US Women's National Team head coach Emma Hayes admitted to fangirling for Colorado football head coach Deion Sanders when she met Coach Prime in Boulder as her squad was facing South Korea in an International Friendly in Denver.
"Hayes said she spoke to Sanders about caring for others and doing the things they love," Bleacher Report's Andrew Peters prefaced before saying, "She also admitted that she was 'fangirling' meeting the Pro Football Hall of Famer."
Hayes said that Sanders is someone she "really" admires.
"The girls (on the USWNT team) asked me afterward, 'Did you know who he who he was?' And I said, 'I was the one who set it up,'" Hayes said. "He is someone I really admire."
Deion Sanders getting love from the sports world despite Colorado football struggles in 2023
Going 4-8 with the Buffs in 2023 did almost nothing to take the luster away from Sanders' persona. Everyone from the sports world still rocks with Coach Prime and Colorado despite major struggles in year one in Boulder; whether it be Hayes, boxer Ryan Garcia, or UFL owner Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
What Sanders accomplished as a player can never be taken away from him. Even his accomplishments at Jackson State, raising up an HBCU in one of America's most downtrodden cities and bringing on the No. 1 overall recruit from the 2022 class, will live on forever in the sport's lore.
CU was known to be a dead-end program when Sanders took the job, but he's raised the Buffs' profile considerably. He's already a success to Colorado's administration for the record revenue he's brought in and the press coverage the school enjoys that it otherwise never would've.
So next time someone tries to make the case he belongs at a bigger school, just remember that he wouldn't be getting this love had he struggled at a major Big Ten or SEC program.