The Prime Effect
In December 2022, it was announced that Deion Sanders, also known as Coach Prime, would take over as head coach for the University of Colorado Boulder football team. Known for his smooth arrogance that was backed up by his electrifying style of play, Coach Prime would flip the CU Football organization on its head in no less than a year since his arrival.
To visualize just how seismic his arrival was in Boulder, I have scrapped data from Sanders’ Wikipedia page that shows some very interesting trends. In the past, Wikipedia has been scrutinized because of the misinformation it can spread with its open editing model. However, in the context of this analysis, Wikipedia is a great source to assess the popularity of a topic by gathering data on page views, user contribution, and page content.
Sanders retired in 2001 and the oldest Wikipedia data I had access to was 2005, so this analysis is solely based on his life as an ex-player. The first notable spike in pageviews came between 2006 and 2008. During this period, Sanders joined the NFL network as a broadcaster in 2007, and then in 2008 he starred in a reality TV show about his life and family. All of this media exposure sparked the most attention towards the ex-NFL player since his retirement. This small spike in page views dwindled when compared to his announcement to become the head coach at CU Boulder. In December of 2022, his pageviews jumped to almost 200,000, then after his victory over TCU in August of 2023, shot up to just over 600,000.
Not only has this spike in popularity been observed with Deion, but also with his two sons. Before coming to Boulder Shilo and Shedeur were coached by their father playing for Jackson State. Despite being some of the most exciting prospects in the country, they were still largely unknown at the time and neither had a Wikipedia page, that is until they decided to follow their father Boulder. After Deion announced his commitment to Colorado Football in December of 2022, Shedeur was finally put on the map, and his total page views for this period spiked to around 50,000. Then, after his incredible performance against TCU later that August, his page views more than quadrupled. The equally impressive performance from his brother Shilo gave him a page for the first time with thousands of views just days after his performance. Many will attribute this rise in popularity solely to their performances on the field, but I believe it goes beyond this. Coach primes popularity and success have created a platform for these 20-year-old kids to get recognized and create a name for themselves.
Another interesting Wikipedia trend I found on Sanders’ page was the number of revisions per year. Similar to the number of page views, revisions first spiked between 2006 and 2008, then dramatically spiked in 2022 and 2023. Revisions can explain the amount of activity that occurs on a Wikipedia page. A revision in this context is every edit that a single user made to the page, and more are made, it is likely to assume that there have been significant events in Sanders’ life. Milestones such as becoming an NFL broadcaster, starring in a reality show, and becoming a head coach all require large amounts of revisions on his page. In other words, the number of revisions per year can be equivalent to the amount of activity in his life. To my surprise, I found that the number of revisions in 2007 was almost equal to the number in 2022 when he was announced as head coach of Colorado. This is why it is key not to mix up the number of revisions with popularity. It shows that there must have been more going on in Sanders’ personal life in 2007 compared to the present time.
Overall, using Wikipedia data has allowed us to view Deion Sanders as more than just an athlete. As his page continues to grow, the thousands of people who view it every day will learn more about his personal life as a coach, father, and ambassador of the game. As for Sanders’ two sons and the rest of his team, his popularity has been transmitted to them and only in their early 20s they are already recognized on a global scale. This only makes me think what Sanders’ page would have looked like early in his career. While social media platforms and endorsements are the primary way of getting exposure in the sports industry, it is important to use Wikipedia as a tool not only to monitor popularity but to provide the world with context on personal life and achievements.
