As the 2025 NFL Draft enters Day 3, Shedeur Sanders is still waiting to hear his name called. It was only a few weeks ago he seemed like a lock to be a Top 5 pick. Then you heard about him sliding down in the First Round. That was followed by news he just might fall out of the first round.
I don’t think anyone anticipated Sanders being available as we entered Day 3 of the NFL Draft, but here we are.
Now if you go on social media, you will see a contingent of talking heads and fans who are insistent that Sanders has fallen due to race. While the racial grift remains lucrative, albeit not as lucrative as it was just a few years ago, there’s nothing more patently absurd than this argument surfacing.
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And I’ll share one example, but you could finds hundreds of others for yourself.
At a time when there are few meritocracies left in America, the NFL stands out above the rest. Professional sports is arguably the last ultimate meritocracy we have in this country, and there’s no professional sport more competitive, with more money at stake for the owners, than the NFL.
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The notion that Sanders is being black-balled, or is receiving Colin Kaepernick-like treatment, as Stephen A. Smith alleged on social media on Friday night is ridiculous to any level-headed person.
There are 32 NFL owners, GMs and coaches desperate to win a Super Bowl in 2025. Many are fighting for their jobs and livelihoods. If you think that in 2025 there is general consensus on not drafting Shedeur because of his skin color in a majority-black league, or due to his father, who has a full-time job coaching at the collegiate level, you’re fishing for excuses.
What’s the Answer?
The less-sexy answer is not as black and white, no pun intended, as the critics want to make it out to be. Shedeur was over-hyped from the get-go because of his last name. It happens. But if GMs and coaches felt the talent was there, he would have been off the draft board a long time ago.
There have been multiple reports regarding his interviews, which according to multiple reports didn’t go all that well. Combine that with the social media fodder, lack of perceived humility, and the questions around desire and true “love of the game”, along with not many teams actually in the market for a quarterback right now, and you end up with this perfect storm.
It’s easier to sit there and blame race. It will make for great social media reach. But anyone who even is a casual football fan knows full well the Shedeur Sanders story is about a lot of things, and race is simply not one of them.
