FIRST TAKE | He's a bully’ - Stephen A. blasts Deion Sanders for disgraceful ban on Denver columnist

on Keeler Colorado attributed the decision to a series of sustained personal attacks and Killer's coverage of the program and this comes just weeks after Prime had took issue with the local CBS affiliate reporter after a story published by CBS coach Prime had this exchange with another media member Saturday if I ask a negative question will you not answer them anymore that's being negative right now like you take an approach that I'm going to be negative I'm I'm not negative to anybody in here I would challenge you and ask you why or where is this coming from so I'm not I'm not built like that I'm not built to hate I'm not a hateful guy I'm not a I I come with love I think any if anybody in here has had encounters with me I don't come with the bull junk I come with the peace and the joy now when you show me where you stand I might have to change that a little bit so I'm not going to match your ignorance all right uh Shay you're up first any issue with how Dion handled that well maybe not that particular guy but there's this one column it's Sean Keeler he's used the phrase false profit deposition Dion Planet Prime Bruce Lee of BS Dion Kool-Aid and circus that's personal if you want to talk about my program if you want to say I'm not doing a good job of coaching if you want to say that I don't I don't do a good job of discipline my players and my players are not disciplined and they're not playing fo the game the right way I can live with that but what what does these personal attacks have to do with my program why are you attacking me personally okay I understand that my Persona preceded me you know he got the name the name Prime and that's what people refer him they call him Coach Prime and I get all of that but this notion that I should be allowed to because I'm in a position I'm a head coach and I should let people talk take personal attacks at me N I ain't going to deal with that if you want to talk about my program okay that's fine we're not as good as we thought we were we're not as good as we're supposed to be my player Dion is not doing a good job of coaching these players because they're still making the same mistake week in and week out so that shows me if you want to say they lack discipline all these penalties I don't see where they've gotten any better from last year I can live with all of those harsh critiques but when you start to attack me personally nah I'm not going to answer your questions I'm just going to keep it moving on I'll let someone go and they can ask me a question that some people might deem negative but I understand that comes along with the territory but you attacking me personally that don't come along with this Territory go ahead Paul Shannon we can all quibble about the personal attacks and that's fair everybody comes from a different perspective I don't I haven't read a lot from this columnist so I don't I don't know the context uh exactly why he said some of the things that he did but let's not forget that Dion Sanders is a a gigantic figure this isn't just some normal football coach at State you uh he's a larger than life personality that that he has encouraged and enhanced and made a fortune off of throughout his career and to take nothing away from one of the most iconic athletes ever to play college football pro football NFL football you name it but he's in a different situation now he's selling Colorado on his name he's selling it on Sizzle because it's not a football tradition it's not a football power it's not some place that most of us really care about but one of the few people who who does care about it is this guy that writes for the local newspaper and to publicly go after him I think is a mistake he doesn't have to like it why doesn't he just ignore it that's uh that's how it usually works Stephen A been there in his career as a writer I've been there many times and you just you shut the guy out you don't you don't turn him into the story and that's my biggest mistake is somebody who understands the media like like Prime why would he do this what's the point and and here we are we're talking about him okay maybe that's part of it but it's in a very negative and dysfunctional way Stephen A Shannon before you you before you chime in let me say this you know go last year when Prime arrived at Buffalo yeah obviously Shannon and I were you know we weren't at the TCU game uh but we was at the home we were at the home opener then we took first take there and we did the show from there rooting for Dion I've known Dion for years he's a friend and a brother got a lot of love for him I do not agree with how he's handled this situation I do not agree with how the Colorado program has handled the situation and quite frankly I'm a bit disappointed because you have to have thicker skin than that if you don't want to talk to the reporter Shannon don't talk to the reporter but to have the program putting out a release announcing that we're not going to take questions is a program from this guy is utterly ridiculous you started off three and one you beat TCU put Paul and Shannon back up there I don't want to see just me I want to see the both of them as well TCU was the national runner up the year before Colorado opens the season in a prime time Deion Sanders era you beat them and what did you do postc conference do you believe do you believe and he kept asking that question and he wanted to hear the reporter say Do you believe and then he shoot him off okay so what happens thereafter you win two more games you start off three and 0 the rest of the way you lost six straight you lose seven of eight and obviously you're going to have critics people who were lining up remember that pregame motivational speech coach Lanning at Oregon did before they romped Colorado on National Television janon and remember how he said you remember he took a direct shot at Prime Time Deion Sanders he was saying yo you understand I'm saying we ain't trying to win the headlines we going to win out on the field and then they went and they slaughtered them and so we have to take we have to take that into account now prime time and I believe in him I believe in him as a coach I damn sure believe in him as a person you know and I know I I've known him for over two decades I know that his purpose is higher than just when football games but he's also he also somebody that has to understand winning football games that's where it has to start because everything else in terms of the media nobody wants to hear all of that you you you don't want it's listen when we got on LeBron j i I bring up LeBron James for this one thing what did I used to get on LeBron James about Shannon what did I used to get on LeBron James about if he did great it was fantastic he'd soak it all in and when he had a bad night well I'm just trying to be a role model to the kids and and they used to drive me nuts it's like can we stick to basketball we we not we're not questioning your character we're not doing it let's stay right where it is well now we fast forward and we think about somebody like Prime Time and you're talking about not being negative or whatever well Prime i i i this is my brother I I love him and I believe in him and I agree and I know where he's coming from but there is evidence where you've gone against the media there is evidence when you've been negative towards the media because they've been negative towards you maybe not as the head coach in Colorado but as a player you were that way over the years you were that way last year when you beat TCU and you were shoo folks off you were that way you can't then turn around because of a columnist who's been considered somebody I don't know uh uh uh Mr Keeler at all I don't know I don't know much about his work Sean Keeler for The Denver Post I'm not casting any asures on him but there are people in the media out there that said he has been hypocritical and he has been accused of being a shock jock etc etc if anybody supposed to know how to deal with that it's supposed to be prime time wait let me let me challenge you on one thing though Stephen I I don't think we need to worry about whether Prime can handle the media nobody has thicker skin than Prime I think there's another angle here I think he's intentionally wanting to put the guy on blast so people see it and they know what the deal is I don't think it's that Prime can't take the negative press I think his intention is to let people see what this guy is all about in his deal I'm not I'm not implying that he can't take it but the point is that don't mean you handled it right you got a program that put out a press release about exiling the reporter yeah wait a minute Paul has been a reporter for years I've been a reporter for decades that doesn't happen just saying maybe he's showing his power if if a Coach doesn't talk listen nobody had more power than Nick Sabin okay Nick Sabin you didn't hear Alabama is 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