Colorado coach Deion Sanders says he’ll do his part to steer his son, quarterback Shedeur Sanders, and Buffaloes’ receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter to better situations in next year’s NFL Draft.

During an appearance on Fox Sports 1’s “Speak,” Deion Sanders was asked by co-host Keyshawn Johnson if he would step in during the draft process if the “wrong” team drafted Shedeur.

“Yeah, but I’m not going to do it publicly. I’ll do it privately,” Sanders said. “I’m gonna be Dad until the cows come home, and with Travis as well.”

.@DeionSanders says he will step in if the wrong team drafts Shedeur. 👀 pic.twitter.com/WK67vSyouY

— Speak (@SpeakOnFS1) November 12, 2024

Shedeur Sanders and Hunter are both likely first-round picks. The Athletic’s Dane Brugler had Hunter as No. 1 on his latest list of the top 50 NFL Draft prospects. Sanders was No. 23, third among quarterbacks behind Miami’s Cam Ward and Alabama’s Jalen Milroe.

Sanders declined to identify teams he wants Shedeur to play for, but instead pointed to traits he wanted in a team for Shedeur’s next stop.

“Somebody that can handle the quarterback he is and somebody that can handle, understanding what he’s capable of,” Deion Sanders said. “Someone that has had success in the past handling quarterbacks or someone and an organization that understands what they’re doing. Not just throwing you out there amongst the wolves if you don’t have the support and the infrastructure of the team.

“Forget the (offensive) line. He’s played with lines that weren’t great but he’s been able to do his thing. But just the infrastructure of the team and the direction of where we’re going.”

Colorado is 7-2 and ranked 17th in this week’s College Football Playoff rankings. The Buffaloes host Utah on Saturday and are alone in second place in the Big 12, on pace to play for the league title and a spot in the Playoff.

Hunter is atop The Athletic’s Heisman Straw Poll this week.

Sanders has coached his son throughout his football career, from youth leagues to high school and at Jackson State before the duo came to Colorado together after the 2022 season. Sanders also reiterated he was happy to be at Colorado when asked if he would be interested in coaching the Dallas Cowboys, where he played for five seasons.

“Shedeur has started every game in high school, every game in college but one and he is like that, man. He has a true gift. It comes from God and he loves football,” he said. “This kid loves this game and he has an insatiable appetite to win. And I want somebody to be able to propel him to the next level as well, not just get drafted by a team because we ain’t having it.”

Eli Manning, who won two Super Bowls with the New York Giants, famously declared along with his father Archie Manning that Eli would not play for the San Diego Chargers ahead of the 2004 NFL Draft. The Chargers held the No. 1 pick but the Mannings opposed Eli beginning his career there, in part because of how the franchise handled personal problems that arose during Ryan Leaf’s tenure there after being picked No. 2 in 1998. The Chargers drafted Manning but traded him to the New York Giants the same day.

The move echoes one Sanders made during his own draft process in 1989. The Giants asked draft prospects to take a two-hour psychological assessment at the NFL Scouting Combine. Upon learning the Giants had the 18th pick in the draft, Sanders declined to take the assessment.

“I said, ‘I’ll be gone before then. I’ll see y’all later. I ain’t got time for this,’” Sanders recounted in a 2017 interview.

The Atlanta Falcons drafted him fifth overall.

Required reading

Photo: Christian Peterson / Getty Images

BELLAIR, Fla. — There were hushed tones and whispers as 6:30 came and went, as each minute ticked closer to the 7 a.m. tee time. Was there traffic? Has anyone seen her? LPGA and tournament organizers, eager to see Wednesday go off without a hiccup, fretted the day would instead begin with one.

Then, around 19 minutes before her tee time, Caitlin Clark strolled onto the driving range at the Pelican Golf Club. Casual and cool in head-to-toe Nike, an official carrying her bag to the far end where cameras were set up to document her first swings. She thinned the first couple, but soon enough was launching them into the sun as it rose over the tree line. An introduction to her caddie, an insistence to him that she would not care if a club was dropped along the next 18 holes, and a cart ride later, Clark was standing on the first tee box at The Annika next to its namesake and Nelly Korda, the No. 1 golfer in the world — with all the attention on her, a 16 handicap.

