Deion Sanders found himself in the middle of a tweet controversy last week that might have sent an average man into internet witness protection. For the former Jackson State and current Colorado head coach, it was just another Wednesday.
By now you’ve probably seen or at least heard of the “”Lawd Jesus” tweet. It’s been viewed 23 million times according to Twitter metrics. At the heart of the matter was Sanders quote tweeting a post from user @dalvinthetruth. Dalvin is an online personality befriended by many Colorado players and Sanders himself.
The tweet was a screenshot of stats from Jaheim Ward, a sophomore defensive back at Austin Peay. The purpose of sharing his stats were an attempt to belittle his position in an argument involving former Colorado player Xavier Smith. The former CU safety told the Athletic that Sanders “never even tried to get to know me,” and that he “was destroying guys’ confidence and belief in themselves.”
Current Buffaloes receiver Kaleb Mathis jumped into the fray and got into it with Ward, a current teammate of Smith. There were back and forth pot shots from both sides that were an attempt to undercut the football ability of all parties involved. It’s too exhausting to detail it all.
Dalvin, who is not a player, jumped into the fray with his screenshot of Ward’s stats.
“Man go take a seat,” he wrote along with the tweet.
Lawd Jesus
When Coach Prime quoted the post with the words “Lawd Jesus” that’s when the matter became headline news. The comments were filled with people who took the quote tweet as Sanders throwing shade on the Austin Peay player. Sanders says that wasn’t the case.
In an exclusive interview with a select group of content creators, including @Dalvinthetruth and myself, this is how Sanders explained it.
“Y’all know what Lord Jesus means. That means dang you (Dalvin) really went at this cat and they took it as I was shooting at the kid. I don’t play shooting at no kid. I was saying, dang, Dalvin ain’t playing y’all, better leave him alone. That’s really what I was like, Lord Jesus. And I think that was taken wrong. I think that was taken sideways,” Sanders said.
Later in the conversations Sanders reiterated again his tweet wasn’t directed at the kid but toward Dalvin and that he “apologized to the people that thought I was talking to the kid.”
You’re not built for this
Sanders took issue with the intent of the article from the Athletic and how Smith was positioned in the piece.
“This is what’s strange to me. That great weekend with the (spring) game. with the festivities, great recruiting weekend, million recruits up there that can flat out, play and change the complexity of your program. And right after that, somebody goes and finds a young brother. They talk about another brother and. Is that okay? How’s that okay? You go and find somebody that bad mouths us that ain’t been with us. Why aren’t you talking about the team you’re with or the team you’re getting ready to go to.”
“And how can this gentleman not know that you’re being used? Because now you’re going to get used again. Now the fans getting ready to jump on you, and you ain’t built like that mentally and emotionally. You’re not prepared for that onslaught. So you got to be careful with that. And, that’s the sad thing about it. You’re not you’re not built for that kind of stuff, man. Like, don’t do that,” Sanders said.
And Sanders certainly took issue with the accusations leveled at him and his Colorado program.
“No one mistreats nobody, man. Like, we don’t do that. I don’t condone that. Y’all been around me. Y’all know how I get down. I don’t mistreat anybody. I don’t play that, I don’t condone that,” Sanders said.
Twitter convo continues for Deion Sanders
The online discussion was raging on two fronts. While Sanders apologized for being misunderstood on “Lawd Jesus” he offered no such apology for what he had to say to @PreTimeKB. More on that in a minute.
Before the elder Sanders had entered the conversation on former players, Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders was in the mix when he tweeted his take on what Smith had to say in his interview with the Athletic.
“Ion even remember him tbh. Bro had to be very mid at best,” Shedeur Sanders tweeted.
It was around this time that @PreTimeKB interjected his thoughts on Shedeur with a reply to an unrelated Deion Sanders post.
“Tell yo son stop act like he the coldest out here then put up a 4-8 season,” the user posted.
Coach Prime was quick and precise in response.
“He will be a top 5 pick. Where yo son going ? Lololol I got time today. Lololol,” Sanders posted.
Sanders went into detail about this thoughts at the time.
“But the other gentleman that came at Shedeur.. Now, I came back. Now that that that was me. Just like. All right. Now my my baby going top five. What what about you? Like that was real. So I got to do better on that and not ride with it. But I was bored and I didn’t say anything hurtful. I don’t attack people. But every once in a while I want to play, you know, and then I get petty. I know I could handle that kind of stuff. I can handle that. That’s been happening my whole life. A lot of people can’t handle that,” Sanders said.
“Every now and then you say something about my kids. I’m going to holler at you.”
Rain will pass
By the end of the interview with the content creators Sanders was headed out to go fishing. Taking a few days away from Colorado and back home in Texas, his life hadn’t been altered by the commotion and he certainly hadn’t been ‘canceled’ by the standards of today. Deion Sanders has a principle that when people are talking about you at this level, something good is on the way.
“Nobody trips when it rains because you know it’s going to stop right? Ain’t nobody trips when you got a storm, and it’s thunder and lightning. Because you know it’s going to stop. That’s how it is with life, and that’s how it is with the drama. But the level of it should tell y’all hey man, this ain’t normal. God is really doing something. This is not normal, because how can people get so mad at this? How can I get so frustrated with that? This ain’t normal. So there has to be something, oh my God, it has to be something huge that’s coming because this is truly abnormal.”