During Tuesday’s SWAC Media Day, Football Hall of Famer and Jackson State head coach Deion Sanders walked out of an event after Clarion Ledger and USA TODAY Network reporter Nick Suss called Sanders by his first name before asking a question.
Sanders claimed that reporters would get cussed out if they addressed someone like Nick Saban by his first name, which isn’t true at all. The Alabama coach and every college football coach frequently get addressed by their first name during press conferences.
It happened eight times during Saban’s availability at SEC Media Day on Wednesday, and he was even asked specifically for his preference.
Coach? Nick? Coach Saban?
Alabama head coach Nick Saban fields a question at SEC Media Days on how he prefers the media to address him. "I respond to just about anything. I've been called just about everything." #RollTide #BamaFactor #SECMD21 pic.twitter.com/kBczworkn4
— #WVTM13 (@WVTM13) July 21, 2021
After a laugh, Saban said:
“Look, I respond to just about anything, and I’ve been called just about everything. So, not something that’s really important to me. But I think everybody should have the opportunity to create or make the way their expectation is of how they get addressed. It’s not something that’s really that significant to me.”
So while Sanders does have every right to set his preference, there’s no way he should have taken being called “Deion” as disrespect because it wasn’t. It was a basic human interaction between a reporter and coach — two adults in a professional setting.
There was certainly a better way to convey that than this video and tweet.
This is how all of this started, I really Pray for all of us because this was something so minimal that was hilarious to me that you allowed a FOOLISH media outlet and person to play on your Preconceived notions. I’m all about Peace,Love,Work,Commitment,Sacrifice & Forgiveness. pic.twitter.com/ZjZPMVJVfj
— COACH PRIME (@DeionSanders) July 21, 2021
After all, it’s his name. And a reporter isn’t one of his players.
