Let me begin with an excerpt from a scripture in the Holy Bible. The book of Exodus 20:5 tells us, “You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God.”
I usually attempt to separate matters of church and state, and I have generally been successful at doing so. However, after the 2025 NFL Draft concluded on April 26, I had a difficult time doing that because I did not get a wink of sleep. My spirit was deeply troubled. Troubled by the most biased and egregious evaluation and analysis of a single NFL talent that I have ever seen in more than four decades covering professional football.
University of Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders, son of NFL Hall-of-Fame great Deion Sanders, was predicted by many prognosticators as one of the premier players who would be drafted early in the first round of the Draft.
Shedeur Sanders is a quarterback who resurrected not one, but two football programs that were left for dead. The first program that he resuscitated was Jackson State, an HBCU. The second school was Colorado, a member of the Big 12 Conference, not exactly an NCAA Division III football program. Sanders was eventually drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the 5th round. Why did his stock sink so low? Was he secretly injured or did an off-the-field incident place in character in a questionable light? The answer to both questions is an emphatic no, or as Homey the Clown might say: “I don’t think so.” This farce was definitely a carnival-like Draft complete with lots of smoke and mirrors.
The Alpha of the Sanders legacy and the Omega of that legacy began simultaneously on April 23, 1989, when Deion Sanders was the fifth overall player selected by the Atlanta Falcons in the first round.
On September 23, 2023, Henry Palattella wrote a story and posted it on mlb.com titled: Way before “Coach Prime,” Deion took baseball by storm. “One of the fastest people I’ve ever seen,” said MLB Network’s Harold Reynolds, who played against Sanders in his MLB debut. “He had style, flair and he was a heck of a player. It was fun to play and compete against him.”
The first six years of Sanders’ career were spent with the Yankees and Reds, with the highlight in 1992, when he tried to play in an NFL game and NLCS game in the same day. While it didn’t work out, Sanders ended up playing in that year’s World Series, where he hit .533 (Sanders still holds the distinction of being the only player to play in both a World Series and Super Bowl). After temporarily retiring from baseball, Sanders made his return in 2001 and announced his presence on Opening Day with a home run and a stolen base.
An article posted by Daniel Mader on sportingnews.com on April 22, 2025 said: “Deion Sanders’ 1989 NFL Draft revisited: How Prime Time spurned Lions, Giants and landed with the Falcons continues the praise of the Hall-of-Famer and sports icon.”
“Sanders earned plenty of high expectations before the Draft. One Tampa Tribune writer said he ‘could be one of the best cornerbacks ever to come into the game,’ while Sanders’ teammate at Florida State, LeRoy Butler, said the corner has ‘feet like O.J. Simpson,’ is ‘faster than Bo Jackson’ and had ‘the hands of Larry Bird.’”
The article continued: “There were some concerns over Sanders’ baseball career; he’d already started his professional baseball career by 1989. He also had personal demands, making his requests to play for certain teams very clear.”
Oh, hell no. Shedeur Sanders was not going to come into the 2025 NFL Draft dictating the narrative like his daddy did in 1989. Folks were determined to put and keep the younger Sanders “boy” in his place. Many folks still hate and will never forget the fact that his daddy was the first athlete to play and compete, I said compete, because Deion Sanders didn’t sit on the bench in the Super Bowl or the World Series, he played and was great at both sports! As far as the Sanders legacy goes, some folks are determined that the legacy stops with Deion.
Can’t you see the sparks flying from the wheels of blacksmiths across America on the night before the 2025 NFL Draft? I hear them sharpening their “daggers of injustice” with innuendos and slander preparing to slice and dice the credibility of Shedeur Sanders just because he was birthed from the loins of greatness.
Tacuma Roeback posted an article on chicagodefender.com titled, “Shedeur Sanders’ NFL Draft Slide Wasn’t About Football. It Was Personal.” Mr. Roeback points out that: “What happened to Shedeur—being picked much later than projected— looked, smelled, and felt like a message: that this brash, Black, privileged quarterback had to be put in his place. More than that, it seemed the league made an example out of him and everything he represents: the new-age college athlete, already famous and well-compensated through name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals, who wouldn’t play by their rules. Conform or suffer the consequences. And that ultimatum echoes beyond football. It makes me think about people from every walk of life who get punished for what they represent, not for how well they do the job. It’s a dull agony, knowing that in this political moment, being Black, excellent, knowledgeable, and confident still invites resentment—and punishment.”
Shedeur Sanders was punished and will probably continue to be penalized just because his father, Deion Sanders, arguably the greatest two-sport athlete in America in more than a century, had the nerve to be cocky and confident.
Think of Black Americans in the past who dared to display confidence in themselves. Jack Johnson, Curt Flood, Jackie Robinson, Jim Brown and Colin Kaepernick are just a few of those who refused to bow down to and accept systemic and generational bias and injustice. The latest target and victim is Shedeur Sanders. The beat goes on and on and on. Or should I say, “The beat-down goes on.”
The message to Shedeur Sanders is: “Never get too big for your britches, especially if you’re naked.”
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