{"id":788483,"date":"2026-03-03T07:12:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T07:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/788483\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T07:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T07:12:15","slug":"deion-sanders-announces-season-long-tribute-to-honor-qb-dominiq-ponder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/788483\/","title":{"rendered":"Deion Sanders Announces Season-Long Tribute to Honor QB Dominiq Ponder"},"content":{"rendered":"

23-year-old Colorado quarterback Dominiq Ponder<\/a> died early Sunday morning in a single-car crash. The Colorado State Patrol said Ponder was driving a 2023 Tesla when he lost control while navigating a curve. He was pronounced dead at the scene in Boulder County. In the wake of the tragedy, the loss has deeply impacted Deion Sanders and the entire Colorado football program.<\/p>\n

On March 1st, DNVR Buffs hopped onto their handle and shared that to keep his memory alive, Deion Sanders announced the team will be rocking a special patch on their uniforms for this entire upcoming season. The team actually got to vote on what the tribute patch should look like.<\/p>\n

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In a meeting caught on camera, Coach Prime showed off three different designs: a lowercase \u201cdom,\u201d an uppercase \u201cDOM,\u201d and \u201cDP 7,\u201d which uses Dom\u2019s initials and his jersey number.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou guys want to get together with the leaders of the selection committee for the two different teams, and you guys come back. You guys tell them, and you come back and tell me. We\u2019ll figure out what you guys want, because it\u2019s going to be what you guys want,\u201d Sanders said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a small way for the guys to keep their teammates close to their hearts every time they step on the field this year. Even at their first practice back, they broke every huddle by chanting his name.<\/p>\n

The tragedy happened around 3 a.m. on Sunday, March 1, on Baseline Road in Boulder. The car crashed through a guardrail, hit a power pole, and then rolled down a hill. After that, it caught on fire. Police believe the driver was probably going too fast, and that speed was the main reason for the crash. Even so, it feels like a very sad and unfair accident.<\/p>\n

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Coach Deion Sanders was actually the one who broke the news to the team, actually.<\/p>\n

He called Dominiq a \u201cborn leader\u201d and one of his favorite players because he was always so positive and worked so hard. Ponders had this asymmetric journey to get to Boulder. He first started in Florida as a three-star recruit. After his very short stint in Gainesville, he then bounced through Bethune-Cookman and Georgia Tech before finally found himself in suiting up for Coach Prime in Boulder last season.<\/p>\n

The team has also shared fun stories about him. One example is how Dom once jumped over a 10 foot fence just to help his teammate get into a hot tub for rehab. He was usually the first person in the QB room before the sun even came up, which is why the team was so adamant about not canceling practice. They felt like sitting around would be the last thing Dom would\u2019ve wanted them to do.<\/p>\n

This is definitely going to be a long spring for his family and also for his team to process this one. Offensive coordinator Brennan Marion said getting the call from Dom\u2019s dad didn\u2019t even feel real.<\/p>\n

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The school is bringing in a couple of counselors for the players. Dom was a criminology major with a bright future. His presence might no longer be here with us.<\/p>\n

But the legacy he left behind in that locker room is probably going to fuel the Buffs for a long time<\/a>, because they got a bigger purpose to play the game of football. However, this isn\u2019t the first time Coach Prime has used patches to honor program legends or personal mentors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Deion Sanders\u2019 tradition of honoring legends through uniform tributes.<\/p>\n

Actually, Coach Prime has a history of using uniform patches to bridge the gap between his team\u2019s ambitious future and the program\u2019s legendary past. One of the most significant tributes was for the late Hall of Fame coach Bill McCartney. The legendary coach passed away in early 2025. To honor the man who led Colorado to its only national title, the team wore a \u201cMac 82-94\u201d patch on their right shoulders during the 2025 season opener.<\/p>\n

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They decided to wear throwback uniforms with gold helmets and black jerseys to match the style from the championship years under Bill McCartney. And on a personal level, Deion Sanders wears a \u201cJC\u201d patch on his coaching outfit during his games. The patch is a tribute to someone who meant a lot to him.<\/p>\n

Jimmie Callaway was the longtime equipment manager at Florida State Seminoles football. He became a mentor and father figure to Sanders when he was young. After Callaway passed away in 2020, Sanders continued to wear the patch to honor his memory and remember the support he received to get where he is today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"23-year-old Colorado quarterback Dominiq Ponder died early Sunday morning in a single-car crash. The Colorado State Patrol said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":788484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3567,21481,564,59,2932,111229,11,111092,7,49,48,107787],"class_list":["post-788483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-boulder-county","tag-coach-prime","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-buffaloes","tag-colorado-football","tag-colorado-state-patrol","tag-deion-sanders","tag-dominiq-ponder","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaa-football-game"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116164004685856143","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=788483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}