A haughty gridiron spirit

Memo to quarterbacks who aspire to play in the National Football League: Acting like a diva isn’t likely to win you your dream job.

Shedeur Sanders—who just began his first training camp with the Cleveland Browns—became the prime example of this during April’s NFL Draft. Projected to be a first-round pick in a draft with limited quarterback talent, the former University of Colorado field general wasn’t selected until the draft’s third day. The Browns took him in the fifth round with the 144th overall pick.

If reports of Sanders’ behavior in job interviews with NFL teams are accurate, it’s easy to see why his draft stock plummeted. John Canzano, a columnist and radio host in Portland, reported that Sanders took a phone call in the middle of a Zoom interview with one team’s general manager. Not surprisingly, the interview ended right there. That would happen to any kid who answered his phone while interviewing for a job at Walmart.

Multiple news outlets reported that Sanders had failed to study the New York Giants’ mock playbook before his interview with the team. When Giants coach Brian Daboll called him out on it, Sanders reportedly got upset with him. This would be equivalent to a high school student failing to complete an assignment, then barking at his teacher for giving him the “F” he deserved.

On top of all that, Sanders spent the draft in a custom-built room in which the word “Legendary” was prominently displayed in old English script letters. The word referred to Sanders’ clothing line but still sent an audacious message to NFL teams given that he had yet to play a down in America’s elite pro football league.

Since then, Sanders has provided further proof of his immaturity. In June he earned two speeding tickets for driving at least 90 mph in zones where the speed limit was 65 or lower. He exceeded 100 on the first of those occasions.

I’ve seen Sanders play live. In September 2023, he visited the University of Oregon in a matchup of Top 25 teams. The only thing legendary about Sanders’ performance that day was that Ducks defenders sacked him seven times in a 42-6 trouncing of Colorado.

That became a pattern during Sanders’ two seasons with the Buffaloes. Opposing defenders sacked him 94 times in 25 games—not a good sign to teams in the NFL, where football is played at a substantially higher speed. This means Sanders stands to either get sacked more frequently or throw more interceptions while hurriedly attempting to get rid of the ball to avoid sacks.

And though Sanders went 9-4 last year after Colorado moved from the all-but-disintegrated Pac-12 to the Big 12 Conference, his college resumė is less than stellar. On the plus side, he did go 23-3 during two seasons at Jackson State University, a Football Championship Subdivision school in Mississippi. He was also the Big 12’s Offensive Player of the Year last season. But when a quarterback goes 13-12 against teams from the NCAA’s “Power 4” conferences, fares a dismal 1-7 against Top 25 teams, and loses the only major bowl game he plays in, NFL teams won’t view him as the kind of QB who will transform a losing franchise.

Being Colorado football coach Deion Sanders’ son didn’t help, either. Never mind that “Coach Prime” is the only coach Shedeur has ever played for, or that he arranged to have his son’s number retired even though Heisman Trophy winners and national champions at Colorado have yet to receive that honor. Deion “made it known to NFL teams that he will intervene if he doesn’t like the team that wants to draft Shedeur,” the website Athlon Sports reported.

It also doesn’t help that NFL teams view the apple as not falling far from the tree. During his playing days as a Hall of Fame cornerback, Deion was known for his bravado, and as Coach Prime, he still is. But Deion typically backed up his hotshot attitude with dominance on the field. Shedeur seems to have the same cockiness without the same superstar quality.

When I think of Shedeur’s saga, I can’t help but think about Colin Kaepernick. After leaving the San Francisco 49ers following the 2016 season, the former NFL quarterback sued the NFL when other teams allegedly blackballed him for repeatedly taking a knee during the national anthem and openly compared teams to slaveowners.

Despite all that, after being out of the league for several years, Kaepernick convinced NFL teams to watch him work out in the Atlanta area. Roughly 30 minutes before the workout was to take place, Kaepernick shifted the workout to another location. Understandably, no NFL team has offered him a job since. Even so, Kaepernick—now 37, an age where most NFL players are at least pondering retirement—is still making the rounds on various talk shows, practically begging teams to sign him.

It all just goes to show that a haughty spirit truly does precede a fall (Proverbs 16:18).