Deion Sanders Calls Reporter an African American Killer; Tells Him to Clean Up His Drawers

Deion Sanders has been no stranger to drama and controversy recently.  Now he’s back in the news for calling a Caucasian reporter “The African American Killer.”  The story behind this comment is filled with almost as much drama as his divorce from estranged wife Pilar.  Here’s the short version…

This past February, Sanders announced that he would be opening Primetime Prep Academy, a charter school that would be open to Dallas/Fort Worth students grades k-5 through 12.   In August, the school opened amidst a storm of controversy surrounding its athletic department, which had been banned from  participating in any sports due to allegations that the school was recruiting students to play on their athletic teams.  Athletic officials cited that too many athletes transferred improperly from outside the district.

This past fall tensions came to a head when Brett Shipp, a high school news reporter for Dallas/Fort Worth television network WFAA, was spotted by Primetime Prep football players video taping their football practice.  This is what happened next:

When asked Wednesday about the controversy, this is how Sanders responded:

“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.”
“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?”
“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.”

Deion has never been one to hold his tongue, and I must admit that I did chuckle at the “clean up your drawers” remark.  It appears as if Deion is trying to bring quality education to those who may not have access to it, and I think that’s great.  There are definitely a lot of times when race plays a role in how things are reported, but from what I can see this wasn’t the best time for Sanders to use his black card.  It seems as if the man was just doing his job to me.

Robert Littal

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