By now, ‘controversy’ has become the middle name for the Sanders fam. While dad Deion Sanders and son Shedeur Sanders get the most brutal blows, it looks like Shilo, too, has joined them now. All thanks to the Colorado Buffaloes’ disastrous feat against the Kansas Jayhawks on Saturday, November 23. Definitely, it was a mixed-bag performance by the Buffs.

For instance, their dual threat Travis Hunter broke a new record. However, Shilo has been under-average that the Buffs, already carrying the fresh wound of the loss, has people now choosing to strip off the Buffs’ safety online. Well, they went back to their favorite word, the one Shedeur had long held the patent on—‘nepo.’ 

How Shilo Sanders fell flat against Jayhawks

More than the other Buffs, Shilo now knows how unlucky the No. 13 can be. Walking into Week 13, he again got the taste of defeat. Coming fresh off a four-game winning streak, it was natural for Deion to pin high hopes on his team. Shilo was no exception since he carries some noteworthy stats like 42 tackles and one fumble recovery this season. And how could his proud Pops not cheer him up? Right before Saturday’s game, Coach Prime made an IG post in the Buffs safety’s honor and wrote, “Let’s go baby. Proud of u son..” But sigh! Now we must question whether he can be proud or not. After all, Shilo rained penalties during the game.

Now, while the Buffs’ safety was supposed to be the strength for dad Deion and lil bro Shedeur, he ended up becoming the “liability” as per many. The senior safety was flagged not once, not twice, but THRICE! The penalties included a horse collar tackle, offsides, and personal foul. This led one disgruntled former CBS Sports opinion columnist, Jack Stern, to post on X: “Hard to understand why Shilo Sanders continues to get so much playing time despite committing countless stupid penalties and exhibiting poor technique. He’s a liability for the #CUBuffs at this point. Coach Prime needs to step in.” 

But if you thought, this was the end of the controversy, wait till you read what other fans had to say…

But before we get to that, Shilo’s father Coach Prime didn’t seem to mince his words after the humbling loss. In a post-game conversation, the Buffs HC said, “Great game by KU. They have a wonderful coach. I told him team was resilient and they were a reflection of him. We got intoxicated (with recent success). We didn’t play CU football. And we got our butt kicked. We controlled our own destiny and we fumbled it.”

Shortly after, the 57-year-old also posted his post-game locker room speech, where he was giving his team an earful. “There’s not one of you that can say you played your best game. Nobody in here can say you gave the maximum effort, you gave it all you could. There’s nobody and you see the result. The problem is that you got intoxicated with success. And success is intoxicating. You start believing what they’re saying. You start listening more to what they’re saying. You bought into all that foolishness that you were this, and you went out there, and we got humbled. Coaches, players, everyone, we went out there and got humbled.”

Concluding the monologue, he said, “This is a tremendous life lesson. Let’s learn from it. Let’s learn from it and grow from it. The question is, guys, I’m gonna ask you one last time: where do you go from here?”

Having said that, seeing Shilo struggling in a game where discipline and winning in the margins were most crucial, hate messages also started to pour in! 

Shilo Sanders faces fire from fans 

CU’s defense delivered its worst on Saturday, while Shilo had the responsibility of driving it the right way being the senior safety. His performance had hit so low that he getting flagged was allowing the fans to let out a sigh of relief who were scared of the safety’s next move. That’s what a fan called ‘blessing’ as he commented, “This targeting call on Shilo is about to be a blessing in disguise for Colorado. He’s f- -king trash.”

Being the man who gifted a bunch of solo tackles even missing out on certain games because of a forearm injury, there was some hope. But all disappeared like a puff! And the Buffs’ safety is bearing the blows of unnecessary favoritism from his dad: “SHILO SANDERS IS A NEPO HIRE.”

On Saturday, Hunter became the second player to record 10 receiving touchdowns and multiple defensive interceptions in a single season since 1980. But this achievement will now be pushed under the carpet, which a fan pointed out, writing, “The other Colorado players gotta be fuming about a nepo baby like Shilo Sanders tanking their season.” Yes, the same ‘nepo’ narrative revolved under Shedeur too after he got sacked 52 times last season. But that QB has worked on himself, flushing all the criticism down the drain this season. Thus, a fan commented, “Shilo is a nepo baby. Shedeur is really good but Shilo is really bad at football. #kufball”

Quite naturally, the Buffs’ safety is being held responsible for how the defensive line stumbled against the Jayhawks, one of the sole reasons behind their 37-21 defeat. He commented, “They keep yelling shedeur is a nepo baby, its not him. It’s fucking shilo. Defense lowkey took a step back ever since he came back.” Looks like Shilo has a high mountain to climb if he wants to prove his critics wrong. The question is: Will he be able to? 

Meanwhile, if you want to get some interesting updates on the NFL, you can check out the latest episode of the Think Tank podcast.