Shedeur Sanders’ freefall in he 2025 NFL Draft was unprecedented. This wasn’t Aaron Rodgers falling out of the top five to the mid-20’s. This was something completely different altogether. There was something malicious and evil behind Sanders’ skid, and the whole world watched it happen on national television. The NFL quickly hit the spin button, and made sure every member of the media was on speed dial as they tried to cover it up.
When the Cleveland Browns finally selected one of the best prospects in the draft (#21 on Todd McShay’s big board, #5 on Mel Kiper’s, #20 on Daniel Jeremiah’s, #16 on Field Yate’s) at pick number 144, the most trending word on social media was “collusion”. The football world was scrambling to make sense of they just witnessed. Fearing a potential $500 million lawsuit, the NFL quickly took action. Not dissimilar to when the Baltimore Ravens made Janay Palmer apologize for making her husband punch her in the face, the league pressured teams to make up reasons why they passed on the talented quarterback.
The New York Giants were more than happy to carry the torch. Reportedly, they told Todd McShay from The Ringer that Sanders was a horrible interview. McShay claims he was told that Sanders was unprepared to go over packages, and when head coach Brian Daboll called him out on it, Sanders reacted poorly.
Always one to defend the NFL, former Bengals quarterback Boomer Esiason relayed on the radio what the NFL told him to say. “They took him off… because the owner said take him off. I don’t want that guy,” he said on WFAN Radio. “I don’t want this entitled person on our team. And I don’t blame him.”
One voice becomes many in these situations, and getting in the good graces of the NFL and it’s 32 owners/hitmen, can be quite lucrative to members of the media. These stories were picked up by every media outlet, twisted and amplified, spread on Twitter and Facebook like a virus, until the belief of the sheep is that Sanders torpedoed his own draft stock by acting arrogant and entitled at every single interview. One person who wants the world to know it’s all BS is Coach Prime.
Sanders father Deion, who some of the fake news reporters blame as an accomplice to the drop, took to Twitter and emphasized how a lie grows stronger the more that people share it. “A lie don’t care who tells it or who repeats it,” he started. “Its goal is to be heard.”
The truth will always be revealed. The only way two people can keep a lie is if one of them is dead, and there is no way that 32 owners are taking the truth in this matter to the grave. Sanders fall was not because he didn’t study packages and it wasn’t because he blew off every team who interviewed him. It wasn’t about race either.
This was about the NFL trying to flex it’s muscles and show it’s teeth to every player at the amateur level. In an age of $60 million per year contracts, and players holding out for every penny, the league needed to make a statement. They had to remind the help that they were the help, and that they should be grateful for it. Shedeur Sanders was their sacrificial lamb.
Sanders is the best quarterback on the Browns roster, and he should find himself as the starter before the end of the year. His talent is undeniable, and at the end of the day, he will be fine. So will the NFL, who made their message as clear as day. They are large and in charge, and anyone who dares put their own self interest ahead of the league’s self interest, will be struck down violently.
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