Regardless of your opinion on Shedeur Sanders, he’s still human.
He bleeds like any of us, and he feels the weight of the moment just like anyone would.
If his sliding out of the first round wasn’t embarrassing enough, the now-former Colorado Buffaloes quarterback is still on the board entering Day 3. Perhaps you’re of the feeling that Sanders will go where the NFL dictates he goes, and there’s no such thing as a slide. But as everyone has tried to justify why this is happening, there’s no discernible reason for why Shedeur Sanders will be drafted after Jalen Milroe or Dillon Gabriel.
Not any that the NFL Network can think of. Not any that Mel Kiper Jr. can think of.
While analysts scrambled to make sense of Sanders’ surprising drop, the quarterback himself was left to deal with an even more surreal twist.
Sanders became the unwitting centerpiece of a draft-day prank.
While streaming live on Twitch, Sanders received a call from someone pretending to be an NFL team representative. In a moment that seemed almost too cruel to believe, his family, unaware of the trick, thought they were witnessing the breakthrough Sanders had been waiting for.
Everyone seemed convinced this was the long-awaited call.
Sanders, smiling ear to ear, picked up the phone and confidently greeted the person on the other end.
“I’m good, been waiting on you,” Sanders said.
But that smile quickly faded as the caller informed him he’d “have to wait a little longer.”
Sanders’ expression changed. He could sense something was off.
He could be heard in the clip asking those around him, “What does that mean?”
“I don’t know what that was,” Sanders said, adding, “Nobody has this number, though.”
It was a cruel prank. That’s what it was.
Shortly after the awkward moment, the stream abruptly ended, and no recording of it remains on Sanders’ official Twitch page. However, as the New York Post relayed, Sanders later appeared on his brother, Shilo’s, stream. And in doing so, he at least attempted to find any silver lining, even as Friday’s transgressions were easily worse than Thursday’s.
Unfortunately, this isn’t unique to Sanders. It happened to Cooper DeJean last year, too.
DeJean was drafted with the 40th overall pick, though.
If Sanders gets drafted, it’ll likely be in the 100s.
These pranks aren’t harmless. They have real-world consequences for guys like DeJean and now Sanders. But it wasn’t just a prank; it was a gut punch delivered in front of Sanders’s loved ones and those following his journey on Twitch.