By Tolson Banner
“When the white enslaver fails to buck break the Lion King black male slave he goes after his cubs not realizing one day, they too become Lion Kings – and their memory is long.” —
Source: Black American Street Corner Folklore
Nationwide — Lion King Deion Sanders. When “Neon Deion” showed up on the sports scene his flamboyant style captivated fans and ruffled the feathers of some, especially the NFL. Sanders demonstrated an adroit skill in exercising the provisions of his contract by simultaneously playing two professional sports: football and baseball. Sanders’ feats on both fields were storybook and he has a gold jacket and two Superbowl rings to prove it. To boot, in 1992 Primetime lead MLB with 14 triples and played in the World Series tallying up five stolen bases. Sanders is the only player to have hit a home run and scored a touchdown in the same week. The two-star athlete later quipped, “Confidence is my natural odor.”
Sanders’ braggadocio was akin to Muhammad Ali; his brashness and boldness mirrored Jack Johnson. These character traits would attract the attention of the American “white male buck breakers” who had previously visited both Ali and Johnson. Ali was stripped of his boxing championship belt during his prime for refusing to be drafted into the Vietnam war theater. Ali fearlessly proclaimed, “the Vietnamese never called me a nigger.” Johnson, the boxing heavyweight champion at the time, was charged with the Mann Act. The heavyweight champ was known to pummel his white opponents, holding them up to extend the punishment. Johnson was convicted in 1913 for transporting a white woman across state lines for “immoral purposes”:
BUCK BREAKING (etymology – buck is a derogatory American term of a black man and breaking as in breaking a horse) – The act of publicly punishing a black male slave by sexually assaulting or raping him in front of other slaves in order to humiliate him. Today buck breaking is done digitally via the media with Harvard rhetoric and vitriol masked as constructive criticism from both the left and right. — Sources: Historian Thomas Foster; The African American Intellectual History Society; and Black Americana
Sanders would remain a thorn in the side of the NFL. His “manhood” intimidated them – to this day. Unable to metaphorically castrate him or expose him to intense public shame cloaked in severe criticism they turned their buck breaking eyes on his cub: Shedeur Sanders.
The Cub Now a Lion King. One of the most renown prognosticators of the NFL draft is Mel Kiper aka draft guru. During the latest NFL draft, Kiper peered into his crystal ball and projected Shedeur Sanders to be the number one pick. Kiper didn’t miss too often. His soothsaying was legendary.
In walked the buck breakers, wielding the rumor mill like truth dripping from the lips of a messiah. The NFL dispatched talking heads: ESPN Analysts Rex Ryan, Cowen Herd, FOX NFL Sportscaster Terry Bradshaw and a host of former NFL players and sportswriters. These pitch men would swirl the rumors as if they had merit or actually had some bearing on Sanders’ ability as a quarterback. They were spewing venom like poisonous snakes. Sanders was even pranked by the son of a NFL employee posing as an NFL owner as he precipitously dropped in the draft to the 5th round – finally picked 144th overall.
Sanders was attacked for wearing his hat backwards, for wearing sunglasses on the sidelines, for folding his arms, for allegedly sitting in the back of the room during film sessions. Ultimately for just being black. The rumors were ad infinitum; the attacks were relentless.
Cleveland Browns coach Stefanski stood in Sanders’ quarterback-ascension path like Governor George Wallace standing in the schoolhouse door to block desegregation. The Browns’ coach gave quarterback Dilon Gabriel a pass in every conceivable way, and only after Gabriel suffered a concussion, was Sanders given a shot at taking snaps with the first team.
Now here come the scathing evaluators. Their microscopic eyes would view Sanders’ performance with jaundiced vison. He was given a short lease and an even shorter timeline to perform less he would be yanked. With poise and aplomb summoned for the moment, Sanders lead the Cleveland Browns to their first win as a rookie.
The haters were quick to mention the win was against the Raiders – an NFL professional team – even though he had less than a week to prepare. Sanders’ coolness under the hot bright lights did not falter in his next NFL outing against the 49ers. The Browns lost, but Sanders’ leadership glittered undeniably.
The pro and con talking heads on the sport shows were innumerable following Sanders’ performance. During an interview, Sanders said, “A lot of people want to see me fail, it ain’t gonna happen.” He went on to say, “Imagine what a full off season looks like…it gets dangerous.” Sanders later quipped, “I’m who they been looking for.” Sounds familiar?
Tolson Banner is a writer, journalist and principal for MuzikXpose.net – the nation’s premier Black streaming radio network. He can be reached at (202) 413-6431