8 OctOber 5–11, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents tendance, commerce and buzz, postseason games such as Arlington’s Cotton Bowl are already salivating at the thought of bringing Sanders and his media megaphone to town. But suddenly – and much more quietly – Sanders’ unique style has camouflaged his ugly substance. It’s as if his current swag, braggadocio and success is shrouding the skeletons in his superstar closet. After his team upset the Horned Frogs as 21-point underdogs, self-anointed “Coach Prime” bellowed about his naysayers in a fabricated “us-against-the-world” toldja-so sermon. “Do you believe now?!” he said. “I’ve got receipts. I know who they are.” Unfortunately for the coach, the same goes for the slice of Dallas he left in sham- bles in the mid-2010s. His Prime Prep Acad- emy is littered with receipts of fraud and colossal, controversial failure. Revered by most Cowboys fans, Deion is reviled by some in Dallas. In 2012, the same flamboyant character who wrote a book titled Power, Money & Sex and starred in reality TV shows called Prime Time Love and Deion’s Family Playbook was planning to open his own charter school in Dallas, fittingly called Prime Prep. The Ob- server feverishly chronicled his ambitious endeavor. Scandals started before the doors even opened. The school’s co-founder, D.L. Wallace, was inexplicably being paid rent for a Prime Prep building that he didn’t own. When the Observer approached Sanders about the peculiar arrangement, as well as other allegations, he offered no rational reason and instead brushed reporters off with a patronizing “God bless you.” Prime Prep’s application to the Texas Education Board (TEB) was found to be plagiarized from another school. Along with promis- ing students a “world class education,” the hyperbolic document also contained out- right lies about securing hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from corporate giants Walmart, Home Depot and NFL Network. When contacted by the Observer, those companies were dumb- founded that Sanders was starting a school, much less securing their pledges of financial assistance. During its three-year run, Prime Prep was a series of embarrassments, including being ranked as the “worst academic institu- tion in North Texas” by the nonprofit Chil- dren at Risk. Sanders was front and center, twice fired as football coach, accused of choking two employees, and telling school administrators – on a tape recording – that he not only wanted a hefty pay raise, but also a new job title: “HNIC.” Prime Prep shuttered its doors in 2015 with less than an hour’s notice, leaving stu- dents without a school and employees with- out paychecks. Said a TEB member upon the school’s closing, “Prime Prep will no longer be a fi- nancial lottery ticket for those who don’t care to understand how to educate chil- dren.” To this day, some in Dallas mock Sanders’ failed school as “Crime Prep.” For a celebrity who relies on reputation as oxygen, that’s quite the legacy. On an episode of Deion’s Family Playbook in 2015 Sanders admitted to “locking up” in a physical fight with a Prime Prep faculty member, but also squarely blamed Wallace as the scapegoat. “I realized I didn’t partner with the right dude,” Sanders said. “I’m not saying D.L. is a bad guy. We just don’t have the same passion or purpose in regards to kids.” While Wallace remains the CEO of the Dallas-based Success Training Institute, the 56-year-old Sanders has swept Prime Prep under his expansive rug. He rarely responds to questions about the school, other than during an interview with co-Pro Football Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe earlier this year. “Prime Prep was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Sanders claimed. “You know why? Because without that failure and me attaching myself to some- one that I thought loved kids as much as I do … It taught me a valuable lesson I never will forget. Now, I’m very careful where I put my name and who I’m involved with. That was the best thing that ever hap- pened to me. Failure, yes.” We know first-hand many former Cow- boys teammates and acquaintances who swear by Sanders and vouch for him as a person. That list includes Michael Irvin, Troy Aikman, Jason Garrett and owner Jerry Jones. Here’s hoping “Prime” has matured, evolved and improved from Prime Prep to Coach Prime. But let’s not hold our breath. After Colorado was served a heaping dose of humble pie via a 42-6 loss at Oregon on Sept. 23, Sanders was anything but daunted. “You better get me right now,” he warned. “Because this is the worst we’re go- ing to be.” For such a divine holy roller, Sanders somehow gets lost between Matthew 5:5 and his vanity-fueled ego. According to God’s word, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth.” According to Coach Prime, “I’m gonna win, but I’m also gonna dominate. That’s what I do. That’s who I am.” ▼ DALLAS COUNTY TAKING DOWN A TITAN DEREK AVERY WANTS JOHN WILEY PRICE’S COUNTY COMMISSIONER JOB BY JACOB VAUGHN D erek Avery, a local developer and community advocate, says it’s time for change in Dallas County’s District 3. That’s why he’s announced that he’ll be run- ning to unseat District 3 County Commis- sioner John Wiley Price. If elected to the seat, Avery said he’d want to focus on housing, economic development and transportation in the district, which stretches from the west in Cedar Hill, east to Seagoville, up to Wylie, and through the southern sector of Dallas. Price has almost too many accolades to count. He was the first African American elected to the Dallas County Commissioner’s Court in 1985 and has served on the court for more than 38 years. He is the longest-serving member of the commissioners court, with the next most senior commissioner having been elected in 2010. In that time, Price has served as chairman of the Dallas County Civil Service Commission, vice president of the Dallas County Juvenile Board, chairman of the Jail Population Committee and many other positions with the county. To Price’s District 3 constituents, he’s simply known as “Our man downtown.” Over the years, he’s proven himself a politi- cal force to be reckoned with to say the least. Even in the face of a federal corruption trial over allegations of bribery and conspiracy, Price was able to cruise by his 2016 oppo- nents for the District 3 seat. After being re- elected, Price was found not guilty of the charges against him. He also flew by his op- ponents in the 2020 race for the seat. But Avery thinks he can beat him in an election. Avery, a Houston native, has lived in the district for nearly a decade. He was hesitant to throw any specific criticisms at Price, of- ten saying only that the District 3 position isn’t Price’s to keep. However, he did cite homelessness, jail capacity issues and hous- ing as a few things that need work, blaming county leadership. “One thing I always want to mention is the seat is not his seat,” Avery said, referring to Price, even though it has been his seat for nearly four decades. “It does not belong to any particular person. The seat is for the people. I think that Commissioner Price has done some great things in his career. He’s re- ally fought for some equity with Black and Brown people. I think there comes a time when the torch needs to be passed,” he said. He thinks that time is now. Price couldn’t be reached for comment. Avery might not call Price out with any cut- ting criticism, but he does make some serious claims against the county officials as a whole, alleging that people are dying in his district be- cause they are unhoused. “We are seeing peo- ple die daily from some of the decisions that are being made at the county, and I think that’s something we need to take very seriously.” He also said people are languishing and even dying in the county jail because of poor conditions. According to NBCDFW, the county has reported nine inmate deaths to the state this year. “That falls upon county leadership,” Avery said. Avery wasn’t sure about running at first. “Then I realized that if I’m asking and look- ing for other people to do things to bring in a new brand of leadership, it sometimes has to be you that steps out there and does it first,” he said. “It’s not about anyone else that’s in a seat,” he said. “It’s not about anything like that. It’s more about stepping up and putting the power back into the hands of the Courtesy Derek Avery Derek Avery, a Houston native, wants to unseat Price in District 3. Unfair Park from p6 >> p10
