Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders is heading into his second season (and first non-shortened season) as Jackson State head coach, and his idea of the proper reporter-coach decorum already needs some work.
Sanders was in Birmingham, Ala., on Tuesday for SWAC Media Day, and he took offense when Clarion Ledger and USA TODAY Network reporter Nick Suss addressed Deion Sanders by “Deion” even though, uh, that’s his name.
According to the report from Langston Newcombe of the Clarion Ledger, Sanders left the event after calling out Suss for addressing him by “Deion” and claimed that the reporter would never address Alabama’s Nick Saban by “Nick.”
“You don’t call Nick Saban, ‘Nick.’ Don’t call me Deion,” Sanders told Nick Suss from the Clarion Ledger.
“If you call Nick (Saban), Nick, you’ll get cussed out on the spot, so don’t do that to me,” Sanders later added. “Treat me like Nick.”
Despite Sanders’ claim that reporters show Saban a different level of respect, you hear all coaches get addressed by their first name at every press conference because that’s how humans interact with each other. Suss added that he also calls Saban, “Nick.”
Again, it happens to every coach:
I love Deion Sanders but as a black UGA fan I can confirm Kirby Smart is called Kirby (his name) every single press conference😂
EVERY SINGLE ONE.
Here’s the first question from today:“Hey, Kirby…..” pic.twitter.com/Qa5dQYDV5C
— Trust Me (@howwetalking) July 20, 2021
It’s one thing to expect your players to call you “coach,” but it’s entirely different between reporters and coaches. They’re all adults in a professional setting, so they address one another by name.
Sanders would tweet about the interaction, claiming that Suss thought it was “cute” to address Sanders by his first name.
Never walked out of media day. I prolonged my time to answer another question & the person thought it was cute to address me the way he did so I dropped the call & went to the next outlet. Please don’t allow a fool to fool u because then nobody would truly know who the fool is. https://t.co/csbTRNgJvd
— COACH PRIME (@DeionSanders) July 20, 2021
Still, Nick Saban gets called “Nick” in every press conference, and he doesn’t take issue with it because why would he? It happened here at the 5:38 mark.
It just seems like an odd thing to get upset about.
