A cynical side of Deion Sanders surfaced Thursday ahead of Colorado’s football showdown with Arizona. The Colorado head coach has already addressed the recent wave of coach firings, but this time, “Coach Prime” is raising questions about the honesty of Big 12 teams when it comes to their college football injury reports.
Sanders noticed a disparity in the injury lists between the two teams. While the Arizona Wildcats had only one player listed as injured, Colorado’s injury report showed significantly more athletes sidelined. “Why do we always like, we always have 100 guys (on the injury report) and the other team, I look over and they have two guys?” Sanders asked during a press conference. He added, “Are we the only ones being honest?”
The Colorado head coach leaned on his NFL experience to call for more transparency in injury reporting. According to Sanders, the NFL is much more upfront when listing player ailments, and college football should follow suit. However, he believes there’s a deeper issue contributing to the sparse injury reports from some teams.
“Coming from the league, I’m thinking the same thought process,” Sanders explained. “Because really, honestly, and I hate to see it, this is all about gambling. That’s all they want — to know who’s hurt so they can put a different line on the game, or whatever.” Sanders expressed frustration with how injury reports may be manipulated to influence betting lines, saying, “Which don’t make sense to me, helping people gamble on the game by reporting things.”
The Colorado coach first raised this gambling theory publicly on October 3. He emphasized how Colorado opts for complete transparency when it comes to injuries, openly sharing details about who has a bad ankle, shoulder, or other issues. “We’re straight-up. We tell you everything. Who’s hurt and who maybe was probable, all the different categories,” he stated. “But I can’t believe we’re the only ones every week like, we’re tripling our opponents in injuries.”
Indeed, Colorado has faced a significant pileup of ailments this season. The Buffaloes are also working to recover from a massive blowout loss to Utah. Sanders admitted that he has been sleeping in the team’s facility in an effort to help fix their issues.
At 3-5, Colorado’s bowl hopes have been severely damaged with this recent loss. As the team prepares to take on Arizona, Sanders’ call for honesty in injury reporting adds another layer of intrigue to the upcoming matchup.
https://clutchpoints.com/ncaa-football/colorado-football-news-deion-sanders-ponders-if-other-big-12-teams-are-being-dishonest-on-injury-reports