Hey, Kiz! I know you’re at the Winter Olympics in Italy. But did you see former CU Buffs football star Christian Fauria unload on Coach Prime with criticism? Just want to say: Thumbs up to Mr. Fauria!

– J.G., honeymoon’s over 

Kiz: Welp, that was a bruising pancake block Fauria put on Deion Sanders. Fauria, a big man on the Boulder campus during the 1990s, sounded off on a CBS Radio talk show. He didn’t hold back, saying: “I’m just not a fan of the coach … Don’t like the way he coaches football … Don’t think he’s very bright … There’s a lot of flash, but I think there’s no substance … He’s got a lot of people, like, brainwashed.” After his son had an unpleasant football experience at CU with Prime, maybe Fauria has an axe to grind. But a proud Buffs alum does speak some inconvenient truths. While I regard Sanders as bright and engaging, his poor decisions under gameday pressure and a chronic impatience for developing young talent make him a contender for the most overpaid college football coach in America. 

Where’s the parking in the Broncos’ plans for a new stadium? What’s close offsite? Not enough right now!

– Craig, Morrison

Kiz: While their plans aren’t final, the Broncos seem to have been influenced by the European soccer model of having a stadium as the centerpiece of a neighborhood rather than being plopped in the middle of a parking lot. That idea is what makes Wrigleyville in Chicago such a cool place to hang out in a pub before first pitch or after the last out of a Cubs game. But it also flies in the face of American car culture and messes with the grand football tradition of tailgating.

The Olympics are intended to be apolitical. Journalists should avoid questions to athletes about how current events affect the political landscape in their home country. And competitors should eschew answering any such questions.

– K.B., Aurora

Kiz: There are athletes who passionately seek a soapbox to talk about issues beyond sports, but in my experience, most competitors just want to concentrate on playing the game. Whatever the Olympic ideal might be, the Games have always been political. Athletes wear the flag on their uniforms and stand on a podium as the national anthem plays in celebration of winning gold. And why do we count medals, if not as a measure of a country’s world strength? The Russian hockey team is banned from Italy as punishment for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and more than one American patriot blasted China’s exploitation of the 2022 Winter Games as a means of sportswashing the stain of civil liberty atrocities. Stick to sports? The Olympics can’t. And won’t. 

And today’s parting shot takes issue with some knucklehead for slamming multimillionaire pro athlete Mikaela Shiffrin for skiing poorly at the Olympics.

Kiszla’s piece on Shiffrin was the worst bleeping article I’ve ever read on a female athlete. Talk about an abomination. It should fall somewhere along the lines of something written by some lewd person on Facebook.

– anonymous caller, 406 area code