What do you call an NCAA Division I collegiate football coach that kicks his student-athlete out of the training room for wearing white socks? You call him Coach Prime!
Deion Sanders flexed his new coaching muscles, showing his team and the world that he is serious about the dress code standards he has set, and apparently white socks are not part of the Prime program.
Unfortunately, for the player who was dismissed in the middle of a weight set, Sanders let the world know on “60 Minutes” how he rolls regarding athletic etiquette. He’s been on the same wave since his phenomenal tenure at Jackson State University.
The Prime Rules: Wrong Socks, Wrong Team
The reporter Jon Wertheim mentioned how he was “surprised by how old school” Sanders is. Wertheim told Sanders, “you’re talking about socks can’t be too low.” Then he added, “you don’t want it too baggy; what do they know not to do?”
Sanders leaned in and revealed exactly how his players must show up.
“No earrings in uniform. No hoodies in uniform. No sagging in uniforms. No one sock up, no sock down. Let your game separate you, not your dress code,” Sanders said with no emotion.
When Sanders was asked, “What’s that all about?” he answered like a true general.
“Structure and discipline,” Sanders continued. “When you go into the NFL, all the things that I’m teaching them are mandated. I’m preparing them for the next level. So if they come and matriculate, and they go into UPS, do you think they can wear any uniform they want? How they want? If you’re on Wall Street, you think you can just fall into the office and just walk in there anyway you want? No, there’s structure and rules to this thing.”
Sanders knows that the aura of his earned celebrity and style ethos can be deceiving, and his young players might feel inclined to be like Prime Time. But they are in the world of Coach Prime, the evolved version of the veteran dual-sport athlete who honed his knowledge of professionalism as the driver of a career where his image towers. But he knows how to stay relatable to his audience, his player’s parents.
Like wearing a gold coach’s whistle.
“You’ve got to understand, parents of the kids that we’re recruiting, they know Prime. They’re just meeting Coach Prime, so I still got to give them some Prime. That’s what they expect. I can’t go into grandmama’s house and grandmama was riding with me when I was high-stepping for the Atlanta Falcons…no, she wants Prime.”
Sanders is always in control of his brand. Although his methods might be unconventional, like when he brought in social media influencer and fitness model Brittney Renner to discuss the realities of predatory women when it comes to professional athletes, they are effective.
If Coach Prime wants all black socks, that is the mandate and the law because discipline is the prime and overall game is the “prime” ingredient to Sanders’ success.
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