Deion Sanders' prayer controversy at Colorado shows he is not at Jackson State anymore

When Deion Sanders left Jackson State football for Colorado, he said God told him to go there. Sanders also said God called him to Jackson State. When he was coaching the Tigers during a successful three-year run, there hardly was anyone who would tell him no.

Even during team-led prayers.

In several of his Instagram posts, Sanders was seen praying with his team before practice, meetings and games. If anyone had an issue with it at JSU, it never was stated publicly.

That ended when he went to Colorado.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) sent a letter on Jan. 24 to University of Colorado chancellor Phil DiStefano and copied athletics director Rick George, claiming that Sanders is engaging in “inappropriate and unconstitutional actions by engaging in religious exercises with players and staff members.”

"It is our understanding that on December 20, 2022, a staff member led other staff members in a Christian prayer to start an official meeting," the letter stated. "More egregiously, on January 16, 2023, Coach Sanders directed a staff member to lead players and coaches in Christian prayer before a team meeting.”

“There is no doubting the sporting accomplishments of Deion Sanders,” said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor, on the FFRF website. “But that doesn’t give him the right to force his religion upon student-athletes at a public university.”

FFRF is a national nonprofit organization with more than 39,000 members across the country, including more than 1,200 members and two local chapters in Colorado.

After being censured by Colorado, Patrick T. O’Rourke, the school’s executive vice chancellor and chief operating officer, said the school’s Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance met with Sanders to review policy about when and where coaches and players can engage in religious expression.

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“Coach Sanders was very receptive to this training and came away from it with a better understanding of the University of Colorado’s policies and the requirements of the Establishment Clause,” O’Rourke told the Deseret News.

But not everyone believes that Sanders has been in the wrong. First Liberty Institute, a law firm focused on religious freedom cases, sent a letter on Feb. 28 to the university, saying Sanders cannot be silenced, is allowed to exercise his constitutional rights as a public employee and has the right of religious expression on campus.

The letter referenced precedent set by the Supreme Court decision of Kennedy v. Bremerton, in which a high school football coach prayed on the field after games. In June, the Supreme Court ruled in the coach's favor 6-3, and that coaches can pray in public when students and others are witnessing it nearby.

This situation is ongoing and has not been resolved, and it also shows that Sanders is no longer in Mississippi, the most religious state in the U.S., according to a 2016 Pew Research study.

The study cited that 77% of Mississippi residents identified as "highly religious," tying Alabama for the most in the nation. By comparison, Colorado ranked 41st in the same study at 47%.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Deion Sanders prayer sparks controversy, pushback at Colorado