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Taking the temperature of Jackson State-Alabama State rivalry a year after Deion Sanders' 'Who is SWAC?' dagger

J.T. Keith, Mississippi Clarion-Ledger
·4 min read

Alabama State coach Eddie Robinson Jr. will get his wish on Saturday.

After last season’s 26-12 loss to Jackson State in its homecoming game, Robinson stated that Deion Sanders was not SWAC and hoped he got the chance to play Jackson State at its homecoming game this year.

Wish granted. Alabama State (2-3, 1-2 SWAC) will meet Jackson State (4-2, 2-1) in Jackson for homecoming on Saturday (2 p.m., ESPN+).

The only problem: Sanders will be in Colorado.

How we got here

After the 2022 game, Robinson and Sanders shook hands. Sanders attempted to hug Robinson, but Robinson rejected Sanders' embrace and a rivalry was born.

"My exact words was, 'Hey man, you had them ready to play. Good game,'" Sanders said then. "Shook hands and tried to embrace and he pushed off. That was it."

Robinson said he felt Sanders was disrespectful.

"I thought there was a lot of disrespect the whole week, and so you're not going to be disrespectful all week in the media," Robinson said after the game. "We didn't talk in the pregame. I was out there the whole time at the 50-yard-line. He walked through our huddle in our end zone, he came the long way around to get to his side during the pregame. That wasn't classy at all."

"Postgame I'm not going to give you the Obama bro hug. I'm going to shake your hand and go on. I'm always going to be respectful and respect the game. ... I'm living on the shoulders of the SWAC. He ain't SWAC. I'm SWAC. So he's in the conference and doing a great job, can't knock that. ... You're not going to come here and disrespect me and my team and my school and then want to bro hug me, shake my hand and get the hell on."

"If I ain't SWAC, then who is SWAC?" Sanders said three times after hearing Robinson's comments, more animated each time. "Baby, who is?"

"You got the 'W.' Great job," Robinson said. "I pray he don't get a Power 5 job and we play them next year in Jackson, and I pray they put us up for their homecoming."

JSU marketing frenzy

Shortly after Sanders said, "Who is SWAC If I ain't SWAC" JSU bookstores sold T-shirts for $32. T-shirts also were sold on Amazon.com for $16.99 in 10 colors, and Etsy offered T-shirts for$20.99, hoodies for $19.59 and sweatshirts for $15.29.

A year later, T-shirts can still be purchased on those sites. The JSU bookstore did not return repeated phone calls to determine if the T-shirts still can be purchased there.

Robinson talks about 'He ain't SWAC' now

Sanders, now the football coach at Colorado, could not be reached for comment this week. Robinson said Monday he hasn't spoken to Sanders since the day of the 2022 game, but he believes the story should be out of the cycle by now.

“I think that was last year,” Robinson said Monday. “I think this is another game, and we’re going to Jackson this year, and it is their homecoming and it is a great venue to play. I know Coach (T.C. Taylor ) will have his team ready to play.”

But Robinson, who played four seasons at Alabama State before spending 11 seasons in the NFL, did expound on what SWAC is to him:

  • SWAC is a mindset of people loving HBCU football, homecoming games, tailgating and all that goes with it.

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  • SWAC means playing in the NFL with players like Steve McNair, Michael Strahan, Ashley Ambrose and people who have played in the SWAC. He said SWAC players would look on the roster of an NFL team and see who was from a SWAC school. After the game the player would say, "SWAC, what’s going on?"

  • Robinson said he had NFL teammates from the SEC or Big Ten that would say they are SWAC. Robinson said he would tell them, you can’t be SWAC, you did not go to a Historically Black College and University.

  • SWAC guys are guys that went through the struggles from the 1970s, '80s and '90s. Players who took the long bus rides from Montgomery, Alabama, to Houston, to play Texas Southern or Prairie View and hoped his team would win so he and his teammates could laugh it up and have a good time on the bus ride back.

Taylor: 'Game is on the field'

Taylor also said the "Who ain't SWAC" moment is in the past and not his focus entering this weekend's game.

“I don’t get into all that kind of stuff,” Taylor said. “It is the next game, it’s homecoming for us. I just worry about my team and my players and preparing for Alabama State. All the talking, I have never been big on that.”

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Jackson State football: How Deion Sanders set tone for homecoming game