Deion Sanders had to spend another Tuesday in Boulder answering for something other than football.
With Colorado mired in a five-game skid, sitting last in the Big 12 at 0-4 and trying to climb out of a season that keeps sliding, Sanders was forced to address a fresh off-field issue at his weekly news conference. The Buffaloes are already getting squeezed by the on-field results, and the latest distraction only added to the pile.
This one began with a report on Tuesday involving someone close to Sanders and the CU football program, known as “Uncle Neely.” According to the report, Neely said Sanders had offered $50,000 to critics in an attempt to stop the negative talk about him and the team.
“For the most part, the people that attack him wouldn't be making the money they were making if he wasn't here to attack,” Neely said on Monday. “Which is why 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… And you love talking about this man so much, and you make so much talking of this man that you turned the deal down.”
Asked about it at the press conference, Sanders called the idea “a joke.” He also addressed the report on his own social media accounts.
Even if the line was meant in jest, it lands as another off-field fire Sanders has had to extinguish. And it comes at a rough time for a program that has been trending the wrong way since Sanders guided Colorado to a 9-4 mark in 2024 and an Alamo Bowl trip. The Buffs followed with a 3-9 season in 2025 and are now 2-5 this year.
Colorado’s season has already been marked by more than losses. Sanders has also been dealing with the fallout from a Colorado playbook being found by opposing fans at a local hotel before Texas Tech came to Boulder and won earlier in the month.
Now the question hanging over the program is how long Sanders can keep riding out the storm. He is under a five-year, $59 million contract that runs through 2029, and the buyout structure makes any change even more complicated as the defeats keep stacking up.
This was supposed to be the kind of arrival that brought Colorado attention. It has done that. Just not in the way anyone around the program wanted.
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Deion Sanders spent part of this week trying to clean up a comment that quickly took on a life of its own, and the Colorado coach made clear he was not actually offering anybody money to stop talking about him. He said the $50,000 line was meant as a joke about someone profiting off his name and brand, but once it landed in the wider conversation, it became another flashpoint around a program that rarely goes long without one.
The remark resurfaced again at his weekly news conference before Colorado hosts Kansas State, where Sanders stuck to the same message: he does not pay people to avoid criticism, and he was misinterpreted. The larger point sounded familiar from him, too, because criticism has followed much of his career and he said he remains unapologetic about what he says and does. [Read more 🡒]
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Colorados plan, at least in theory, is to keep Johnson bottled up in the pocket and force him to win with his arm. But Kansas State has been dealing with quarterback injuries beyond Johnson, and even if he is cleared to play, theres no guarantee hell look or play the same way he normally does. For a Colorado defense trying to steady itself in conference play, the difference between an injured Johnson and no Johnson at all could shape the whole afternoon. [Read more 🡒]