Colorado football beat reporter rips Athlon Sports' bombshell report: 'Clickbait drama'

Athlon Sports' Steve Corder's report about the Colorado football locker room -- which included rumors of players fighting over gambling debts and during initiation rituals -- was ripped by BuffStampede.com's Adam Munsterteiger as "clickbait drama."

"CU Buffs having to stampede through clickbait drama again (based on a writer that was already discredited multiple times before) as the second week of camp begins," Munsterteiger wrote.

Of course, some Colorado Buffaloes reporters do a bit of sunshine pumping, but the Athlon Sports report has bothered others on the beat and, most notably, Deion Sanders -- who alluded to potentially taking legal action on the publishers of these rumors.

"That's when they know you are doing well, when they start lying," Sanders said while enjoying a meal at CU's facilities. "Shouldn't there be some kind of penalty or ramification? But nevertheless we have the highest GPA in the history of the school. Wonder how they do that?"

Sanders tends to belittle any source reporting negatively, but he's never once mentioned "ramifications" until now. Munsterteiger going at Corder and Athlon Sports as he did is straight out of the pages of the pro wrestling playbook.

Anyone got the popcorn?

Deion Sanders' Colorado football program treated like a top program

Outside of the immediate aftermath Coach Prime's Colorado hiring, the transfer portal transformation, which took months to unfold and was a slow burn, and the three-game winning streak to start the 2023 season, this may be the highest level of interest the Buffs have ever had.

This report, and the threats of legal action from Sanders and Co., figure to be at the top of college football fans' minds until the start of the season. The stories will be linked to the likes of Shilo Sanders, Cormani McClain, Jordan Seaton, Savion Washington, and Kaleb Mathis by observers indefinitely. Unfortunately, whether the report is true or not.

The mood has shifted and the narrative has changed. Coaches, players, and reporters have now had to address the elephant in the room.

#FightGate is a thing in Boulder now. Perhaps not that exact hashtag or label, but the idea.

For what it's worth, similar stories have been spoken in media circles for a while. But publishing the story without clearance from the former players who told those anecdotes that they'd put their names behind the quotes could come at a cost to the publisher.