2025 NFL Draft - Rounds 4-7
Source: Perry Knotts / Getty

Before we get started, I want to make one thing clear: This isn’t about football. 

If it were, I wouldn’t be writing this piece because former Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders would’ve been drafted in the first round.

And that isn’t even debatable. 

But this isn’t about football. Because if it were, Sanders, 23, would’ve been recognized as not only one of the best quarterbacks in college football this year, but as one of the best to ever do it in the history of the game. 

“He is just the second QB in history with 14,000-plus yards while completing 70-plus percent of his passes. Of QBs with 13,000-plus passing yards, he is one of eight in history to have 100 more touchdowns than interceptions in his career. Sanders finished with a 156.01 career quarterback rating in college,” Yahoo Sports reports. 

He’s also thrown a touchdown pass in 49 straight games, and that’s the longest streak in NCAA history.

So this isn’t about football. It’s about the pinpricks of microaggressive racism that eventually cause a bleed out. This is about former Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin’s knee on top of George Floyd’s neck. This is about Making America Great Again and Black Lives Matter. This is about Tupac and that one time he told those white folks that his music wasn’t about violence against the police, but rather, police brutality and self-defense. 

Because this is about vision and how some can see it so clearly, and others remain blind. This is about NFL owners, anonymous critics, and NFL talking heads all colluding to destroy a flamboyant, successful, young Black man’s career before it even began.

So this is a story about buck breaking, NFL-style, and how racism taints everything depending on which side of the lens you’re looking through. Because when done correctly, there is a beauty in subtle racism. Blatant racism is overt, like a hammer to the head. Subtle racism is like poison that seeps into your bloodstream and shuts down your breathing. Both get the job done, but only one can be easily proven in court. 

Subtle racism is almost charming in the way it develops over time. It’s the dance we do with the white sales associate that casually lingers behind you when you shop, or the tango between the Black driver and the white police officer over a minor traffic stop. 

Colorado Black & Gold Spring Game
Source: Dustin Bradford / Getty

And because America has a history of hating self-sufficient, self-assured, young Black men, Shedeur Sanders, who until three weeks ago was a lock to go in the first round, sat and waited for days until he was finally drafted in the fifth round by the Cleveland Browns. 

The 144th pick. 

In no world are there 143 players better than Shedeur Sanders.  

And now everyone has an excuse. He’s a fifth-round pick, and historically, fifth-round picks don’t get many chances to succeed. Hell, the team that drafted him didn’t even seem happy that they got a possible first-round pick in the fifth. 

Here’s the Browns GM Andrew Berry calling the quarterback they drafted in the third round:

And here’s Berry calling Sanders:

Notice the difference in tone and language. Berry even went so far as to tell Sanders: “You got to come in and work hard; You gotta earn your job; earn your keep.” 

He should’ve also noted that Sanders should keep his mouth shut and head down and make sure his uniform pants are pulled up to his waist because these are good white folks he’s going to be working around. 

The biggest problem with Sanders’ unsubstantiated drop in the draft isn’t just that he dropped out of the guaranteed money spots, he’s essentially coming in as a prospect who has to battle just to stay in the league. He’s a fifth-round pick, which means he cost the team very little, and they don’t have him figured into their game plan. 

The fifth round is where you take projects and nothing about Sanders’ play on the field and his behavior off it that said he wasn’t ready to play. 

And for those people who talk about Sanders’ character, please point me to all of the bad behavior that the NFL just couldn’t stomach. As far as I’ve seen, the only thing that Sanders has been guilty of is his “perfect timing” celebration in which he holds up his watch arm and waves his wrist from side to side. 

2025 NFL Scouting Combine
Source: Brooke Sutton / Getty

Sanders says he’s been doing the celebration since high school, but it garnered national attention during a game against Nebraska. According to reports, a Nebraska player was warming up at midfield literally standing on the Colorado logo. Sanders took this as a diss and confronted the player. A melee ensued and was quickly broken up, but before Sanders left, he flexed one of his custom watches, either an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak 15500 or Richard Mille, toward his opponent. It was a braggadocious moment and one that has become the hallmark of his hate. 

Because this was never about football.

This is about 1985, Deion Sanders, his soft jheri curl, bright gold chains, and unapologetic Blackness.

See, Deion Sanders came to us the way that professional wrestlers usually do; in garish soundbites and overly done up, almost costume-like, attire. From the time he hit the grass at Florida State, he’d already won over half the country with his flashy dress, often wearing jackets wide open and no shirt underneath, black sunglasses, gold chains, and a tightly cropped curl.

But damn could he play. He was a lockdown corner who also returned punts and he was electric. He was so damn good at football that he would often make opponents sulk on the sidelines because they just couldn’t lose him. And he had the audacity to play both football and baseball in college and professionally. On one Saturday in May of 1987, he played in two college baseball games and ran a relay race for the college track and field team.

Deion Sanders starred in two sports at the same damn time. 

It is from this lineage that a male child was born — several of them, in fact.

So one of the best NFL players in the history of the game, a man so feared that he could single-handedly shut down half of the field, has a son who plays quarterback. And he’s Black. Ferociously Black. Fearlessly Black. Prayed up and Black. There is no “Blind Side” here, unless you refuse to see it. 

Because this isn’t about football.

Or interviews. Or ability.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL: DEC 28 Valero Alamo Bowl - BYU vs Colorado
Source: Icon Sportswire / Getty

This is about America’s deep-seated hatred for a kid who has always known his worth and has no issue saying you can’t afford me. This is about America’s incessant need to control Black bodies. This is about seeing a young Black man so blessed that he’s not afraid to stand in the fire. This is about America’s bat, which has always been used to knock confident Black men down a peg. 

To humble them. 

Because America has always hated authoritative Black men; they love to see them fall.

Take the polarizing prank that Sanders was subjected to during this entire ordeal. 

Sanders got a special phone for draft night, and the only people who had the phone number were NFL owners and supporting staff. 

Oklahoma State v Colorado
Source: Andrew Wevers / Getty

On draft night, Sanders patiently waited for his name to be called, and we all watched with dread as his name and reputation dropped. On day 2, Sanders fielded a call that he believed was from New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis.

The caller told Sanders: “We’re going to take you with our next pick, man, but you’re going to have to wait a little bit longer, man. Sorry about that.”

Sanders was not drafted by the Saints, and it was later revealed that the prank caller was 21-year-old Jax Ulbrich, son of Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich. 

“I’m so sorry I took away from your moment, it was selfish and childish,” Jax Ulbrich said in his Instagram post. “I could never imagine getting ready to celebrate one of the greatest moments of your life and I made a terrible mistake and messed with that moment. Thank you for accepting my call earlier today, I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.”

And therein lies the cruel duality of America. The adultification of young Black boys and the infantilization of young white men.  

Here we have two young men. One is  rich, Black, and from football royalty, punished for being “overly confident.” The other is rich and white and actually did something offensive, but he will be treated as a kid who “made a mistake.”

And it’s impossible to explain because it’s tied into the reason that cops saw 12-year-old Tamir Rice as an adult and his toy gun as a weapon. Because America breeds this blindness that doesn’t allow for those indoctrinated in it to see that Shedeur Sanders’ drop in the draft has nothing to do with football, and if you believe that it does, then you probably believe that Derek Chaunvin was merely trying to hold George Floyd down until police help arrived, or that Black Lives Matter is a hate group. 

Shedeur Sanders is a loved, supported, Bible-based, confident, young Black man who has never been in trouble with the law and can throw a football some 50 yards on a rope. How could football GMs not love that?

I mean, this is about football, isn’t it?

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