It might have taken a bit longer than some might have expected, but Deion Sanders officially lost it. In the midst of an interview with a Dallas-Fort Worth radio station, Sanders was asked yet again about allegations that the charter school he co-founded, Prime Prep Academy, was engaging in illegal recruiting to bring players in for its football and basketball program. His response was to play the race card and blame all the negative attention the school has received on a white reporter whom he called an "African-American killer."
As noted by the Dallas Morning News, Sanders shifted the focus from Prime Prep to an unnamed reporter, believed to be Brett Shipp, the excellent high school sports reporter for DFW TV network WFAA. You may remember Shipp from earlier this fall, when he was accosted by Prime Prep players and coaches when he attempted to watch practice across from the team's public practice facility.
In that incident, Sanders was the lone figure who didn't approach Shipp. This time, he didn't hold back.
"First of all, this all started mainly by a Caucasian reporter from a news station, Channel 8, you know who I'm talking about, and he seems like he's the African-American killer," Sanders told Dallas radio station KRLD. "It's always something against a brother. And that bothers me. I've never been accused of cheating with anything, in any sports, in any arena, in my life. Now to be accused of something as stupid and as simplistic as this and all I have is 30 kids out there. And the sad thing about it, Channel 8 and Dallas Morning News, they're partners."
Just digest that for a moment. Sanders is accusing a reporter who has toed a fairly straight line of being an "African-American killer."
Sanders didn't stop at attacking Shipp, though, going on to claim that Prime Prep was planning a lawsuit against the other schools in their would-be district in an attempt to earn their squads a competitive spot moving forward.
You can hear the rest of Sanders' brief diatribe right here or read the Hall of Famer's response below:
"We have a lawyer that's getting ready to tear some butts up, because a lot of the things that were done to our institution was done wrong because you dislike me. Don't allow your disdain for me affect our kids and that's what's happening."
"First of all I don't recruit, didn't need to recruit, don't have to recruit. I had 34 kids on the whole football program. Does that sound like recruiting?"
"The board which is compiled of the coaches and administrators of the school that you're participating against. How stupid is that?"
"There's going to be a lawsuit, and if you're dirty and if you in DISD you better clean up your drawers baby because we going to find it and we going to get it and we going to expose you and everybody is going to know what you did to our babies and it's wrong, and we going to stand up and fight. And what I'm going to do, I'm going to stand up and fight for what is right. And I'm here to get these kids to college."
"I went over and talked to the lady [Madison principal Marian Willard] that's in charge of this mess, I said, 'Ma'am, I want you to meet me. I know you've spoken about me negatively as well, but I'm going to be here for the next 25, 30 years, as long as God allows me to be here at this school, so you might as well get to know me because I ain't going nowhere.'"
Whether or not Prime Prep is eventually granted the UIL status it desires remains to be seen. In the meantime, one thing is certain: accusing the press of being "African-American killers" probably won't help bring a lot of positive attention to the cause.
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