In one month, many of the best NCAA football prospects will gather in scenic Green Bay, Wisc. for the 2025 NFL Draft, a celebration of how far they have come and how much more is still to come as these players begin their careers in pro football. One of the draft’s most polarizing prospects, the former Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders, is expected to be in attendance amid rumors that he will be one of the first players to hear NFL commissioner Roger Goodell call his name.
The pre-draft process though has been anything but straightforward for Sanders, whose father Deion is an NFL legend and his former coach at Colorado. Shedeur has been subject to significant media scrutiny over the past month, and Deion — more reserved throughout the process than many expected — has decided that now is the time to step in.
Prime: I’m ready to call out the team that has been bashing Shedeur the most
Speaking to NFL Network, Deion Sanders pushed back on claims that Shedeur courted “controversy” while interviewing with teams amid his decision to pull out of the Scouting Combine in Indianapolis — and the former star cornerback reminded the league of how much power he still holds.
“We like to call that stuff out,” Deion said, referring to the controversy as ‘lies”. “I know who it is. You’re going to make me call him out. You know what team, yeah, all right? You gotta understand it. Don’t make me pull behind the curtains and step in that thing.”
Teams have been concerned that Deion, a Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee, has long been willing to steer Shedeur to a big market instead of a smaller one. But Prime, hard at work preparing Colorado for the 2025 season, has given Shedeur the platform to be his own man and fight through the adversity. And it may pay off in the end — the Cleveland Browns have dropped hints for weeks that Shedeur might be their guy at #2 overall come April 24.
“We’re great with adversity,” Deion said. “We’ve always been through adversity. We’ve always been challenged with adversity and naysaying and doubting. He is built for that. He’s the most qualified young man who plays that position that’s built for that, and to be in front of the lights and to continuously shine.”
