While a NFL landing spot for Shedeur Sanders was finally determined Saturday afternoon, the debates around how and why the Colorado quarterback fell so far show no sign of ending. Sanders was projected as the first-overall pick by several analysts last fall, and was still the top-ranked QB heading into the draft by people including ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr., but wound up going 144th overall to the Cleveland Browns.
That massive fall from Sanders sparked debate even before it stopped. And some of that was closely tied to race. A notable step there came from ESPN pundit Stephen A. Smith, who shared a text on social media Saturday morning amplifying someone who related this to NFL teams’ past decisions not to sign Colin Kaepernick and felt this was “Kaepernick-level collusion.”
Someone just texted me this message and they are absolutely correct: “This is a bad look for the NFL. This feels like Kaepernick-level collusion.” All the hard work the NFL League Office puts in to eradicate these kinds of perceptions, only to turn around and watch as the OWNERS…
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) April 26, 2025
Smith then called this a “damn disgrace” himself:
This is a damn disgrace. How in the hell is @Shedeur not off the board, not drafted yet. Y’all still think this doesn’t have anything to do with teams hatin on @DeionSanders. This kid is a first rounder. In a different way, this is Kaepernick all over again…..being kept out. A…
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) April 26, 2025
However, Smith’s decision to so closely link this to Kaepernick (especially in the comment he shared and co-signed with “absolutely correct”) drew some pushback. A significant take there came from Barstool Sports founder and owner Dave Portnoy Saturday morning. There, Portnoy said he would have chosen Sanders over any other QB this year, but said NFL GMs are only trying to win and blasted “all these race takes”:
This is insane. All these race takes are insane. I love Deion. And I’ve been saying for 2 years Shedeur would be my 1st Qb off the board. BUT NFL gms, coaches, owners will do ANYTHING to win games, save jobs. The NFL is cut throat. Owners would stomp on each other’s throats… https://t.co/N2sTlmG4Er
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) April 26, 2025
Here’s the full text of what Dave Portnoy said on X there:
This is insane. All these race takes are insane. I love Deion. And I’ve been saying for 2 years Shedeur would be my 1st Qb off the board. BUT NFL gms, coaches, owners will do ANYTHING to win games, save jobs. The NFL is cut throat. Owners would stomp on each other’s throats to win. There is no collusion. The 1st pick was a black Qb. If teams thought Shedeur and everything he brings could help them win games more than guys available on the board they’d draft him.. Thats it. End of story. Every other narrative is fantasy.
Sanders was eventually drafted later Saturday, following both ESPN and NFL Network seeing if they could find explanations for the slide. And that came after U.S. president Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social account “What is wrong with NFL owners, are they STUPID?” about the Sanders slide Friday. But even Sanders’ eventual selection didn’t stop the takes.
There, Kiper blasted the NFL as “fake news” and said team execs have been “clueless for 50 years” about quarterbacks, while soon-to-be Fox CFB broadcaster Robert Griffin III said the NFL tried to teach Sanders “a lesson.” We’ll see if Portnoy decides to weigh in on any further takes here, but it is interesting to see how much he objected to Smith’s argument.
