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THE LONG SAD SLIDE OF SHEDEUR SANDERS

14 min readMay 10, 2025

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Or How To Ruin Your Night At The World’s Worst High School Prom

Roger Goodell preparing to hug first pick Cam Ward (note matching sneakers)

How important is the NFL Draft? How do you quantify the results? Let’s call in the lawyers to find out!

Because as I wrote this, ten days after the draft’s conclusion near the end of April, a lawsuit has been filed against the NFL by a ‘John Doe’ in Atlanta, Georgia, asking for $100 million in damages for “emotional distress and trauma” following the precipitous fall of quarterback Shedeur Sanders. Sanders went from being one of the two premium quarterbacks available, a likely high first-round pick, all the way down to round five, pick 144. Certainly, it was the draft’s saddest, as well as most surprising story.

How sad? There was a deeply moving photo of the bling Shedeur had brought with him to the draft, lying out in a slap bling case, lonely and unworn. The biggest piece, specially desgiend for the draft, was a heavy silver chain with a large silver dollar sign, with the caption S squared (as in Shedeur’s initials) dangling from it. The jewelry was waiting for Sanders’ moment early on when his name would be announced, as John Doe hoped, in the first handful of picks. It was, almost literally, a reflection of the image of Draft Day as World’s Worst High School Prom, except there’s no dancing and instead you have to be…

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Michael Carlson
Michael Carlson

Written by Michael Carlson

Yank doing life w/out parole as UK broadcaster & writer. micarlson.bluesky @carlsonsports Arts, books, film, music, politics & uh, sports. Accept no substitutes

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