Coach Prime Can Smell You During the Game, Pot-Smoking Devils

Move over, "Win or lose, we still booze." Deion Sanders has discovered that the student section at the University of Colorado Boulder has its own way of getting loud.

During an interview with CBS Colorado's Romi Bean, Sanders alluded to smelling a certain plant during home games.

"It's always a point in the game where I look around and look at the stands, from probably the forty-yard line on this side," the CU head football coach said, motioning toward a side of the field. " And I'm, like, wow...what is going on up in here? So I guess y'all enjoying the game."

The "You know you're in Colorado when..." moment, as described by Bean, still takes Coach Prime by surprise as he nears the end of his first season. But CU students have been smoking primo for years now. In fact, Colorado's longstanding cannabis connection wouldn't be where it is now if it weren't for pot-loving CU students.

In 1965, a Rocky Mountain News article relayed the shock of realizing how many students at the University of Colorado Boulder were using cannabis, and how easy it was to find on campus. Around 35 years after the News shared its dismay over the amount of pot at CU, the school briefly became the state's cultural center for cannabis. That's when CU students began holding public smokeouts at Farrand Field on April 20, or 4/20.

In 2003, there were nearly 1,000 people on the field, and attendance continued to grow despite public discouragement from university officials. In 2005, the school began turning on sprinklers around 4:20 p.m., watering the lawn and protesters. The year after that, photos of 4/20 crowd members were posted online by CU police, with financial rewards offered for identification of students on the field. None of that discouraged the unofficial holiday.
The acts of defiance helped Boulder-based Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER) successfully pass measures at CU and Colorado State University that made cannabis-related penalties no worse than penalties for alcohol offenses on campus. In the following years, CU's 4/20 presence grew larger — and so did the pushback. In 2007, a barricade was erected around Farrand Field, so students held their 4/20 smokeout at Norlin Quad, where it remained for several years. The size of the event grew to 10,000 people, helping earn CU's top ranking in Playboy's party schools of 2011.

To celebrate the award, CU took a harder stance against 4/20, applying smelly fertilizer to the lawn in 2012 and shutting down the area entirely in 2013. The CU 4/20 celebration hasn't returned since, but its presence — and photos — will always be a part of the state's journey.

And, apparently, Buffs football games.

"I'm serious. It never ceases to amaze me. It never ceases to amaze me. It seems like it's always the same point of the game," Sanders continued.

Coach Prime's comments didn't come from a chastising stance toward students. Although he's categorized bringing cannabis or alcohol around team functions as a "deal breaker" for players in past interviews, Sanders has also said he accepts that some of his players are old enough to partake in certain activities during their personal time. In 2021, Sanders lent his name to cannabis reform as well, signing a public letter with Drake, Killer Mike and other celebrities demanding cannabis criminal pardons in Utah.