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The Shedeur Sanders show has given the football world plenty to talk about, all before he even made his first NFL start.
When Sanders takes the field against Tom Brady’s Raiders, it caps off one of the most publicized paths to a first NFL start the league has ever seen from a quarterback — a path with shocking twists at every turn.
Shedeur was born into football royalty, but his brother has compared their family life to ‘World War III’
Sanders was the fourth-born child to NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, and the second-born to Deion and Pilar Sanders. The couple is now divorced. The divorce between Deion and Pilar was the subject of a highly-publicized court battle over a decade ago.
The custody of Shedeur and his siblings was regularly used as terms in legal disputes between the parents.
Deion and Pilar were married from 1999 to 2013, having three children together; Shedeur, oldest-son Shilo and daughter Shelomi.
The family gave a glimpse into their current dynamic at Colorado’s senior day in the 2024 season.
A video posted to the official Shilo Sanders YouTube channel in December showed what an impromptu reunion between Deion and Pilar looks like nowadays, even for something as ceremonious as senior day.
In the video, Shiloh explained Shedeur went to go find Pilar and bring her down to the field, so both of his parents would be present at the ceremony.
“My brother [Shedeur] just got my mom from the stands cause of the senior day, and we didn’t know we had to walk. They’re not gonna. That’s like World War III trying to get them to walk together,” Shilo said.
Shedeur and Shilo walked with Deion across the field during their celebration, and they met their mother on the other side. Deion patted his sons on the back when they got close to Pilar, then walked away quickly. Pilar stayed and posed for photos with her sons.
Shedeur has opened up on the experience and how it affected his upbringing in a Thanksgiving-themed episode of his podcast in November 2024.
He said he compartmentalized his Thanksgiving experiences into B.D. (before divorce) and A.D. (after divorce).
“So before we was all one big happy family man,” he said. “Everything was fun, you know, we had the turkeys, we had everything. Now after divorce, I got to make sure I don’t eat too much at dad’s house sometimes, don’t eat too much at mom’s house. So I got to make sure I balance out my stomach.”
He added, “A lot of kids whose parents aren’t together that has to have two Thanksgiving, y’all understand what I’m talking about.”
In Deion’s 2013 divorce with Pilar, the father won custody of all three of the couple’s children initially, and Pilar was awarded visitation rights. Still, there were custody battles later.
But the father would seemingly retain full control over Shedeur’s football career.
Deion led Shedeur’s football development in high school and college. Tom Brady was around to help
Deion served as the offensive coordinator at Trinity Christian in Cedar Hill, Texas, during Shedeur’s high school career.
Shedeur got private mentoring from Brady during his high school career as well.
In June 2020, when Brady gearing up for his first Super Bowl-winning season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he found time to give Sanders a one-on-one workout, which Shedeur shared on social media.
Deion also posted photos of the session, writing “(There are) things in life even the father can’t teach the son but GOD always provides a way if there’s a will. [Tom Brady] I thank [you], appreciate [and] love the man, the father and the athlete [you] are. This is NEXT LEVEL TYPE OF STUFF.”
Then, when Deion started his NCAA head coaching career at Jackson State in 2020, Shedeur committed as the team’s quarterback for 2021. From 2021-22, they led the team to a 27-6 record and back-to-back Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) titles in 2021 and 2022.
Then, when Deion made the jump to the Power 5 ranks by accepting the Colorado job, Shedeur promptly transferred to remain under his dad’s leadership.
They took the college football world by storm with a stunning upset over TCU in their first game at Colorado in the 2023 opener, as Shedeur threw for 510 passing yards.
Brady, who was freshly retired from the NFL at that point, sent Shedeur a text after the game that read “Don’t be satisfied,” Shedeur later revealed to reporters.
Brady even hosted Deion and Shedeur on his former podcast “Let’s Go,” that season.
During the episode, Deion asked Brady if a “college kid needs a Phantom, like a Rolls-Royce.”
Before Brady could answer, Shedeur corrected his father.
“No, it’s not a Phantom. It’s a Rolls-Royce Cullinan,” he replied.
But Brady told Shedeur to focus on football.
Despite the hot start in 2023, Deion and Shedeur’s Buffaloes sputtered and finished with a 4-8 record. One of those eight losses included a historic collapse, when Colorado blew a 29-point lead to Stanford. During that game, a link promoting merchandise appeared on Sanders’ verified Instagram account. The post prompted viewers to click on a link that said “Shop Now,” which redirected users to a sweatshirt priced at $100.
It went on to be a low-point in a difficult first season at the Power 5 ranks. The team bounced back in 2024, going 9-4 and making a bowl game.
But ahead of the Alamo Bowl against BYU, Sanders made merchandise headlines again. This time he was seen wearing cleats with branding that resembled the New York Giants, who had the worst record in the NFL and the No. 1 overall pick at the time. Sanders was projected by some to be that No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft.
Colorado went on to lose that game 36-14. Neither Shedeur or the Giants ended up associated with the No. 1 pick that year.
