- Colorado football coach Deion Sanders believes coaches should prevent players from wearing ‘short shorts’ during games.
- While NCAA rules require pants to cover the knees, the rule is often not enforced.
- Sanders said he shows his players photos of former NFL players on his staff to demonstrate how to dress properly.
Colorado football coach Deion Sanders is questioning why other college football coaches don’t step in to prevent players from wearing short shorts on the field during games, saying that this fashion issue is a matter of “respect for the game.”
Sanders said this on Wednesday, Nov. 5, during his weekly ‘Colorado Football Coaches Show’ as his team prepares to play at West Virginia Saturday. Such short shorts have gotten widespread attention recently, with some kickers wearing short pants that don’t cover their knees.
“I don’t understand how us coaches allow it,” Sanders said on the show. “How do we allow that? I have too much respect for the game. I really do.”
NCAA football rules require players to wear pants covering the knees, but it’s generally not enforced, leaving Sanders to enforce it on his own.
Sanders made it clear that “our guys don’t do that” and if they did, the message would be to “get back in the locker room.”
He brought it up as he spoke about the need for attention to detail in preparing players. With several former NFL players on his coaching staff, Sanders said he puts pictures of them during their playing days on screen in team meetings. It’s a way for him to show his players how to dress properly.
“Did you see that with any of those?” Sanders said he asks his players. “And we made it to the mountaintop.”
Sanders spoke out against “biker shorts” in football before, in July, at Big 12 Conference media days in Texas.
He said then it makes him “sick” because “I’m a football guy.”
The issue got more attention on Saturday, Nov. 1, when ESPN showed Oklahoma kicker Tate Sandell wearing “Daisy Dukes,” as described by ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit.
“Dressing like that should be a penalty,” Herbstreit said on the broadcast.
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschroten@usatoday.com
