Colorado's Deion Sanders says CSU coach's comments 'personal'

Colorado coach Deion Sanders made it clear Thursday that a comment about him by Colorado State coach Jay Norvell earlier this week makes Saturday’s game between the two teams “personal.”

At a team meeting the next morning, Sanders informed his team that, thanks to Norvell, the latest edition of the Rocky Mountain Showdown also will be about business.

How so? Well, it just so happens that Sanders has a new line of sunglasses coming out, and Norvell’s remark about Sanders wearing a hat and glasses at news conferences will almost certainly be good for business.

“They don’t realize, not only we gonna kick their butts because it’s personal, but it’s gonna be business,” Sanders told his players after giving each one of them a pair of the fancy eyewear. “When I say business, I do a line of shades with Blenders. This is one of the first lines, so they don’t realize they just helped me with business.”

“But,” he quickly added, “it’s also gonna be personal.”

It’s worth noting that Sanders was wearing neither glasses nor a hat during the meeting, or at least not during the portion he posted on Instagram. He did wear shades (but still no hat) during an appearance on ESPN’s “First Take” Friday morning, when he handed out sunglasses to hosts Stephen A. Smith, Shannon Sharpe and Molly Qerim.

No. 18 Colorado (2-0) has won the last five matchups against its in-state rival (most recently in 2019) and holds a 67-22-2 edge in the series. Colorado State (0-1) hasn’t had a winning campaign since 2017 and is a 23½-point underdog, according to FanDuel.

But, hey, at least Norvell’s mother taught him some manners ... or something like that.

On his weekly radio show Wednesday, Norvell made a thinly veiled reference to the Pro Football Hall of Famer.

Referencing an ESPN interview he had done ahead of the game, Norvell said: “I took my hat off, and I took my glasses off. I said, ‘When I talk to grown-ups, I take my hat and my glasses off. That’s what my mother taught me.’”

The live audience attending the recording loved the barb. Sanders may have loved it too — for motivational purposes, although he certainly didn’t let it show when addressing his players Thursday.

“I’m minding my own business watching some film, trying to get ready, trying to get out here and be the best coach that I could be, and I look up and I read some bull junk that they had said about us, once again,” said Sanders, wearing a hat and sunglasses.

“Why would you want to talk about us when we don’t talk about nobody? All we do is go out here, work our butts off and do our job on Saturday. But when they give us ammunition, they done messed around and made it, what?”

“Personal!” his players responded.

Sanders continued: “It was just gonna be a good game and they done messed around and made it?”

“Personal!” his players answered.

Coach Prime was on a roll: “It was gonna be a great test — a battle of Colorado — but they done messed around and made it?”

“Personal!” his players said.

Sanders smiled, nodded and replied, “That’s right.”