Colorado football HC Deion Sanders shares interesting explanation on media being tough on student athletes

Colorado football head coach Deion Sanders understands why the media is tougher on collegiate athletes these days than ever before: the players are now essentially pros who are being compensated far more than them.

“Everybody wants it both ways," Sanders said about NIL while speaking with Joel Klatt on a "Big Noon Convo" (h/t NIL On SI). "Like the kids want to be compensated like pros but they want to be treated like pros, right? Pros get talked to in a way, not by the coaches but by the media. See there has been a safeguard around college athletes that the media don’t really go at them because they’re amateurs. Now you got media talking junk to college players because college players are making more than the media."

Sanders surprisingly sided with the media, though.

“And a lot of these collegiate athletes ain’t built like that to hear that," Sanders prefaced before saying, "Because the first thing they do and we try to safeguard that, is at halftime, they go to checking the phone. ‘Yeah, what they say about me?’ You can’t live like that. It’s tough.”

Deion Sanders outed Colorado football locker room for complaining about critics

Sanders seemingly outed someone in his CU locker room for complaining about what is being said about him on social media. Perhaps more than just one person was called out too, since Sanders did specifically say "a lot of these collegiate athletes."

With players being treated like pros, it's good to know that Coach Prime has built a support staff heavy on NFL experience. Who knows? Maybe more Hall of Famers are on the way.

The more the sport shifts closer to the pros, the more it benefits your program to have someone like Sanders at the helm of it.