) look at him as someone who pokes his finger in the eye of a system (or systems) that have bulldozed us for centuries.
This is why the Oregon loss won't change any of this. Black Americans are invested beyond wins and losses (though that's important). It's Sanders' story, and the story to come, that has us backing him. I've shocked myself at how invested I've become in Colorado and also how invested some people are at hating him. When I began posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, about Colorado, several people jumped into my timeline to gloat about Sanders losing. "Humiliating for Deion," one wrote.
Some people couldn't wait and they got their wish. But this is another reason why so much of Black America will stick with him.
Hill expressed one piece of trepidation and it's a concern I share as well.
"Black people make (expletive) cool," she said. "But there always comes a point where the white folks take it from us and make it theirs in a way that we don't recognize. I sometimes get a little uncomfortable with how white members of the media are describing what's happening in Colorado."
Hill fears some in the media will start treating Colorado "like an exotic exhibit."
She's right.
Sanders also apparently hasn't been satisfied with simply being a coach. He's ingratiated himself to the Black community outside of football at Colorado.
“He has been intentional about building Black community outside of this space,” Colorado state Rep. Leslie Herod told Andscape.com. “When he first came to Colorado, he reached out to the members of the Black caucus, especially myself and Sen. James Coleman, who’s my colleague, and said, ‘What’s up? What’s up with Colorado, what’s up with this place?’ I’m a pretty known alumni here, so it was like, ‘Let’s talk.’ We sat down multiple times and he was like, ‘Well, what can I do? What can I bring? What does this look like?’"
Colorado may not win every game. They may not always be perfect. They may even get blown out on occasion. But that won't change one fact:
For now, they are Black America's team.