Shedeur Sanders opens up on why he went scorched earth on ex-Colorado football S Xavier Smith

Shedeur Sanders showed no mercy toward former Colorado football safety Xavier Smith, who put Deion Sanders on blast for how he handled the departures of 2022 Buffs he no longer wanted on the roster.

His explanation painted the picture of a quarterback and locker room leader who was simply defending his father and his school.

"This is the thing though — it's a lot of people that are good and bad in sports and I'd never talk down on no player, but it's just like, first you said cap about the university and then you talk about Pops, so I'm going to be honest behind that," Sanders said during a live stream on X following his "very mid at best" comments on Smith (h/t 247Sports). "I would never off rip try and put anybody down, but then you talk about family and about that because I know how (his) character is. Now, whenever you talk about (family), I just got to be honest about what's going on."

Xavier Smith's teammate Jaheim Ward caught stray from Colorado football head coach Deion Sanders

Smith's comments, and Shedeur's retort, were not the end of the drama. Far from it. In many ways, it was the snowball that'd roll down the mountain and turn into a full-on social media avalanche that had many in the media losing their minds and overreacting; since coaches have done much worse than what Coach Prime did.

What did Deion do, you may ask? Well, he quote-tweeted someone who posted the stats of Smith's Austin Peay teammate, Jaheim Ward, and said "Lawd Jesus." Ward had been defending Smith to Kaleb Mathis, who was engaging him in a back-and-forth. We don't even know what the true intent of the tweet from Sanders was, but the reactions implied that Coach Prime had committed the most unthinkable sin.

So, in essence, nothing new; just another nonsensical news cycle for CU in the college football world.