Colorado football coach Deion Sanders delivered a stern message to his team Monday about penalties, Band-Aids and earrings – a lecture designed to grab his players’ attention about something they’ve sometimes lacked in his first two seasons.
Discipline.
The Buffaloes committed the third-most penalties in the nation in 2023 (107) and the most in the Big 12 Conference in 2024 (100). He reminded his team about it Monday after returning to campus in Boulder following some time away in Texas.
“Last in the conference in penalties, right?” Sanders said to his team, as documented on Well Off Media, a YouTube channel run by his eldest son Deion Jr. “So that means no discipline, right?”
Sanders then singled out an unidentified player who apparently had showed up for the team workout wearing bandages over his earrings. Sanders has prohibited earrings while in uniform and during meetings.
“We got one cat out here with Band-Aids over his ears,” Sanders said. “What that mean? That means `I’m gonna wear my earrings, but I’m gonna put a Band-Aid over them, because I ain’t gonna listen to y’all because I ain’t got no discipline.’ Does that mean that? What that mean? What that mean? That mean you gonna do you right? Forget us. Anybody else out here with earrings in? Anybody else besides one dude?”
Sanders gave the player a warning, telling him he’d be on the “first thing smoking” if he did it again – a reference to transportation out of town.
“Come out here like that again, please,” Sanders told him. “I promise you you’ll be on the first thing smoking. You got that?”
“Yes sir,” the player replied.
“Discipline,” Sanders said. “Discipline.”
The Buffs finished 9-4 in Sanders’ second season last year and will begin the third spring practice season under him March 11. They begin the 2025 season Aug. 30 at home against Georgia Tech.
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com