Deion Sanders has found himself in the middle of two controversies recently, the most recent being of the greatest consequence thus far. Prime Time admitted to mentoring Oklahoma State receiver Dez Bryant who recently was ruled ineligible for lying to the NCAA about his contact with Deion. Deion didn’t deny having any contact with Dez but Bryant denied the contact because he supposedly panicked. Why was Dez panicking? Not because he thought Deion worked for NFL agent Eugene Parker, right? Couldn’t be. Deion had an interview with the NFL Network (for whom he acts as an analyst) where he said he doesn’t work for Parker and that he doesn’t have the time to worry about getting paid for recruiting players. His biggest point was that he helps African American players out of the goodness of his heart — that’s it. At one point Deion got off this comment:
I don’t have time to benefit from [recruiting players]. I don’t prostitute kids. I love them. I try to nurture them, I try to call them, challenge them, change them, and take them to another level and inspire them — that’s what I do.
Deion even sold out his agent, Eugene Parker, saying that Parker is the one who told him there were two teams trying to trade for Michael Crabtree — a piece of information that has led to an investigation into tampering charges. While I can buy that Deion doesn’t exactly work for Eugene Parker, his relationship with young players certainly is a conflict of interest because he’ll push players towards Parker. In this sense, he’s giving players bad advice some of the time. Deion also said he would continue to give players gifts to help them out. Once again, no conflict of interest because of his close relationship with Eugene Parker, right? Regardless of who’s behind all this, it’s pretty clear that both Dez Bryant and Michael Crabtree haven’t received good advice lately. You draw your own conclusions.
