Deion Sanders buzz had CU fans pulling out Buffs colors for CHSAA state football championships
Vic Lombardi is rooting for Deion Sanders to land at CU with all his heart. But only half his sole.
“I’ve made sure,” the veteran Altitude host and play-by-plan man told me Saturday between state football championship games at Empower Field, “to make my radius one block from my home all weekend.”
If Sanders and the Buffs, football’s newest odd couple, costs you the wrong side of a wager this weekend, hey, Vic feels your pain. Especially in his bunions.
Like a lot of us old, cynical media types, Lombardi laughed it off, at first. Coach Prime and CU? Whatever! A guy who put out a G-funk record in 1994 — “Prime Time,” on MC Hammer’s Bust It label — was going to rap with Buffs chancellor Phil DiStefano? Yeah, right.
Lombardi, who lives and breathes this town, couldn’t really see it, either. So he vowed that if Sanders left Jackson State for CU, brought Prime Time to Boulder, he would walk home, by the power of his own two feet, from wherever he happened to be at the moment it was announced.
On Saturday, his feet were at Empower Field, calling the Class 4A and Class 5A title games. Awfully long way from home, brother.
“I don’t think it’s going to happen today,” Lombardi cracked. “But (Sunday), I’ll wear my best-available sneakers.”
We laughed. We shook our heads. Anything can happen at the 11th hour when money and the Buffs are involved, but surely — surely — we’ve gone too far down this rabbit hole to stop now.
Coach Prime. In Boulder. At CU, where the football program vanished for 75% of the country as soon as it joined the Pac-12.
“I love it.” Lombardi said. “How do you compete? Utah found a way to compete. UCLA found a way. This is probably the only opportunity. You’ve got to do something different.”
Let’s be clear: Hiring Sanders is the move of a program that’s either rolling at such a clip that nothing can send it off the tracks; or one that’s got absolutely nothing to lose. Except for more stinking games.
Sometimes, the combination of desperation and inspiration finds the perfect sweet spot. Some ideas are so crazy that they just might work.
“I don’t want to hear, ‘Oh, well, we don’t know if (Sanders can) coach,’” Lombardi said. “First of all, in college, ‘coaching’ can be done by other people. Most of it is recruiting.”
Speaking of that last part, Cherry Creek star Blake Purchase told me after winning a fourth-straight state title that he hasn’t heard from Coach Prime’s camp yet. But that door? It’s still open, baby, though he’s orally committed to Oregon.
“Oh definitely, I’ll talk to him,” Purchase said. “See where it’s headed, and see if he even wanted me, you know?”
Earlier in the day, Broomfield quarterback Cole LaCrue, a Wisconsin commit, helped lead the Eagles to its first 4A crown since 1984. LaCrue noted a recent text from Tanner Norton, CU’s recruiting assistant for scouting, telling him to keep his options flexible, because “it’s going to be fun … it’s going to be exciting.”
“We’ll see what happens (there),” The Broomfield signal-caller said of the Buffs, who’ve scheduled a special regents meeting Sunday to discuss its latest football hire. “(But) I go to Wisconsin next week, so I’m looking forward to that.”
Even the diehards in the stands had Prime Time on the brain. Nathan Mondragon, CU class of ’01, bounded into Mile High wearing a black Buffs No. 7 replica jersey and a white Valor Christian visor.
“I would’ve worn my Valor sweatshirt if Prime Time wasn’t going to be announced this weekend,” Mondragon chuckled.
It’s Prime. It could all go kablooey. Yet every day, as we creep closer to Transfer Portal Monday, another piece pops up that seems to fit the puzzle perfectly.
The log for the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Broomfield on Saturday featured an arrival at approximately 11:42 p.m. from … Jackson, Miss., the home of Jackson State. At some point, coincidence snaps it to fate, who looks off the odds and finds history, wide open, walking untouched to the end zone.
Source: Read Full Article