Whatever disagreements Deion Sanders and Nick Saban had earlier this offseason have been squashed.
On Thursday, the Jackson State head coach posted a video with Saban from the set of an Aflac advertisement — a campaign the two football legends have worked on together for quite some time.
“Two [GOATs]. 1 [Duck]. No beef,” Sanders wrote on Instagram.
The short-lived beef between these two advertising partners came when Saban said Sanders “paid a guy a million dollars” to bring him into the Jackson State program with no punishment. The Alabama head coach was referring to the commitment of No. 1 overall recruit Travis Hunter.
“Jackson State paid a guy a million dollars last year that was a really good Division I player to come to school. It was in the paper. They bragged about it! Nobody did anything about it,” Saban said.
Sanders responded to these allegations.
“I haven’t talked to Coach Saban. I’m sure he’s tried to call. We need to talk publicly — not privately,” Sanders said. “What you said was public. That doesn’t require a conversation. Let’s talk publicly and let everybody hear the conversation. You can’t do that publicly and call privately.”
Even at the time though, there was never really any real beef.
“No, no, no. I still love him,” Sanders added. “I admire him. I respect him. He’s the magna cum laude of college football and that’s what it’s going to be because he’s earned that. But he took a left when he should’ve stayed right. I’m sure he’ll get back on course. I ain’t tripping.”
The college football world is a better place with this disagreement in the rearview.