Colorado football head coach Deion Sanders recalls personal advice Nick Saban gave him

Colorado football head coach Deion Sanders recalled the advice Nick Saban gave him during an AFLAC commercial shoot before the legendary Alabama and LSU head coach's retirement in January; well, rather, recalled that he was given advice, because details about their conversation were kept to a minimum by Coach Prime.

“I went to Coach Saban with a problem that I had,” Sanders said during a recent interview (h/t Forbes). “And Coach said to me, ‘You know what I did?’ And he gave me an illustration of what he had done in a similar situation. I said to him, ‘Coach, I can’t do that. If I do it, I know I’m going to be criticized.’

“In the end, further into the season, I had to do what he told me I needed to do in the beginning! And, as you’d expect, he was right!”

What Sanders was referring to will remain a mystery until one of the two, or a nosy worker on that AFLAC set, actually spills beans -- and doesn't just say that beans were spilt.

Colorado football head coach Deion Sanders believes Nick Saban retired because of NIL

Coach Prime blamed NIL for Saban's retirement; believing that the constant changes to what the game used to be were too much for the 72-year-old to keep up with.

“WOW! College Football just lost the GOAT to retirement," Coach Prime prefaced on X before exclaiming, "Wow! I knew it would happen (one) day soon but not this soon. The game has change(d) so much that it chased the GOAT away. College football let's hold up our mirrors and say HONESTLY what (do you) see.”

While Sanders didn't explicitly mention NIL, his "Colorado isn't an ATM" comments have revealed more than enough about his feelings on the relationship between college football and NIL in 2024.