Sports media spent the better part of the weekend and into Monday micro-analyzing why Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders fell to pick number 144 in the NFL Draft. Opinions were far and wide as to why all 32 NFL teams passed on Sanders—from race, to interview sessions, to overall ability on the football field.
For example, Jemele Hill of The Atlantic was a guest on The Dan Le Batard Show Tuesday and shared her reasoning as to why she feels some media covering the Draft and Sanders may have given a pass to Sanders because of potential influence and relationships with his father, Deion Sanders.
“In the media, if anything, because of the reverence for Deion, I think a lot of people were kind of covering for it when it came to really evaluating Shedeur’s talent,” said Hill. “I think that they probably gave him some passes and maybe didn’t report as accurately or as honestly as they should have, because of who his father was.”
Furthermore, Shedeur Sanders, on many draft boards across all the networks, was either ranked the top or second-highest quarterback prospect in the NFL Draft pool of signal callers. Nevertheless, his slide into the fifth round of this weekend’s draft was easily the biggest storyline of the entire event and had Hill wondering if Deion Sanders’ previous work in media helped shadow some of the negatives surrounding his son’s hype ahead of the Draft.
“I think a lot of media members, rather than give another draft pick whose last name might not be Sanders. I think a lot of these stories that we heard about his approach and criticisms about his approach to the NFL, the combine, and to other things, I think those things would have probably been reported and talked about a lot sooner,” explained Hill.
In addition, reports surfaced just days before the NFL Draft about unnamed sources sharing information criticizing Sanders’ approach to pre-draft interviews and attitude, which were seen as red flags for teams.
“Between Deion building the hype and just being around this team, there was an expectation already built that Mel Kiper fed,” noted Hill. “A lot of people are feeling disappointed, and we’re feeling like this was a grave injustice. When it’s just, if you watched and studied the NFL and reported on the NFL, you understand how this could have possibly happened.”
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