There was a time when high school principals would measure the length of shorts on students at the doorway. Colorado head coach and NFL legend Deion Sanders would probably prefer refs also start doing that in the tunnel before college football games.
Oklahoma kicker Tate Sandell went viral during the Sooners’ 33-27 win over Tennessee more so because of his short pants than his historical performance that propelled OU to its biggest win of the season so far. Although it did not and will not affect Sanders in any way, he took time during Colorado’s coaches show on Wednesday to take a shot at Sandell and also OU’s coaches for letting him wear that style of pants.
Deion Sanders takes jabs at Tate Sandell's viral pants
Kirk Herbstreit: "That should be a penalty. Just dressing like that should be a penalty. What the hell is it? Wearing shorts out there?"
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 2, 2025
Chris Fowler: "Short shorts, but not short on distance."
Herbstreit: "Got his Daisy Dukes on and puts it right down the middle..." pic.twitter.com/Hy970Fogdz
Sanders was asked about attention to detail for things like a uniform and why it’s important, which is when he brought up Sandell’s pants.
“These kids now, you’ve got kids trying to go out there in dern biker shorts,” Sanders said. “Like, what is wrong with you all? Get back in line. Our guys don’t do that. We, as coaches, we respect the dern game.
“I could put a picture up of all of our guys who have been in the pros. I’ll put a picture of them in their NFL uniform on the screen. You see that with any of us? And we made it to the mountain top. You see Marshall Faulk with his dern quad out? No. You don’t see that.”
Sanders surely has more important problems to worry about than what players are wearing, especially a kicker in a different conference, since his team is 3-6 and will likely not even reach a bowl game, let alone a mountain top. The man himself sometimes wears two golden whistles while coaching games. He also had no problem with his son who played for him at Colorado wearing a giant watch during pregame warmups.
ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit during the broadcast also initially had an issue with Sandell’s pants and questioned if they should be a penalty. However, after Sandell made all four field goal attempts from distances of 55, 51, 40 and 55 yards, respectively, Herbstreit decided Sandell can wear whatever he wants if he kicks like that.
The host of Colorado’s coaches show mentioned how Herbstreit “went nuts” over Sandell’s “short shorts.”
“I can’t,” Sanders said. “But I don’t understand how us coaches allow it. How did we allow that? I have too much respect for the game. I’m sorry, I really do. That’s why it hurts me right now.”