This is Caitlin Clark’s normal but something extraordinary for this golf tournament, a crowd that swelled to in the thousands, following the biggest women’s basketball star in the world hit a little white ball.

“We’ve messaged a little on Instagram beforehand but to get to spend some time with her and to see the influence that she has on people, bringing people out here, and to see how amazing of an influence she is just for sports, was really cool to see firsthand today,” Korda said.

So how is Caitlin Clark’s golf swing?

In a word, relatable.

The Athletic sent multiple videos of her swings during Wednesday’s pro-am to golf coach Dana Dahlquist, who works with Bryson DeChambeau, among others. Dahlquist’s biggest takeaway was, like a lot of amateurs, Clark doesn’t load properly into her left side and doesn’t get the hands to square the club face early enough. So by the time she gets to impact, she has to “stand up” to attempt to strike the ball with a square face, which reduces the potential for power, speed, etc.

“For amateur golfers, it’s an interesting thing that all golfers that are not high-level players struggle with the same thing,” Dahlquist said. “They tend to somewhat spin out, tend to have the face more often and if you’re taking lessons it’s a good balance between educating your hands how the club releases and then learning to get to your left side appropriately so you can straighten out your golf ball and make good contact.”

At the same time, Clark’s elite athleticism and understanding of her body still allow her to recover and generate considerable clubhead speed. Her first tee shot was on the same line as Korda’s, and only around 20 yards behind Korda, averaging 269 yards off the tee this year. Even if her approach game leaves her left of her target with a tendency to pull her irons, she always had the length to get to the green.

Clark said she first began playing golf with a pink set of junior clubs, going to the course in Iowa with her dad, and watching Rory McIlroy on TV. She’s since upgraded to Callaway, and in advance of this week (set up through Gainbridge, a title sponsor for this LPGA Tour stop and one of Clark’s sponsors) has been taking lessons from former LPGA pro Martha Foyer-Faulconer in Indianapolis, Golf Week reported.

Clark said following the end of the Indiana Fever’s playoffs she hoped to become a professional golfer in the offseason. It was a joke taken seriously in some quarters, to her surprise, but Clark does want to play competitive golf — against her friends, for bragging rights. “That’s what’s been fun about it. It’s challenging,” Clark said.

Pro golf has occasionally been accused of being too thirsty for attention from other professional athletes and celebrities, eager to bring their youthful energy and audiences to a sport that skews older. That can lead to awkward fits and partnerships that come off as inauthentic.

Clark and the LPGA — this is her second pro-am appearance, after a 2023 PGA Tour John Deere Classic showing — is not that. She is a golfer, casually and comfortably speaking the lingo and dropping Pebble Beach as her bucket list course. She friggin’ cleans the grooves of her irons with a tee as she waits for her next shot.

But she faces unique challenges compared to the rest of us, like LPGA pros lining up to take selfies with her as she walks up the 18th fairway. Or doing a walk-and-talk up No. 7 with Golf Channel, then immediately having to swing — Clark asked for and received a mulligan after chunking her shot 100 yards, and ultimately decided she was done with the hole after airmailing the green. “I’m just the average golfer. I’m going to hit some good, I’m going to hit some bad. It is what it is,” Clark said.

If anything was surprising about Clark’s game, it was how the famously competitive WNBA Rookie of the Year could shrug and laugh off even the worst of shots — a shanked tee shot on the third hole sent a portion of the crowd ducking for cover.

Clark played with Korda on the front nine and then Sorenstam on the back nine. While the former said she was more focused on getting ready for the tournament and light conversation, the latter did offer Clark some swing thoughts.

“It was more just tempo. She hits it a little quick,” Sorenstam said. “She played with Nelly on the front and Nelly is about power, so of course when you play with someone like that you want to swing harder and faster. Now when it’s windy, I’m like, just got to calm down, find the tempo, and try to make sure that club face is more square to the target.”

