Legal issues are trailing Deion Sanders into the 2026 football season.
Colorado’s leader took his turn at the podium on Monday, and in addition to discussing all aspects of next week’s season opener at Georgia Tech, Sanders addressed a couple of the legal issues that recently have put his name in unflattering headlines.
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Sanders is being sued by a graphic designer who created several of Sanders’ personal brand logos. Of more immediate relevance to a Colorado team that kicks off the 2026 season next week at Georgia Tech is the status of the subpoena a Boulder County Sheriff’s Office deputy attempted to serve to Sanders nearly two weeks ago to testify at his son Shilo’s bankruptcy trial next week.
The trial is scheduled for Aug. 31 through Sept. 4. CU’s opener at Georgia Tech is Sept. 3, with the team scheduled to leave for Atlanta on Sept. 1.
Coach Sanders’ attorney, Harvey Steinberg, filed a motion to quash, or dismiss, the subpoena.
Shilo Sanders, a former CU safety, filed for bankruptcy in 2023 after he was given an $11.89 million judgment in a civil lawsuit filed by John Darjean, a former school security guard who claimed Shilo left him with permanent injuries following an alleged assault in 2015. Darjean was awarded a default judgment in 2022 when Shilo failed to show up for court, and next week’s trial seeks to dismiss that judgment as part of his bankruptcy claim.
Coach Sanders offered one dubious claim during his media session on Monday.
“You know Shilo won this case previously,” Sanders said. “Anybody know that? Raise your hand if you knew that. That Shilo got awarded money for this? I can’t wait ’til it’s over and he gets to tell his story. He already won this case.”
What coach Sanders might have been alluding to was an undisclosed settlement from 2019, when Shilo Sanders sued his former school and its founder for damages from the same 2015 incident. But that settlement has no bearing on the trial set to begin next week in Denver.
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Sanders’ former graphic designer, Alan Tipp, alleges he signed away the rights to his creations in 2022 in exchange for future considerations, including using Tipp to design Sanders’ line of branded glasses. Tipp says those future considerations never happened.
According to Coach Prime, getting sued is simply a professional hazard.
“When you have it, when you him, when you that, you get sued,” Sanders said. “You have off-the-field foolishness that if someone really sat down and explained it to you, you’d say, ‘You gotta be kidding me.’ But it is what it is. I don’t know anyone that’s a game-changer or win-maker that is not dealing with some type of lawsuit.”
In other legal news, defensive lineman Ezra Christensen saw his appeal for an injunction that would have granted him eligibility this season denied on Monday.
A transfer from New Mexico State, Christensen would have been one of the premier players on CU’s defensive front after he moved to Colorado last winter. Christensen moved to San Diego from Sierra Leone during high school and immediately took to football after playing it for the first time.
Christensen spent two seasons at San Diego Mesa College and two at Fresno State before transferring to New Mexico State, where he was a first-team all-conference selection last year. Christensen had been seeking a sixth year of eligibility, and his attorney likely will file an emergency appeal in hopes of reversing Monday’s ruling.
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