Shedeur Sanders' Slide is Your Fault, Papa Prime
NFL teams don't want to deal with Shedeur's overbearing stage daddy. Plus: the happy Cam Ward/Titans marriage, the Giants make another terrible mistake, and lots of other first-round observations!
The NFL old-boy network operates at a sociological level somewhere between a herd of skittish wildebeests and a cafeteria table full of pimply middle school boys afraid to admit that they really like Taylor Swift. It’s a pack that is terrified of anything that threatens the hierarchical social order. So naturally NFL decision makers are wary of Deion Sanders, an apex predator in sheep’s clothing with a hungry mouth to feed.
USA Today Columnist Jarrett Bell recently interviewed Poptimus Prime; the interview also appeared in the Hall of Football newsletter. Bell is one of the few media members capable of getting something approaching honesty from Coach Prime, who indeed revealed that he understood – in his own way – that the skepticism surrounding Shedeur Sanders is largely misdirected criticism of his father.
“Just say you don’t like me,” Coach Prime told Bell, speaking of critics who take potshots at Shedeur. “Just say you’re tired of me winning, you’re tired of me being the light, tired of me being up, just consistently provoking change wherever I go. Just say that. But don’t attack my kids because of that.”
Yes, there’s a hint of self-awareness buried in that self-aggrandizement. For Level-20 narcissists like Coach Prime, making the fact that people hate the fact that you make everything all about you a problem that’s all about you is a crucial first step toward recognizing that maybe you should not have made your children’s careers all about you. (That sentence makes sense if you read it carefully.)
Coach Prime is correct: much on-field criticism of Sanders is fueled by folks using the faux-objectivity of “scouting” to mask concerns that Prime will prowl the periphery of his son’s career like a Xenomorph protecting its young and/or looking for a job commanding the Space Marines. But within the NFL’s herd, it was never about being tired of watching Prime lose Alamo Bowls – that’s Kliff Kingsbury’s love language, after all – or listening to him refer to himself in ways that made Jesus blush. It’s about Coach Prime turning everything Shedeur-related into his business.
Coach Prime told Bell what happened after Josina Anderson reported that a quarterbacks coach called Shedeur “brash” and “arrogant” during his Combine interview.
“The brother who lied and said that, I know what team he’s from,” Sanders reflected. “So, I called the head coach. I said, ‘Dog, c’mon, man. This is what we’re doing?'"
The coach told Deion that the characterization was off base.
“He said, ‘That never happened. I was in the meeting. I ran the interview. Shedeur never came off like that. That’s not true,'" Deion said.
Deion said that in assuring the coach he wouldn’t blow the story up, he added, “But check your staff, man.”
Now, imagine being the head coach getting a phone call from Coach Prime in which he demands an explanation for the “lies” an assistant told about Shedeur and then “assures” him that he wouldn’t blow the story up. Do you want to field such phone calls after Shedeur is benched? Want him calling the owner? Want to find out what happens when he stops issuing assurances? Most crucially, is an angry-dad phone call supposed to make Shedeur seem less “arrogant” and more coachable?