Jason Whitlock: “Deion Sanders has more in common with Jim Jones than Nick Saban. Jim Jones, of course, is one of America’s most notorious cult leaders. In the 1960s and 70s he used a mashup of Christian theology, Marxism, racial idolatry, and social justice to convince a large group of followers to relocate to a jungle in South America. He promised his congregants they would build an oppression-free paradise in Guyana. A little more than a year after their arrival in Guyana on November 18th, 1978, Jim Jones talked his church members into drinking cyanide-laced Flavor-Aid. 909 people died. 70% of Jones’s followers were Black. 45% of them were Black women. Abused Christian theology, Marxism, racial idolatry, and social justice have been combined and used repeatedly to make fools of Black Americans. Too often Black people find racialized religious doctrine irresistible. In hopes of building an oppression-free football paradise in Boulder, Colorado, Deion Sanders has employed the same formula as Jim Jones. Coach Prime cast himself as one cup Evangelical motivator, a tablespoon of racial justice warrior, a gallon of American Idol, and a full-blown useful idiot for Marxists. Throughout the fall, Black celebrities and sports fans flocked to one of the most White locales in America to worship at the foot of their football cult leader, and buying whatever apparel or ‘bull junk’ as Deion says, Coach Prime sold. After a 3-0 start, Deion was ‘Coach Deity’, an untouchable hero, and a threat to Nick Saban as college football’s greatest coach. Any critique of Sanders brought allegations of ‘racism’, or race betrayal. ‘Coach Deity’ had turned Colorado’s year-long football wine into life-sustaining water. This guy is closer to Jim Jones than Nick Saban. Late Friday night and early Saturday morning on November 18th, 2023, 45 years to the day that Jim Jones led a mass suicide, the Coach Prime cult suffered its ‘DeionTown Massacre.’ In the battle for last place in the Pac-12, the Washington State Cougars destroyed Coach Prime’s Colorado Buffaloes, 56-14. For all the hype and bluster, Deion’s rebuilt Buffaloes will finish in the same spot as last year’s team — looking up at every other team in its conference. For those of you who drank the Coach Prime Kool-Aid, thankfully all you will suffer is wounded pride and ego. What I hope is this is a teachable moment about the dangers of falling for a cult of personality, and of pledging allegiance to anyone based on skin color rather than a set of values. Throughout the football season I have been repeatedly ridiculed and demonized for relentlessly criticizing Deion’s coaching style and methods. I’ve been accused of being ‘obsessed’ with the Hall of Fame football legend. My genuine obsession is with sharing a worldview that leads to improved decision making and rids people of their idolatry. We live in an era ruled by idolatry, the religious worship of idols. Deion and Colorado football provided me with the perfect topic to consistently analyze the pitfalls of idolatry. Coach Prime epitomizes unrepentant idolatry. He’s been the spokesman for the pleasures of idolatry for 40 years. While claiming Christian faith he flamboyantly and unapologetically chases money, popularity, youth, material possessions, sex, pride, and racial justice. His cult followers defend his lack of repentance by arguing that ‘he’s always been this way, Deion hasn’t changed!’ His defenders claim Deion has mastered the art of being ‘relatable’ to kids. Their defenses are an indictment. No man should relish his inability to evolve and mature, and no grown man, especially a father and leader should desire to be ‘relatable’ to kids. That’s not our role. We should desire to be seen as wise. A child should relate to his peers and seek wisdom from adults. The pursuit of relatability acts as a beard for avoidance of the responsibility of manhood. Deion does not want to grow up. He’s made youthfulness an idol. The gold chains, the hoodie, the sunglasses, and the friendship with rappers half his age are all symptoms of his fear of aging. Getting old is uncomfortable and scary. It’s pointless, however, to fight it. I spent the entire college football season attempting to educate fans about how Deion’s early success was fools gold. It was never sustainable. The offensive strategy Colorado employed allowed Deion’s son to pad his stats at quarterback, but it undermined development of the offensive line, and would cost the team games later in the season. Deion’s insistence on searing himself and his ‘Coach Prime’ brand worked against building the kind of locker room chemistry that could handle inevitable adversity. Deion’s outsized ‘hey, look at me’ persona guaranteed that his team would always face an emotionally inspired opponent. Beyond the winning and losing of football games, Deion’s representation of Christian faith was always most problematic. Deion’s incredible lack of humility calls into question the sincerity of his faith. You cannot claim the ‘King of Kings’ while making yourself the king. Deion made himself an idol. He sought victory through trying to persuade his players, the media, and fans to worship him. Of all of his blasphemous slogans, ‘I AM HIM’ is the worst. More than anyone, I hope that Deion Sanders has learned the most from my ‘Daily Dose of Deion’ segments and columns. It’s never too late to learn, repent, and transform. Deion has much wisdom to share if he’s capable of self-evaluation. He can put away his gold chains, the rap music, his desire to be popular and relatable, and he can build a locker room culture centered around uplifting and educating every player on the team. It’s not impossible to win football games with Deion’s immature and secular approach, but games are not worth winning if the approach sour souls rather than saves them.” (Full Segment Above)
Watch Jason Whitlock of Blaze TV’s Fearless explain why he’s been so critical of Deion Sanders and the Colorado football program this season, as Whitlock’s ‘Daily Dose of Deion’ segments never backed down from their admonishment of Coach Prime’s rookie season in Boulder despite Sanders at one point being the most heralded and unchecked coach in college football.
After sprinting out to a 3-0 start and a top 25 national ranking, Colorado would then lose 7 of their next 8 games and plummet to the basement of the Pac-12 standings.
Check out the segment above as Whitlock compares Sanders to infamous cult leader Jim Jones, who Whitlock says devised the same type of brainwashing that Sanders executed to make himself out to be some sort of false God that his followers would eventually deeply regret worshiping.
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