Deion Sanders blasts NCAA over All-American’s ineligibility at CU
Aug 30, 2023, 2:19 PM
Tyler Brown has dealt with the worst thing any person possibly could on a football field, looking into another man’s eyes and seeing nothing but death.
Brown, a recent transfer lineman to the University of Colorado-Boulder, shared the chilling story behind his transfers and how Deion Sanders has helped guide him through darkness. Despite this most honest account that would have just about anyone empathizing with Brown, the NCAA told the young man he will not be playing football this season. The accused corrupt overseeing body of college athletics ruled on Brown recently as they made their second-time transfer rules stricter, despite the fact that coaches and or entire schools can willy-nilly leave for a new school or conference without consequence.
Brown’s second transfer comes as he follows Sanders from Jackson State where the lineman was named third-team All-America for his standout performance in the SWAC. But Brown only ended up at Jackson State in his hometown after starting his college career at Louisiana-Lafayette and leaving.
“DJ (Looney) was just coaching me up on how to strike a bag and the horn sounds for us to go to the next period, run all the way down the field,” Brown said of an Aug. 1, 2020 practice. “We go to run and he falls flat on his face. And we thought he was joking. We thought it was a ‘Haha’ moment. And we go around and we look at him and I look in his eyes and there’s nothing there.”
“It’s just white. White as a ghost. There’s nothing there. And we’re screaming for the trainers to come. And he just wasn’t moving, he wasn’t responding and they were doing everything they could,” Brown said. “And I just cried. I cried, I cried, I cried.”
“Because I wanted him to make it and I felt like it was my fault because I felt like if I hadn’t put so much pressure on him,” Brown said. “If I hadn’t been too much, maybe he’d still be here. Or maybe he wouldn’t be in this position. He wouldn’t be on the ground like that.”
Brown offered an entire explanation of this situation and his subsequent mental health struggles where he was unable to practice on the field after his 31-year-old coach, whom he calls his first father figure, died.
“It don’t make sense,” Sanders said during his Tuesday press conference. “Some things just don’t make sense. You say you really care about mental health, but when you have someone really dealing with mental health, there’s a problem. Then, ostracizing him and not allowing him to do what he’s blessed and gifted to do and the thing that presents him peace, that’s trying for a young man.”
🦬 Coach Prime with a lengthy and thoughtful reaction on the @NCAA denying @t_brown56 a second waiver of eligibility due to his extenuating circumstances pic.twitter.com/7vOs8qIF0H
— Mat Smith (@RealMatSmith) August 29, 2023
“I don’t want to go into a dark place again because I don’t have football,” Brown said.
Joel Klatt, former CU quarterback and one of the biggest broadcasters in college football, also lit up the NCAA for denying Brown immediate eligibility. “How would you feel if your father figure died in front of you of a heart attack, could you imagine the pain?” Klatt said. “He transferred and found a coaching staff where he found a father figure and nobody looked down on him for the struggles he’s faced… what suit stuffed in a cubicle denied this waiver. This wreaks of robotic bureaucracy that doesn’t care about the humans and can’t look at a situation in totality.”
“It’s like, wow, do you really care, or are you just saying you care?” Sanders said. “Are you caring when it’s convenient? Or when it’s profitable?”
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