Shedeur’s slide in the 2025 NFL Draft shocked the country and ignited heated debates and conspiracy theories
Early in the 2025 draft process, Shedeur was the top contender to be the first overall pick alongside Cam Ward.
But the Tuesday before the draft, NFL Media released a summary of the top 18 prospects in this year’s class.
Sanders’ section included testimony from an anonymous assistant coach, who said that Sanders was “The worst formal interview I’ve ever been in in my life. He’s so entitled. He takes unnecessary sacks. He never plays on time. He has horrible body language. He blames teammates. … But the biggest thing is, he’s not that good.”
SHEDEUR SANDERS DRAFT SLIDE TIMELINE: NFL EXECUTIVES CAUSE MEDIA MELTDOWN BY REJECTING POLARIZING PROSPECT
An anonymous longtime executive added, “It didn’t go great in our interview. He wants to dictate what he’s going to do and what’s best for him. He makes you feel small.”
Then, that Wednesday, one night before the first round, CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones said on his network’s air, “I think that there’s a very good chance that [Shedeur Sanders] is not selected on Thursday night.”
Sanders ultimately did slide out of the first round, igniting widespread debate and speculation as to why.
President Donald Trump even weighed in with a Truth Social post, expressing support for the quarterback and calling for him to be picked “IMMEDIETELY.”
“What is wrong with NFL owners, are they STUPID? Deion Sanders was a great college football player, and was even greater in the NFL. He’s also a very good coach, streetwise and smart! Therefore, Shedeur, his quarterback son, has PHENOMENAL GENES, and is all set for Greatness. He should be ‘picked IMMEDIATELY by a team that wants to WIN. Good luck Shedeur, and say hello to your wonderful father!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
As Sanders fell out of the second and third round of the draft on its second day, the conversation around his slide descended into racial debates and conspiracy theories.
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith compared the situation to Colin Kaepernick being out of the NFL since 2016 after his infamous kneels during the national anthem.
Bartsool Sports founder Dave Portnoy responded calling the comparison “insane.”
Brady’s Raiders were one of the teams that passed on Shedeur multiple times throughout the draft, despite the history between the two.
Throughout the slide, Shedeur and the Sanders family remained resolute, often sending social posts thanking God and citing the bible.
Shedeur himself thanked God several times during the weekend, while his half brother, Deion Jr., made five X posts citing Bible verses dating back to the draft’s first night, and frequently re-shared them as the draft progressed.
Shedeur was eventually drafted 144th overall, in the fifth round, by the Browns, after the team had already drafted quarterback Dillon Gabriel in the third round.
The conspiracy theories as to why Shedeur slid so far in the draft didn’t end after Browns general manager Andrew Berry admitted after the draft that the team didn’t plan to take two quarterbacks going into it.
Shedeur has been both bad ends of legal issues as he traverses the Browns’ depth chart in his first NFL season
Shedeur got into an NFL regular season game for the first time last Sunday in a loss to the Ravens, when he came in after Gabriel had to leave with a concussion.
That same day, three masked burglars broke into Shedeur’s home and stole $200,000 worth of goods, per the Medina County Sheriff’s Office.
A parole report by officer Charles Johnson, obtained by Fox News Digital, claimed that the victim in question, “requested this incident be kept from the media if possible.”
Shedeur’s apparent desire to keep the incident from the media was one of the rare instances of him trying to deter attention away from himself as a rookie, but not his first time dealing with law enforcement since arriving in Cleveland.
Over the summer, he reportedly received two traffic tickets and failed to appear in court, according to police records.
Sanders was pulled over Tuesday in Strongsville, Ohio, after his vehicle reached speeds of 101 mph in a 60 mph zone, the records show.
It was later revealed Sanders was also previously pulled over by Ohio State Highway Patrol in Medina, according to Medina Municipal Court records filed June 6. The records also indicate Sanders failed to appear at the June 13 arraignment for the first incident, per Cleveland.com.
Bodycam footage of the traffic stop showed a woman identified as Jasmine Hammond was driving in another vehicle nearby, according to footage from the most recent incident June 17. The officer in the footage was seen telling the quarterback that the woman would not receive a ticket.
Shedeur later owned up to it.
“I made some wrong choices personally and I can own up to them,” Sanders said of the incidents at teammate David Njoku’s charity softball game. “I made some, you know, not great choices… I learned.”
Berry later called out the young quarterback for the incidents.
“Not smart. Just not smart,” Berry told reporters this week about the tickets. “It’s something that we’ve addressed with him. Look, he understands the implications, he understands the consequences. It’s not just about yourself. It’s not just about having a joyride, but that you could injure other people. . . . A deer or something cuts in front of you, your reaction time, it’s just dangerous.”
But neither incident has barricaded Sanders from the starting job.
With Gabriel recovering from a concussion, and the Browns’ season in purgatory at 2-8, Sanders has a runway to potentially establish himself as the team’s quarterback of the future.
If his story has proven anything thus far, it’s that anything is possible.
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