Deion Sanders' Colorado football program's public enemy No. 1 shares ominous prediction on this season

Deion Sanders' public enemy No. 1 in the media, The Denver Post's Sean Keeler, the reporter who was banned from asking questions at Colorado football media events, went on The Paul Finebaum Show to confide with another talking head who has gone at Coach Prime's CU Buffs this offseason.

During the August 28 appearance with Finebaum, Keeler claimed that Colorado's players, coaching staff, and everyone surrounding the program is experiencing a level of "fear."

“It’s fear. It’s as you said; it’s fear all around,” Keeler said (h/t Awful Announcing). “And it’s fear of people who are on the academic side and know better and are committed to this. I think — and I wrote this 10 days ago — when we had the testy exchange at CU’s Fall Media Day that Deion is starting to lash out at people, which strikes me as a sign of fear that something good might be coming on the football side.

"...fear is the four-letter word I keep coming back to, and it’s everywhere. I think players are afraid. I think coaches are afraid because they saw what happened to the first-year staff. I think media are afraid. And I think Colorado administrators are afraid. And if they win, it’ll all be justified. And if they don’t, grab your popcorn. Which you probably will anyway, but definitely keep it handy.”

Denver media pushing Deion Sanders away from Colorado football

There have been several reports from a national outlet that revealed scuttlebutt of locker room in-fighting, the illegal carrying of firearms, and even Lil Wayne's "Prime Weekend" concert being an NIL requirement for all players, but those haven't picked up steam in Denver-area media circles. They sort of came and went without many repercussions to the program or the outlet; the latter's credibility being called into question being the only ramification.

Sanders not suing for the locker room story is an interesting look, since his own son Shilo, who's currently being sued by a high school security guard he assaulted nine years ago, was accused of bullying Cormani McClain. But he may think saying his piece was enough to keep away the narrative. It seems like it has locally.

But it's a couple of legacy media local reporters who are turning on him, including Keeler and the CBS Colorado affiliate. If Sanders puts stock into them -- and it seems he does considering his explosive August 9 presser where he lashed out at Keeler included not taking questions from CBS and mocking reporters from The AP -- he'll eventually feel unwelcomed enough in Colorado to act on it.

If he embraces new media, though, like pro-Coach Prime outlets like DNVR, BuffZone, and BuffStampede.com, he'll see that he can have plenty of support from the media professionals he has to deal with.