Deion Sanders Confidant Compares Coach Prime's Struggles to Muhammad Ali in Wild Viral Moment

The Colorado Buffaloes currently sit at 2-5 and last in the Big 12 conference. While the players are showing flashes or moments within games, they have not put together a complimentary full game of football in their last five contests.

In the last three games against Texas Tech, Utah and Oklahoma State, all of which are ranked teams, it has been a tale of two halves. The Buffaloes started off well enough to stay competitive in the first half only to fall apart in the second half. All three of those games were close and winnable in the first half. They have gone on to lose those games by a combined score of 114-55.

Deion Sanders, at times, showed some understanding for the moment. He has toned down some of his typical rhetoric and behavior towards his media and in public statements. It plays like someone who knows they don’t have the on-field personnel to continue playing hardball off the field. However, the latest issue does not pertain to Sanders, but instead to someone he continues to defend.

Christopher Neely, better known as “Uncle Neely”, has presented a few problems lately. Sanders has recently referred to him as a “friend,” but sometimes friends and business don't mix. In a response to Pro Football Talk on social media, Sanders claimed, “My son does my videos and Neely is a friend.”

Neely appears to be nothing more than an advisor in this situation. To the public, he’s a noteworthy mouthpiece for Sanders. Possibly even a ringleader for a large group of online Sanders fans.

Neely began the Coach Prime era at Jackson State. After following him to Colorado, he started shaking down local media and attempting to soften the ground for Sanders’ criticism. For that first year, he was primarily a cheerleader for what Sanders was doing as a coach. Rather early in the process, Neely inserted himself into press conferences as if he was a working media member.

While that may not seem terribly objectionable to those not in the media, the media in that room are there to do a job. Neely takes up time the media could be asking questions and allows Sanders to eat through some of the time provided for the media availability. He also has been taking video of the reporters in the room as they ask their questions for two years now. Why?

Neely wants the public to put a name and a face to the questions asked. Some online have used his videos to call out members of the media to ask questions the mob doesn't agree with. Neely and, by that extension, Sanders, seem to be unified in the belief that they are above criticism. Hate to break the news, but criticism is part of the job.

Unless a team wins every game they ever play 100-0 and wins every championship possible, that coach is going to face criticism. It’s not just "hater" narratives that they would have you believe. Any criticism is challenged and, in most cases, turned into a race issue or ignorant comments by people with less access than Sanders’ “friend.” However, there is a stark difference between defending his guy and making indefensible comparisons.

In a video meeting with fans, Neely can be seen comparing what Sanders is going through as the same as Muhammad Ali's career. Not being liked or being criticized for on-field results is not in the same universe as the racial injustice Ali faced. “They shot the same arrows at Deion Sanders that they shot at Ali," Neely claimed.

The struggles that Ali faced, along with the racism and any sort of public backlash, are not comparable to Sanders being unsuccessful as a football coach. The only struggle he is facing is on-field and football program-related criticism and a minority of people who simply want to see him fail. Do some people not like him? Yes, but most of his criticism is football related.

Neely was the same one who said Deion offered to pay a critic $50,000 in hush money. Coach Prime later said it was a "joke." 

What Ali faced, short of his bravado, was never boxing-related. If Neely wants to draw comparisons, the only one to make is that Ali faced immense criticism and handled it as well as a human being could be expected to handle it, while being the greatest to ever grace his sport. Sanders faces criticism for not being good enough as a coach in the sport he dominated as a player.

Not every ‘friend’ deserves endless chances. When a friend creates more workplace problems than he’s worth, it’s time to separate the friend from the workplace. Sanders might also be the only football coach in Power 4 who believes every day should be "bring your friend to work" day.