Shedeur Sanders: The Truth & the News (or the Lack Thereof)

What does college quarterback Shedeur Sanders’ precipitous fall in the NFL Draft have to do with your life, or journalism? More than you might think.

We tend to put things in buckets. Sports here. News there. Life lessons, somewhere else. But that’s not the way it works. All involve people, and people are going to people, no matter where they are.

And sometimes, an event happens that, viewed from the right perspective, can explain a lot about how life works.

Let’s Take the Case of Shedeur Sanders

The son of former NFL and MLB star Deion Sanders — a k a Primetime, or Coach Prime — quarterback Shedeur Sanders managed to go through high school and two colleges with one coach … his dad (OK, his dad was offensive coordinator at his high school, but QBs are offense, so close enough).

When Coach Prime was named head football coach at Jackson State University, that’s where Shedeur went (we’ll use his first name and his dad’s nickname, for clarity). After making a splash at that college, Coach Prime took the head football coaching job at the University of Colorado Boulder.

(Incidentally, Coach Prime is also a bold Christian on social media and in his coaching, despite some criticism.)

Shedeur followed his father to Boulder, and quickly became the starting QB for the Buffaloes. He, and the team, played well, and the games got a lot of TV coverage.

Much of that was because of Coach Prime’s penchant for publicity (he’s on TV frequently, including his own documentary series on Prime Video). In the end, Shedeur practically became a household name for college-sports fans.

Already coming from wealth because of his father, Shedeur earned additional money from contracts under the recent Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) ruling, which opened the floodgates for college athletes to earn endorsement money, with no real limits.

Like his father, Shedeur loved to put on a show, wearing expensive watches and gaudy jewelry, recording rap music, and living the life of a high-profile celebrity.

He didn’t win the Heisman Trophy — that went to his phenom teammate, Travis Hunter, who plays both defense (cornerback) and offense (wide receiver) — but Shedeur still soaked up a large amount of the limelight heading into the NFL Draft in April.

Shedeur didn’t attend the Draft in Green Bay, Wisconsin, but he created an outlandish draft room at his home, invited a host of people for a party, and was ready for his expected anointing as a first-round draft pick.

And Then Reality Hit

Many commentators said they expected Shedeur to be, if not the first QB drafted, at least, among the top three — but definitely, selected in the draft’s first or second round.

As it turns out, confident but calm and mature QB Cam Ward was taken first, by the Tennessee Titans. Hunter went second, to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

But, instead of being one of the top three QBs, Shedeur wasn’t taken until the sixth pick of Round Five, at number 144, by the struggling Cleveland Browns. And, adding insult to injury, he wasn’t even the first QB the Browns selected in the draft. That was Oregon University’s Dillon Gabriel, in Round Three.

A lot of hot air and ink has been spent on explaining how this happened to Shedeur, with answers ranging from demeanor to personality to talent to conspiracy theories.

There may be elements of truth in all of those, but the root of it may lie more in human nature — which affected what Coach Prime and Shedeur were hearing, and what the media was saying.

And much of that was crystallized in this short but illuminating excerpt from a podcast conversation between sports analysts Colin Cowherd and Nick Wright.

What Kind of Horse Are You?

Wright related Shedeur’s situation to his own efforts to discern his rightful place in the radio industry.

He pointed out that radio people can be the Money Horse (always employed because big ad clients love him or her), the Show Horse (the celebrity face favored for billboards, etc.), or the Work Horse (who’s unknown but employed because he or she works harder than everyone else).

Having an honest appraisal of which one he was at any given time gave Wright the ability to know how he should act, and what he should do.

According to Wright, Shedeur ran into trouble because he thought he was going to be a Show Horse, but NFL teams actually thought of him more as a Work Horse. He believed he’d be a starting professional QB on Day 1, but NFL teams viewed him more as a backup QB.

And about the last thing an NFL team wants is a backup QB attracting all the media attention away from the starting QB and the team’s existing stars. Shedeur may have earned the right to be in the college spotlight, but the NFL didn’t think he’d earned the right to that at the next level of competition.

Said Wright, “It doesn’t so much matter how you view yourself. It matters in an employment setting. It matters how your employer or potential employer views you, and are you representing that?”

So, why did Shedeur’s view of himself in the NFL wind up so at odds with reality?

