Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders is serious about winning and making a statement with the Colorado Buffaloes at his new collegiate football home in Boulder. Prime has made statements affirming that goal, and that sentiment has transferred to his staff, who are impacting the Buffaloes’ messaging.
On Saturday at halftime during Colorado’s home opener against Nebraska, while Sanders was being interviewed on the field, his bodyguard’s shirt went viral with its clear message, “F Around And Find Out.” The “F” was straddled by a stick figure, which defiantly implied what the letter stood for.
The shirt epitomizes a double entendre, daring people to test his security responsibilities by trying his superstar client and putting their college football competition on notice. It is the perfect side story to a walking double entendre in Coach Prime, a man who electrified the HBCU ranks and now brings the same energy to predominantly white institutions.
Buffalo Soldiers
You can’t get whiter than Boulder, Colorado, and that leads to an irony too glaring to miss; Sanders, along with his star recruits in Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter, have transformed the team’s logo and mascot, Ralphie the Buffalo into the Buffalo soldiers. In just two games, he has done better than last year’s team, won the Nebraska rivalry, and has both Shedeur and Travis in the early Heisman conversation.
From 1867 to 1887, African-American Buffalo Soldiers of the 9th and 10th cavalries served Colorado, according to the Vail Public Library. Coach Prime has planted his flag to defend and restore the Colorado Black and Gold like the Buffalo soldiers did for the Old West. The Prime effect is real, even bringing in the admitted non-college football crowd into the game.
