The sports world had varied reactions to the 60 Minutes feature on Deion Sanders that aired Sunday night.
Put Jackson State women’s basketball coach Tomekia Reed in the category of people who hated it.
Reed took to X (formerly Twitter) Sunday night to protest how the show portrayed Jackson State’s hometown of Jackson, Mississippi, where Sanders coached three seasons. The show contrasted the difference between Jackson and Boulder, Colorado, where Sanders has captivated the sports world in his first season with the Buffaloes.
“Sanders went from a city that is 83 percent black to one that is one percent black,” CBS correspondent Jon Wertheim noted. “From a place with a water crisis to a kind of hipster college town where there’s a shop devoted to kites.”
The feature then showed a dilapidated old house in Jackson to illustrate its point.
Reed immediately ripped the comparison as unfair.
“@60Minutes y’all made Jackson, MS look horrible,” Reed wrote. “You should be ashamed of yourselves for showing the worst house you can find in America and make it like that describes us. I’m not even sure if that abandoned house you showed is even in Jackson. #ThisisHome”
@60Minutes y’all made Jackson, MS look horrible. You should be ashamed of yourselves for showing the worst house you can find in America and make it like that describes us. I’m not even sure if that abandoned house you showed is even in Jackson. #ThisisHome
— Coach Tomekia Reed (@CoachTReed) September 18, 2023
A 60 Minutes source confirmed to The New York Post that the house in question is in Jackson near the Jackson State football facility.
When someone replied to Reed’s comment asking what the feature was about, the basketball coach replied, “It was comparing Jackson, MS to Boulder, CO. They showed very nice locations in Boulder and showed the worst they could find in Jackson, MS. We have so much more to show that wouldn’t have hurt @60Minutes to take time to spotlight.”
It was comparing Jackson, MS to Boulder, CO. They showed very nice locations in Boulder and showed the worst they could find in Jackson, MS. We have so much more to show that wouldn’t have hurt @60Minutes to take time to spotlight.
— Coach Tomekia Reed (@CoachTReed) September 18, 2023
Reed, who joined Jackson State in 2018, certainly isn’t the first person to complain about the media twisting a narrative to make a point.
The rest of Sanders’ feature generated some talk as well. Sanders, who has led the Buffaloes to a 3-0 start, was asked who he thought was the best coach in the U.S.
“Let me see a mirror, so I can look at it,” Sanders replied.
The former NFL star also explained his reason in leaving Jackson State for Colorado, saying, “I left when I was supposed to leave.”
