Deion Sanders is facing renewed criticism over his son's legacy at Colorado. Nearly a year after the university retired Shedeur Sanders' No. 2 jersey, former player Christian Fauria is publicly calling the decision a 'vanity project' driven by the coach.

While speaking on USA Today, the two-time Super Bowl champion said that although he would still support the Buffaloes, he didn't agree on retiring Shedeur's number.

“I don’t want Colorado to fail — I want them to succeed!  I officially tapped out in April 2025, when athletic director Rick George allowed the University of Colorado to retire Shedeur Sanders’ No. 2 jersey... Believe me, I can root for Shedeur as a player while still calling his jersey retirement what it was: a vanity project driven by his father,” he said.

Shedeur, along with that year's Heisman Trophy winner, Travis Hunter, became the fifth and sixth Colorado players to have their jersey numbers retired. Not only that, but it would also be the soonest.

Cleveland's rookie QB played for two years at the University of Colorado. His performance was certainly commendable, throwing for 7364 passing yards with 64 touchdowns.

And perhaps the reason Fauria's anger were the lack of achievements Sanders had compared to other additions. Byron White, Joe Romig, and Rashaan Salaam were all incredible talents. Their range of achievements included being named in the All-American team, leading their teams to undefeated seasons, and even winning the Heisman.

It might also be the reason that Fauria wasn't the only one who was against the decision to retire Shedeur's number so soon.

Former University players publicly called out the decision

Not only Christian Fauria, but the former Colorado linebacker, Chad Brown, talked about it on social media.

He took to X and said this, "Never want to take away from anything #2 or #12 have done. Amazing players. But to act as if CU FB was invented 3 years ago ignores the greatness in the past & the players that produced that greatness."

Darrin Chiaverini, who also played for the Buffaloes before, seemed to agree with it.

“Congratulations to Shedeur and Travis. No doubt they are etched in Colorado Football lore, but let’s make sure we honor those that came before," he said.

Looking at Shedeur's journey now, he had seven starts in the 2025 season. Although the performance wasn't on par, there is room for improvement.

Does Shedeur have what it takes to become Cleveland's franchise QB? Let us know in the comments!

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Written by

Kalp Thaker

Edited by

Siddharth Shirwadkar