The Athletic’s Gabby Herzig contributed to this story.

(Illustration: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic; Photo: Douglas P. DeFelice / Getty Images)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Before dawn on a fall Friday, Steve Spagnuolo enters the Kansas City Chiefs facility with a large aluminum pan. The defensive coordinator finds a place for it in the defensive line meeting room, returns to his car and comes back with another pan, this one for the linebackers room. Then he does it again, delivering the final pan to the defensive backs room.

In each pan, there are 15 generous portions of banana pudding. Chiefs defenders will find the pans waiting for them when they come off the field after a light practice. They will have to move quickly to get their highly coveted treat lest invasive offensive linemen move in.

Four days earlier, Steve’s wife, Maria, bought eggs, butter and other ingredients. Then she went on a banana hunt. She needed 25, starting at Aldi and taking only the ones that met her requirements for size and ripeness. She found more at Price Chopper and the rest at Cosentino’s Market. Some were a bit too green, but she put them in the oven or in plastic bags to expedite ripening. Freshness matters, so Maria waited until Wednesday to start the two-day cooking process.

Steve delivers Maria’s desserts every week during the NFL season. Of course, he’s more famous for devising blitzes so bold that no other coach would dare imagine them and coverages so complex they leave quarterbacks cross-eyed. Coaches and commentators testify about his insidious game plans that lure opponents into his web and praise his ever-evolving scheme.

But that’s only part of the story. The rest? It’s in those aluminum pans.

Sports were the center of Spagnuolo’s universe during his childhood in Grafton, Mass., but were less important to his father, who worked long hours as an accountant and spent his free time listening to music, reading and writing. When Spagnuolo was 12, his parents split up, and his dad wasn’t around much in the years that followed.

Richard Egsegian, geometry teacher, guidance counselor and football coach at Grafton High School, took an earnest interest in every child in his sphere and a special interest in Spagnuolo, who happened to be his quarterback. Egsesian may not have been a wizard of a strategist, but his coaching touched the heart. “He was,” Spagnuolo says, “a man of character.”

Egsegian and Spagnuolo had long talks on bleacher benches after practices. Egsegian once loaded up a few of his players in his Volkswagen Beetle and drove them to the University of Massachusetts to watch one of his former players practice. He treated Spagnuolo to a day at Patriots training camp.

Egsegian set Spagnuolo on a path to being a coach. After playing wide receiver at Springfield College, Spagnuolo hopscotched like young coaches do, working for six colleges and two World League teams. Then, in 1999, new Eagles coach Andy Reid hired Spagnuolo as a defensive assistant. He worked with Reid in Philadelphia for eight seasons, eventually coaching defensive backs and linebackers.

Those years had an indelible effect on him. In Reid, he found a mentor and someone who always had his back. Defensive coordinator Jim Johnson helped Spagnuolo develop his defensive mentality. Spagnoulo sensed a certain peace in fellow assistant coach Les Frazier, who brought him to church.

Then he met Maria. The first time they were alone together, he looked at her as if he was about to say something romantic. Instead, he said, “You must be a hard worker. Your hands are very strong.” Regardless, she decided to stick with him.

Steve and Maria Spagnuolo make Chiefs defenders feel like family. (Dan Pompei / The Athletic)

He was the Giants’ defensive coordinator in 2007 when the team started 0-2 and gave up 80 points in the first two games. Defensive end Michael Strahan recalls Spagnuolo telling his players he believed in every one of them and wouldn’t trade them for anyone else. And then he pushed them to where they did not know they could go.

“He challenged guys to be better, but he did it in a way that didn’t demean anyone,” Strahan says. “It was like, ‘I know there’s more there. And I believe in you.’”

In the subsequent Super Bowl, Spagnuolo’s Giants prevailed over Tom Brady and the Patriots — “He’s been the bane of my existence,” Brady said on a recent Fox broadcast.

