A reporter from the Clarion Ledger was blocked from covering Deion Sanders' Jackson State squad at SWAC Media Day on Tuesday a day after he published a story on a domestic violence charge against the highest-ranked recruit in program history. Sanders didn't want the reporter, Rashad Milligan, to cover the team because of the story.
Here are the details of the domestic violence charge:
The incident occurred one day after Milligan reported on a July 1 court filing stating that Quaydarius Davis, an incoming four-star wide receiver from Dallas, was expected to plead guilty on a charge of “assault causes bodily injury family violence,” a misdemeanor in Texas, stemming from an incident in March.
Davis’ attorney, Henry Campbell, told the Clarion Ledger after publication of the story that the player was not planning to plead guilty. The Clarion Ledger attempted to contact Campbell multiple times before publication of the story.
Jackson State AD Ashley Robinson told Milligan the story was inaccurate and that he would be better off covering other schools at SWAC Media Day. Several other Jackson State employees told Milligan he wouldn't be able to interview Jackson State players (including Sanders' son) and coaches and that interviews wouldn't begin with him present.
It was quite the eventful day for Deion Sanders and Jackson State. In addition to this situation with Milligan, there was some drama with Sanders and another Clarion Ledger reporter (Nick Suss), who called the coach by his first name multiple during his press conference. Sanders wasn't happy with it and called out the reporter for doing that.
This all isn't a great look for Jackson State. Sanders took to Twitter afterward to try to explain his mindset on the name issue, but the barring of Milligan looks even more egregious.
Sanders is set to enter his second season as head coach of Jackson State. It's off to a rough start.