Shedeur Sanders has become the Angel Reese of the NFL, thanks to his insufferable supporters
In my opinion, Sanders has become the Angel Reese of the NFL, not necessarily because of anything the athletes themselves have done on the court or field, or in the media, but because of the exhausting victimhood narratives pushed by some of their most devoted supporters.
Key points
- Thirty-two NFL franchises making their own personnel decisions somehow became evidence of a coordinated effort to keep Sanders down, in part because of his race, allegedly.
- There was just one glaring problem: Bayless didn't provide evidence establishing that any NFL team passed on Sanders because of his race.
- Rather than consider that NFL franchises might have legitimate concerns about Sanders' talent, personality, football IQ, work ethic, maturity, or overall fit, some of the biggest names in sports media immediately began suggesting something more sinister.
From Skip Bayless accusing NFL teams of racism after the 2025 NFL Draft to ESPN personalities invoking Colin Kaepernick, the Shedeur Sanders discourse looks awfully familiar to anyone who has followed Angel Reese's career in the WNBA.
Additional details
- KAEPERNICK TELLS 'THE VIEW' THAT NFL OWNERS KEPT HIM OUT OVER POLITICS AND POWER, CLAIMS THEY DONATE TO TRUMP As Sanders continued falling down draft boards, Smith suggested the situation resembled the NFL's controversial treatment of former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
- "Tonight, Shedeur Sanders made the entire National Football League look like a whole bunch of petty fools and, in some cases, racist fools." Bayless also accused teams of being motivated by their dislike of Deion Sanders, arguing that Shedeur had embarrassed the organizations that passed on him.
- COLIN KAEPERNICK SAYS NFL IS 'ACTIVELY BLACKBALLING ME' 10 YEARS AFTER KNEELING PROTEST BEGAN Remember when Sanders inexplicably fell to the fifth round of the 2025 NFL Draft?
- The Shedeur Sanders experiment and discourse has become toxic.
- Legitimate football criticism is apparently a microaggression, NFL general managers are supposedly conspiring against a young quarterback, and anyone who questions the former Colorado star's abilities as a quarterback in the NFL risks being branded more than a hater.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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