Amusingly someone who is a far better example of using the transfer portal to reinvigorate a program is coaching in the National Championship Game - Kalen DeBoer of UW.
That’s true.
If he had stayed at Jackson State and turned a HBCU into a national contender he would deserve the award. Taking Colorado to a 4 win season is a very low bar.
Then again, if he would have turned Jackson State into a national contender, we would probably be having another conversation along the lines of, “Why isn’t the best FCS team in the country even in the FCS playoffs?” Seriously, in order to protect the integrity of the Celebration Bowl as the “HBCU National Championship Game,” neither the MEAC nor the SWAC ask for an automatic qualifying spot in the tournament (the Ivy League does the same thing), and I am convinced there is a “nod and a wink” agreement between the two conferences and the FCS committee not to choose the teams in either conference’s championship games as at-large teams.
As for 2024, I will try to hold off on a selection until after the Olympics, as I think there is a good chance it will come out of Paris, but I won’t make any guarantees on that.
I’m reading the SI article itself, and it is truly pathetic. They barely touch on the actual coaching he did this year, instead opting for description after description of what an amazing Influencer he is. It’s all about how he gets celebrities on the sidelines during games, how his son drives a Rolls Royce, how the black community loves him (as if there is a singular “black culture” that loves his flash and antics and completely ignores guys like Jay Norval the black coach at Colorado State who had a tiff with Sanders).
The most laughable part is this quote:
“In a world where many people are famous for no reason, he’s famous for abundant legitimate reasons. His combination of unparalleled athletic accomplishments with eye-catching style and a gift for oratory makes him an attention magnet. And did we mention that smile?”
Apparently being known for a cool smile, snappy dressing, and self-congratulatory speaking is not “being famous for no reason”. Yes, he was an amazing athlete 30 years ago. Why is he Sportsman of the Year now?
It is literally not until 5 pages into the work that they actually mention his fucking job … coaching. And the best defense of that that they can come up with is that Colorado is losing football games by much less than last year.
The whole article is a steaming pile of bullshit. I should not have bothered to read it.
There must be some agenda behind all this. A renowned magazine like this doesn’t do this without some real reason to be this nonsensical. But I haven’t a clue. Even if it were, say, a political article to get black coaches more attention, Mike Tomlin won 2 Super Bowls as a black coach, there are plenty of other black athletes who are more successful - yeah, weird.
Courtney Dauwalter. Ultramarathoner. To quote my own posts from June:
This is pretty much analogous to winning the U.S. Open, French Open, and Wimbledon, all in one year, or winning the Boston, New York, Berlin, and Tokyo Marathons in a single year. She also set course records at Western States (becoming the first woman ever to finish in under 16 hours, breaking a record that had stood since 2009. Set another course record at Hardrock.
Yes, you’ve probably never heard of her, since ultramarathoning is a niche sport; but she dominated the sport in 2023 like no one ever has.
The agenda is he got himself in the news a lot. He was the reason his team played on national tv this year despite being barely marginal. They are hoping tv ratings equal magazine sales.
Another possible “agenda” is the past-its-expiration magazine has decided the influencer aspect of sports and sports media is more important than the actual sports. The disconnect between the top college NIL earning athletes and actual results shows they may not be entirely stupid.
I am curious as to what his athletic accomplishments were that are literally unparalleled. He was a good cornerback and kick returner but holds no records and didn’t do anything historic. He was DPOY once.
Well, “good cornerback” is a serious understatement. He was an All-Pro six times, was on the 1990s All-Decade Team, both as a cornerback and as a punt returner, and on the league’s 100th Anniversary All-Time Team as a cornerback.
AFAIK, he’s the only person to play in both a Super Bowl and a World Series.
I’m not sure that he’s entirely “unparalleled,” but he was an exceptional player in football, and a pretty good player in baseball, too.
He is the only human to appear in the World Series and the Super Bowl.
Nice ninja skills, @kenobi_65
Wasn’t his argument that he was so good that it kept him from setting records? Like, if you get better and better at kicking field goals, or at dodging tacklers as a nimble running back, or whatever, then, yeah, there comes a point where you’d expect to break records — but if you get better and better at intercepting passes thrown to the guy you’re covering, there comes a point where the opposing quarterback would just stop throwing the ball to that guy.
And so your teammate, covering the other team’s other receiver, maybe racks up more interceptions than you do: not because he’s better at it, but because he’s worse; hypothetically, it could just be that (a) he gets plenty of opportunities, and doesn’t always fail, while (b) you get — uh, zero opportunities?
The “agenda” is, Deion Sanders is a name a considerable number of SI subscribers and potential readers recognize, and there’s also a tie-in to “new look” portal/NIL-based college football. If it would have been pretty much anybody else who wasn’t an established star in the NFL, they would not have won for being the head coach at Colorado.
Why not just put him in the Swimsuit edition as well? I mean, it’s basically the only other thing Sports Illustrated have left that garners any attention.
I guess that’s theoretically possible, but it seems like you could logically say that of any cornerback or safety with essentially the same numbers, of which there are many.
Sanders wasn’t THAT good. I remember him well.
Sanders is in the Hall of Fame. He made 9 All Pros. He made the All Decade Team. He led the league in returns multiple years.
Look, I dislike him too. And you could always question his dedication, his me-first attitude, and his questionable willingness to tackle. But, Jesus man, he was really, really good.
I’d argue the HoF isn’t a great barometer since there are some not great players there, but if you look up any list, Sanders is at worst, like the #3 or #4 CB of all time. Pro Football Ref has him tied as the #2 CB ever in Approximate Value.
Great is obviously subjective (I’m mostly a soccer fan and the term “world-class” always starts a knife fight), but you’d have to be really strict to leave out Sanders.
I don’t see a SI Sportsperson of the year award in there, at least not when he was playing a sport. Is there anyone who can possibly believe he was more impactful as a coach than he was as a player?
He joins the coaching ranks of:
Bill Russell (player coach)
John Wooden
Joe Paterno
Don Shula
Dean Smith
Mike Krzyzewski
and Pat Summitt
Gah!
On the plus side, he didn’t (as far as we know) cover up the rape of children, so he’s not the worst of the crew you listed.
This makes it even more absurd. I mean, no Earl Weaver, no Tommy Lasorda, no Bill Belichick, no Scotty Bowman, no Phil Jackson, no Gregg Popovich.