I used to know a son of a well-known celebrity well. There wasn’t a day that went by in his tortured life where he didn’t both gushingly praise and lament “my father”, because everywhere he went that was all almost anyone wanted to talk about and inevitably the bar he was being held to. Whatever promise and potential this person may have had at one point had long since been snuffed out; his life by this point had been reduced to obscure menial labor, virtual poverty and countless people who at one point were his friends completely giving up on him.
His was an extreme case, and ultimately many of his most permanent scars were self-inflicted. But throughout my career I’ve known plenty of other second generation talents and while many of them indeed achieved success on their own–and not all of them due to their pops pulling strings–there was still the same through line through all of the conversations where they discussed their upbringing. The fact that they had been raised by a successful father pretty much dominated their entire childhood and served as both a motivator and an obstacle at the same time.
So I don’t muse about the case of Shedeur Sanders without an appreciable amount of empathy and, even though I long ago exceeded whatever meager standards my own father set for me during a life that he so often described as unfulfiling, I believe I have more than enough insight to suspect that despite his bravado and optimism yesterday may not have been the best to date in his young life. YAHOO! Sports’ senior writer Charles Robinson offered his own take:
In a scenario that appeared to be shaping up over the past few weeks, Shedeur Sanders went unselected in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft.
Sanders was bypassed by a multitude of teams with some level of quarterback need throughout the first round, including the Tennessee Titans, Cleveland Browns, New York Giants, Las Vegas Raiders, New Orleans Saints and Pittsburgh Steelers.
After the round ended, Sanders spoke to those in attendance at his draft watch site in Texas. In a video posted to Instagram by his father, Deion, he framed the moment as “fuel to the fire.”
“We all didn’t expect this of course, but I feel like with God, anything’s possible, everything’s possible, and I feel like this didn’t happen for no reason,” Sanders said. “All this is of course is fuel to the fire. Under no circumstance — we all know this shouldn’t have happened, but we understand we’re on to bigger and better things. If tomorrow’s the day, we’re going to be happy regardless.”
To be sure, no GoFundMes will need to be set up at any point for Shadeur or anyone else in the Sanders family. Pere is more than well off and has been so since he leapt into professional sports as the Atlanta Falcons’ number one draft pick (fifth overall) in the 1989 NFL draft and supplemented his career with a side hustle that saw him patrol center field for the New York Yankees and in the world series for the Atlanta Braves, developing the iconic nickname “Primetime” along the way. A celebrity and connection with a generation of fans, especially African-Americans, that carries enough weight even today for him to have earned the opportunity to coach at HBCU Jackson State and an unexpected level of success that has led him to an even bigger stage, and virtual carte blanche, at Colorado University, where he completely turned around a decrepit Pac 12 program that finished 1-11 in 2022 into a 9-3 Big 12 regular season co-champion in 2024.
And to be even surer, Shadeur had a good deal to do with that on-field performance as the Buffaloes’ quarterback. THE ATHLETIC’s dynamic duo of Alex Andrejev and Nick Baumgardner reminded their readers of his CV yesterday:
Sanders totaled 134 touchdowns and 14,347 yards during his collegiate career, including a career-high 4,134 yards, and completed 74 percent of his passes for the Buffaloes last season.
But a sizable amount of those passes and yards went into the hands of his teammate at both schools, Travis Hunter, whose own resume reads a lot closer to Deion’s. An overachieving multitasker–in this case, a standout as both wide receiver and defensive back who happened to also win the Heisman Trophy in the process. And someone who the emboldened new youthful leadership of the Jacksonville Jaguars boldly stepped up to claim, giving up their #5 pick in this draft and next year’s #1 to the Cleveland Browns to secure this year’s #2 and ensure that the West Palm Beach native and someone who matured in Atlanta would be playing his NFL home games in a city that draws fans and attention from both markets. And who clearly stood out as the biggest story of Night One of the 2025 NFL Draft.
To see the level of attention and accolade being thrown at your friend and companion, no matter how magnamanious or G-d-focused one may claim to be, had to have created more than a tinge of envy in Shadeur Sanders’ impressive entourage last night. One that in hindsight he was wise to have kept in Texas with only remote cameras and family-posted Instagram feeds to provide documentation of–as opposed to having to deal with reporters who were feeding the kind of narrative that Robinson recapped:
While Sanders’ draft stock appeared to be continually adjusted down the board as Thursday drew closer, his fall out of the first round came in the wake of a last-minute spate of controversy this week after NFL Network anonymously quoted multiple league sources who hammered Sanders with sharp criticism over his play and pre-draft interviews. While the anonymous critiques were not the first for Sanders in this process, the nature of some of the comments — including calling him “entitled” and “not very good” as a player — drew a spate of negative reactions inside and outside of league circles.
And as the ATHLETIC’s duo valiantly tried to counsel, that may have been due to some self-inflicted wounds on Shadeur’s part:
The only people who seemed confident Sanders would be a top 10 selection in this draft were Sanders and his agents/PR team. He had opportunities at the Shrine Bowl and the combine to compete and prove he was ready to lead an NFL team right away next season and he opted against both — instead claiming his college tape was all NFL teams needed to see.
It wasn’t, and frankly, his approach to this pre-draft process should be a lesson in what not to do for future quarterbacks. You cannot simply declare yourself something you aren’t and hope nobody checks you on it.
Whether or not Sanders is actually NFL-ready, or capable of eclipsing his college performance behind a theoretically more competent offensive line than Pops was able to provide him at CU, will be a storyline saved for later this year, even if it’s merely in a meaningless August pre-season game. Where exactly that may be is very much up in the air , although there’s a clear front-runner, as Robinson professed:
The most prominent potential suitors are the Browns, who are looking for a long-term starter to develop and currently hold the first pick in the second round (33rd overall). Cleveland also has the 36th pick, which it acquired from the Jacksonville Jaguars in a trade that moved Cleveland down from No. 2 overall to the fifth pick, where it selected Michigan defensive tackle Mason Graham.
Sanders has long been viewed as a natural fit for Cleveland head coach Kevin Stefanski’s offense, which has had success over a sustained period with pocket quarterbacks who present a somewhat limited overall athletic profile or prototypical build. The Browns also did ample work on Sanders throughout the draft process, taking him to dinner and meeting with him a handful of times, but not putting him through a private workout.
And for a franchise that is desperately trying to move along from the stain that was their massive investment in DeShaun Watson, getting a lightning rod of attention like Shadeur–and no doubt the brilliant team of shills and documentarians that champion the Sanders-verse–at a second round discount may very well work out. And it certainly provides us with a reason to at least flick on one of the channels carrying Night Two of the 2025 NFL Draft.
Which, incidentally, will again be in Primetime.
Courage…