Last week, representatives for the franchises of the National Football League (NFL) met in Kansas City, Missouri to select from a pool of the brightest college stars as part of their annual draft. After all was said and done, only one player was selected from an HBCU — Jackson State University’s Isaiah Bolden, who was picked by the New England Patriots in the seventh and final round on Saturday (April 29).
Taking to social media, Deion Sanders both congratulated Bolden on his well-deserved achievement and expressed his disappointment in the league as a whole.
“So proud [of] you [Isaiah Bolden]. You deserved to be drafted much higher, but I’m truly proud of [you],” Sanders tweeted. “I know how much you want this. I’m ashamed of the 31 other NFL teams that couldn’t find draft value in ALL of the talented HBCU players, and we had three more draft worthy players at JSU.”
Back in 2020, Sanders became the 21st head coach for the Jackson State Tigers football team. During his three-season stint, the NFL legend led the Tigers to a 27-6 record and two Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) titles. In 2021, Sanders received an Eddie Robinson Award for being the top head coach in NCAA’s Division I Football Championship Subdivision.
In December of 2022, he was named the head coach of the University of Colorado Boulder‘s Buffaloes program. In a recent interview on “The Rich Eisen Show” (above), Sanders opened up about his plans to bring the Buffaloes back to victory. “We have the blueprint. We just did it [at Jackson State], and we plan on doing it again,” he said.
Coach Prime also spoke on his adjustment to the Centennial State. “You know, I don’t travel or go anywhere. For God to take me there? In 14 years, I’ve never played in the snow. So just seeing the snow and going snowmobiling? Unbelievable, blew my mind.”