Deion Sanders tweets out tone-deaf attack on players who opt out of 2020 season
By Mike Luciano
Deion Sanders needs to rethink this tone-deaf take on players opting out.
Deion Sanders is a Hall of Famer and perhaps the single greatest cover cornerback to ever play in the NFL. That doesn’t automatically make him an arbiter of truth, however. While most current and former players understand the motivation behind opting out of playing in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic, Sanders unleashed a vitriolic attack on those who want to sit the season out.
Sanders claimed that “NO ONE is bigger than the game itself” in an amped-up tweet, implying that the NFL and college football will go on with or without players who choose not to play in this season.
All Players OPTING out in all sports PLEASE BELIEVE the game will go on without u. This is a business & don’t u EVER forget that. There’s NO ONE that’s bigger than the game itself. Only the ref,umps & officials are that important that u can’t play without them. NOT YOU! #Truth
— COACH PRIME (@DeionSanders) August 7, 2020
This reads like what at a guy with six followers would post in the reply section on Twitter after a player opts out, not one of the most universally respected players in the game.
Deion Sanders needs to understand that players who opt out are doing so to keep their families healthy.
Players on both the professional and amateur levels have weighed the pros and cons of playing amid the pandemic and decided that potentially contracting the virus and spreading it around to family members isn’t worth it for a handful of games. The fact that the former Florida State star managed to take a hardline stance against the players and for the ownership/administration that wants to see them play, even if it’s potentially detrimental to their health, is shocking. Let’s just hope Shedeur Sanders, Sanders’ son and a 4-star QB that committed to FAU, doesn’t take Dad’s advice if he is thinking about opting out.
As for the other points raised in this tweet, they don’t even make logical sense. The NFL used replacement referees for an entire month of regular-season games, so the game can be played when members decide to opt out. His diatribe has fallen at one of the first hurdles.
They played a month with replacement officials ... And yes, the NFL will continue on and I'm sure the players opting out understand someone could take their roster spot in their absence. But they value their health this season over the chance of being replaced in 2021 https://t.co/QsfVZSSVdC
— Geoff Schwartz (@geoffschwartz) August 7, 2020
This shouldn’t mar Sanders’ reputation as a great cornerback, athlete, or philanthropist, but he does need to at least be questioned on this.
Next. Full list of NFL players opting out. dark