The victory propelled Spagnuolo to the St. Louis Rams’ head coaching job in 2009. With the Rams, he admittedly didn’t lean on the people around him enough. Given a precious opportunity he knew might never come again, he found it difficult to trust.

“Sometimes when you get that job for the first time, you either think you have all the answers or you’re kind of eager to do things the way you thought they should be done,” he says. “And you learn that it’s best to use as many resources and ask other people as many different questions as you can.”

Current Los Angeles Rams president Kevin Demoff, who had a hand in Spagnuolo’s firing after three seasons, posted about it earlier this year on X. “The team & organization he inherited in STL was a mess, nobody could have had success,” Demoff wrote. “Yet he changed the culture/staff & players believed. An amazing human deserving of the real shot we couldn’t give him.”

Time has been good for Spagnuolo. A conversation with him always made you feel like you sipped warm brandy, but now the finish is smoother.

“There’s more of a gentleness with people now,” says Maria, who has likewise been good for him. “I’ve seen him have a really tender heart towards some of his players, like a father’s heart.”

Like Egsesian, Spagnuolo never had biological children. He and Maria married when he was 45 and she was 40. Her stepchildren Jeffrey and Crissy and their families make up the extended Spagnuolo family, but many others are considered adopted members.

When safety Quintin Mikell was a rookie defensive back with the Eagles, Spagnoulo asked him how he was settling in. Mikell said he missed home cooking, soul food specifically. Not long after, he found an aluminum pan in his locker with fried chicken, collard greens, black-eyed peas and sweet potato pie.

Maria can cook anything, learning from her paternal grandmother, Angelina Damiani, during her childhood in West Philly. The most important thing she learned from her grandmother: cooking was about more than just cooking.

“The first thing Jesus did was feed people, and then he showed them kindness and love,” Maria says. “Steve loves the fellas and likes to show them.”

They bring Greek food to Chiefs defensive end George Karlaftis, a native of Athens. His favorite is Giovetsi. “It takes me back home whenever she makes it,” Karlaftis says.

For former Chiefs cornerback L’Jarius Sneed, it’s the banana pudding. “She even cooks better than my grandma, and I don’t put no one above my granny,” says Sneed.

They recently gifted defensive lineman Chris Jones with a bottle of Maria’s homemade Limoncello, which he couldn’t help but sample during a workday. “Oh my God, it’s serious,” says Jones, who had dinner at the Spagnuolos’ home before the season with safety Justin Reid and linebacker Nick Bolton. Each player left with a doggy bag too large to carry on an airplane.

Jones has called Spagnuolo a father figure, as have Reid, Sneed and others. Spagnuolo particularly resonates with players whose relationships with their fathers are strained or nonexistent.

“I lost my father when I was 13, so I look up to him as a father figure,” Karlaftis says.

Sneed, who was traded to the Titans in the offseason, still texts Spagnuolo weekly and tells him he loves him. Chiefs safety Bryan Cook calls him one of the top five or 10 people he’s ever met. Reid had T-shirts printed in January that read, “In Spags We Trust.”

“He completely changed my life on the field and off the field and post-career,” says Strahan, who became a Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee and host of “Good Morning America” and “Fox NFL Sunday.” “Winning that Super Bowl gave me a life after football that I don’t think I ever would have had if not for him. And I attribute that win to him and his incredible game plan.”

Before their first meeting of the week, Chiefs defenders usually see a Bible verse or a statement about gratitude or another value displayed on the screen. Spagnuolo often begins the meeting by reflecting on the sentiment. Jones, who sits behind Spagnuolo at chapel every Saturday night, calls him his “spiritual muse.”

In December 2021, Sneed’s older brother was stabbed to death. When Sneed found out, his first call was to Spagnuolo.

“I called him crying,” Sneed says. “He said, ‘What’s wrong? What’s wrong?’ I couldn’t get my words out. ‘Speak to me, LJ, speak to me.’ I said, ‘My brother passed.’ Then he started crying as well.”