What Happens When Nobody Tells You the Truth

There are people who may never hear the plain truth about their situation — and there are different reasons for that.

One, explained Cowherd, “Bullies get lied to more than anybody, although they think they’re always demanding and getting the truth. The exact opposite is true.”

And that’s why, in the famous fable, nobody told the emperor that he wasn’t wearing any clothes — until an innocent child spoke up.

On the other hand, when people love and admire you, they might not want to be truthful for fear of hurting your feelings.

Coach Prime had great success in both football and baseball, and he’s worked in media for decades. He’s a charismatic individual, and many have great affection for him.

Also, more than a few people’s jobs depend on the media success Coach Prime has created.

Said Wright, “It is shocking that Deion didn’t have the information either, that nobody privately told Deion, ‘Hey, listen, maybe they’re all wrong, but the League has real questions of whether or not your son’s a starter.'”

Said Cowherd, “This really does go back to bullies and superstars. You’d think they’d get the inside info. They’re lied to more than everybody else.

“You know who you don’t lie to — your cranky neighbor who you don’t love, but you’re going to tell ’em, ‘Don’t mow the grass at 6 o’clock on a Saturday.’ You’re going to give ’em a real, honest, cranky opinion.

“The people that you don’t have anything to lose, just people that you don’t adore. You’re always willing to say, ‘Bro, that’s not going to work. Don’t do that.’ That’s hard to say to a … Deion Sanders, it’s hard.”

If someone is scared of your reaction, or if they, out of love, don’t want to upset you — or if they stand to lose something if they upset you — how often do you think you’ll hear the unvarnished truth?

From the home to the workplace, to your local parish, to the homeowners’ association, to the town council, and into the highest halls of power — the situation is just the same.

So, Where’s the Media in All of This?

We would hope, at least as it concerns people in public life, that the media would be there to speak truth to power, no matter what.

Yeah, not so much.

In the digital era, where success is measured in clicks and clout, speed can matter a lot more than honest, in-depth reporting — no matter what kind of news it is.

As Wright pointed out in the video, the bread-and-butter of many sports insiders is tidbits, pushed out there first. For this, you can blame a media industry still struggling to find profit off digital distribution, or a public with the attention span of a gnat, seeking instant news and hot takes.

Most likely, it’s both.

Wright said, “We have traded, as a sports public, true insiders for instant transactional gratification. We have valued who is going to have this thing that was going to be announced by the team in 90 minutes anyway, first, over what is actual informational journalism.

“Somebody said this, and again, I wish I could quote ’em, but I can’t, ‘Journalism is publishing or uncovering information that otherwise would not get out there.’ That’s what it is. This story would remain hidden, or fact, or whatever it is.”

Also, sources have their own reasons for doling out early bits of inside info. So, if they don’t like the way something is reported, the spigot gets shut off.

Cowherd believes that’s why the media weren’t honest about Shedeur’s real chances.

Said Cowherd, “And so the fact that none of our insiders said, ‘I’ve talked to 15 teams, and 12 of ’em don’t have Shedeur in their top 50.’ Nobody had this. The entirety of the NFL world, nobody had, ‘He’ll be very fortunate if he is taken with the Browns or Giants second pick,’ not one person.

“And by the way, I obviously didn’t have it. I’m not acting like I had it, but I’m not an insider. … Are the guys who actually have the real information [saying], ‘Well, I know the truth here, but it’s not worth it because it’ll piss the wrong relationships.'”?

In Conclusion

People may lie to someone they fear.

People may lie to someone they love.

People may lie to someone upon whom their jobs depend.

Journalists whose careers rely on inside info and breaking-news tidbits — which is a lot of them, these days — may hold back so as not to upset their sources.

Ultimately, we all lose if no one is willing to tell the hard truth.

And What About Shedeur Sanders?

He’s had to eat some humble pie, but, now that he has a more accurate view of his situation, Shedeur does have an opportunity to prove himself — and an NFL legend to inspire him.

From NFL.com:

The Las Vegas Raiders minority owner said this week that he reached out to Sanders to encourage the young QB and remind him that success can come from anywhere in the draft, as it did for him. Sanders received that message, taking to heart the approach of looking beyond his draft selection to the process ahead.