Shilo Sanders details how his family balances football, social media

Shilo Sanders has to be an expert on plenty of things at Colorado, including how to handle himself off the field.

The Buffaloes defensive back, and the son of Coach Deion Sanders, recognizes he’s not just any old college football player. Still, he wants to keep his focus on the field, and he explained how his father, who doubles as his coach, helps him do that.

“Number one thing he always tell us is, ‘You’ve got to Bop,’ in his words. You’ve got to ball first,” explained Sanders. “All the deals, all the other stuff, that’s just what comes with it. You could be chasing clout, trying to get deals and stuff, but you’re going to make way more money doing your job, and balling out this season, you know with that contract, so for us, when we’re locked in, we’re locked in.”

Sanders started his career with the South Carolina Gamecocks, and took his talents to Jackson State to join his father’s program when Prime took over. Now following the eccentric coach to Colorado with the Buffaloes, there’s a ton of hype behind what the program could be in the coming seasons.

That’s included many of Colorado’s players receiving NIL deals, and being lauded as the team that’s going to get them back to the promise land. That’s all well and good for Sanders, and why he’s keeping his focus on the field moving forward.

“Like I don’t really even post much whenever I’m in camp. Like right now, like my whole day is just focused on football,” added the defensive back. “You know, I be posting stuff on YouTube sometimes, but recently, I don’t got time. So we really just be locked in on football first, and my older brother just captures whatever we do. He has some of our friends be out there filming and stuff also, just to capture it. That’s just so we could keep you updated on what we’ve got going on. Because we’ve got a lot of doubters. I don’t know why.

“We don’t have a hundred dollar mindset. You know, that’s how we’re coming. So I’m not thinking we need to prove a lot, we just need to go out there and do what we do.”

Perhaps more players in college football should follow Sanders’ advice. In this era, it’s so easy to focus on other areas off the field, but Colorado’s newest defensive back is refusing to.

Time will tell if it pays off, but Shilo Sanders is certainly putting in the world to be great in 2023 and beyond for the Colorado Buffaloes.