In the aftermath, Spagnuolo reached out daily. Spagnuolo still texts Sneed scripture from time to time, and the cornerback finds comfort in knowing Maria prays for him every morning. “He’s someone I call on when I need help, when I’m in danger, whether it’s on the football field or not,” Sneed says.

Early in Cook’s rookie season, he felt lost. He was trying to find his place and needed reassurance that he was on the right path. Spagnuolo had noticed some growth in Cook, and he wanted Cook to see it, too. In his office, Spagnuolo showed Cook a video of his combine interview earlier that year. The player who sat in Spagnuolo’s office looked and carried himself differently.

As he watched, Cook broke down.

“I don’t remember that guy,” he told Spagnuolo. “I’m a different guy now.”

Cook says it was a major pivot in his life. “I was going through a lot of personal things as well as things with the team,” Cook says. “It reminded me of how far I came, and it inspired me.”

The Spagnuolos made sure Nick Bolton (third from left), Justin Reid (third from right), Chris Jones (right) and guests left dinner with full stomachs — and plenty of food to take home. (Courtesy of the Spagnuolo family)

Despite his velvet touch, Spagnuolo does not coach meekly. His tenacity helped develop Sneed into one of the game’s premier cornerbacks.

“I was kind of lackadaisical when I came into the league,” Sneed says. “He showed me how to practice and run after the ball. He’ll come on the field yelling, ‘Run to the ball!’ He’s going to be on your tail like white on rice.”

Jones, who jokingly calls Spagnuolo a dictator, says they butted heads initially. “I spend a lot of one-on-one time with him,” Jones says. “And it’s not all good times. Sometimes, it’s a cursing out.”

This season, Spagnuolo is leading a Kansas City defense that ranks in the top 10 in points allowed for the fifth time in six years. He won his fourth Super Bowl ring earlier this year — the most of any coordinator in NFL history. Yet he has not had a legitimate interview for a head coaching job in 16 years (not including a token interview after serving as interim coach of the Giants for four games at the end of the 2017 season).

GO DEEPER

Nguyen: Chiefs’ Steve Spagnuolo cements himself as an all-time great defensive coordinator

The legacy of his 10-38 record with the Rams explained things for a while. It didn’t help that Spagnuolo followed that up with a dumpster fire of a season with the Saints — with Sean Payton suspended for Bountygate, Spagnuolo’s defense gave up the most yards in NFL history.

Reconnecting with Reid in 2019 made those memories fade. But now, three championship parades later, Spagnuolo is 64 years old. His cholesterol is a little high. One of his hips wore out and needed to be replaced, but he still can sprint down the sideline to call a timeout, even if he isn’t supposed to.

Will he ever get another chance?

“You’d like to think you’re evaluated not by a number,” Spagnuolo says. “And I think somewhere along the way, somebody may do that. But if they don’t, I’m OK with it. It’s in God’s hands.”

The failure he experienced has led to a profound appreciation for all he has. With the Chiefs, he provides the yin to the yang of Patrick Mahomes, rides shotgun to the masterful Andy Reid and builds bridges with banana pudding.

This, he knows, is not a bad life.

Inspired by comedian Tony Baker, Steve and Maria instituted a “Cram Award” for the defender with the best hit in a Chiefs victory (Baker posts videos of rams ramming, which he calls “crams”). Saturdays after a win, Spagnuolo plays a video of highlights mixed with Baker’s posts, then a drum roll precedes the announcement.

The winner is presented with an Italian dinner from Maria in an aluminum pan. Recently, it was homemade gemelli in a blush sauce and chicken parmesan in gravy.

“Getting a game ball, I don’t really care about,” Jones says. “But the Cram Award, I mean, you get a dish from Maria.”

After a recent Chiefs victory, Spagnuolo received texts from Jones and defensive tackle Tershawn Wharton, who had been given Cram awards the previous Saturday. They sent messages of gratitude along with photos of the pans that had contained their dinners.

The pans were empty. Hearts were full.

(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)