Deion Sanders Responds to Rumors He Offered $50K to Have People Not Criticize Him

Colorado head coach Deion Sanders has responded to a rumor about him offering $50,000 to people if they didn't criticize him.

Asked about the rumor during his Tuesday press conference, Sanders clarified the offer was intended as a joke to see how long they the media could go without mentioning his name.

The question came about after Christopher Neely, who has served as Sanders' personal videographer, said in an interview that Coach Prime extended a cash offer to his critics to see if they would not say anything negative about him in public:

"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. 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."

He later addressed the "lie" on social media:

Sanders has been one of the most high-profile figures in all of college football since 2020 when he was hired as the head coach at Jackson State.

The spotlight got even brighter on Sanders when he took over Colorado prior to the 2023 season, particularly after Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter joined him in Boulder.

After the Buffaloes started 3-0 in Sanders' first season, they lost eight of their final nine games. They rebounded in 2024 with a 9-4 record, their most wins in a season since 2016.

Hunter won the Heisman Trophy, joining Rashaan Salaam as the only Colorado players who have received the honor.

Since that time, though, Colorado has a 5-14 record under Sanders. The team is off to a 2-5 start so far in 2026, including an 0-4 record in Big 12 play. The Buffaloes are the only Big 12 team without a conference victory.

They have lost three of their four Big 12 games by at least 10 points, with a 57-24 loss to Oklahoma State in their most recent contest.

Sanders is in the second season of a five-year, $54 million extension he signed with Colorado in March 2025 that runs through 2029. He is currently the 14th-highest-paid head coach in FBS.