Do The Cleveland Browns Actually Hate Shedeur Sanders?
Either the Cleveland Browns are lying to all of America or they really hate Shedeur Sanders.
I don’t mean that they don’t like Sanders as a quarterback, I mean they hate him; the way that Trump hates democracy, because that’s the only way to explain the inept decision-making, consistent inability to truly judge his talent and the overall fuckery.
After a stellar preseason debut in which the fifth round draft pick (he should’ve never fallen that far) threw for 138 yards and two touchdowns. The Browns recently released their preseason depth chart and Shedeur Sanders is still fourth out of four possible quarterbacks.
That’s right, the guy who just shook the NFL up with his first preseason start, completing 14 of 23 passes is currently behind 40-year-old Joe Flacco; and Kenny Pickett, a man who has been considered to be the “consensus worst player” on the field; and Dillon Gabriel, a quarterback taken by the Browns in the third round that should’ve gone much lower as he was considered a prospect at best in, and then Sanders.
The saddest part of watching the Sanders drama unfold in real time is all of us who actually still believe that Sanders’ performance on the field has some effect on whether he’s going to get a fair shake. We only need to look at former San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick and how taking a knee for Black rights led to his being blackballed to know what the NFL is all about.
At one point, Sanders was so far down on the depth chart that the Browns had assistant coaches and equipment folks running routes just so he could get some reps, and despite all of the pitfalls, all of the naysayers, all of those rooting for him to embarrass his family name, Sanders went out there and balled out. And Black America loved it. We embraced his as a cousin and a son because we know what this is about.
So I’m going to say the quiet part out loud: white America hated Shedeur Sanders before he was even born. They hated his father, Deion, for all his brash mannerisms; his flamboyant dress and most importantly his confidence on the field. America has never been able to handle bold Blackness. They always want to put brash Blackness in its place, because white America wants Black men to kowtow to them.
Why else would they hate him? In his 14 years in the NFL, Deion Sanders was never suspended for anything (which is rich considering the history the NFL has with domestic abuse and illegal drugs,). To this day, the only fines the flashy cornerback ever received were for outfit infractions. Deion Sanders is not the person that America keeps trying to make him out to be, he’s actually everything that white America claims doesn’t exist; he’s a god-fearing Black man, who openly loves his children and instilled the same confidence in them that made him once the most dominant cornerback; so dominant that quarterbacks wouldn’t even throw to his side of the field.
Deion Sanders was a first ballot Hall of Famer and that’s not bragging, that’s just noting that he’s in a select group of people that knows what it takes to make a dominant player and his son’s got it, but that doesn’t matter because the Cleveland Browns hate him.
Before the draft Shedeur Sanders was considered a top five quarterback and then, with the collective spirit from white America that hated Jackie Robinson and Muhammad Ali and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf before him, NFL coaches had seen enough. They were going to teach the confident Black quarterback, whose biggest character flaw appears to be his wristwatch celebration after touchdowns, a lesson by collectively refusing to draft him.
Before the draft, an anonymous NFL assistant coach “leaked” 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.”
It was a vile move by a league that has always been a rich, white, boys club. Deion Sanders saw the move for what it was and came to the defense and support of his son. But the NFL forgot that part. They forgot the part where dads love their sons and will protect them at all costs. They forgot the part where in 2004, Eli Manning refused to play for San Diego Chargers, which had the first pick in that year’s draft. Rumor had it that Archie Manning, (the father of the legendary Manning brothers, Peyton and Eli,) talked with Ryan Leaf’s father, the former quarterback for the Chargers and didn’t like what he heard. Archie wasn’t considered messy or a distraction, but if the rumor is to be believed, he absolutely dictated his son’s draft status. But they forget that part.
They always do.
They also seem to miss that since being drafted to the Browns, Sanders has been an exemplary employee. He stays late after practice to get extra work in. He stays after to sign the jersey’s of kids who line up to see him.
After being drafted, he hosted the Garden Valley Fun Fest in Cleveland, after an apartment explosion left families displaced. He provided free food, haircuts and activities for the kids. He stays visiting kids at schools and workouts with student athletes.
Even his community work has been side-eyed by some in sports who believe that he’s only reaching out because he’s trying to change his image. But here’s the funny part, his image isn’t tarnished. His time in college wasn’t marred by salacious headlines, it was marred by his belief in himself and what he can do on the field. And the only thing he’s done since joining the Browns has been a speeding ticket and this made national news.
The wildest part of all of this is that prior to entering the draft, the Browns made Deshaun Watson their quarterback and he was coming off of allegations and lawsuits that he sexually assaulted 24 women. The Browns didn’t just want radioactive Watson, they made him one of the highest paid quarterbacks in the NFL. They loved him.
So we can sit all day talking numbers, and stats and percentages but the reality is this: the Cleveland Browns may hate Shedeur Sanders but they can’t stop Black America from loving him. His jersey is the highest selling rookie jersey despite being drafted in the fifth round. And his preseason debut was supported by Black folks all across the globe because we see this obvious hatred for what it is and want him to do well in spite of it. Or maybe because of it.
If this were about football then it’s very little Sanders could’ve done on the field to improve his standing and the Browns are still punishing him for it, because the Browns hate Shedeur and if they don’t then how do they explain what they keep doing to him?
Do The Cleveland Browns Actually Hate Shedeur Sanders? was originally published on cassiuslife.com
