Like NFL scouts who have evaluated Shedeur Sanders, academics have studied the controversy around him.
Where it starts: the son of Deion Sanders and quarterback from Colorado is the most polarizing player in the draft that starts Thursday, triggering vastly different opinions.
He’s a bust!
He’s NFL-ready!
He’s arrogant!
He’s a gentleman!
Back and forth they go, the critics and supporters, creating a cacophony and opportunity for academics to address race, fame, wealth and other issues stoking emotion among fans and analysts voicing opinions about Sanders.
Whether his arm is strong enough, his feet are quick enough, his grasp of defensive formations firm enough, those issues have been debated and will be dissected more. What’s left is to better understand why people react strongly to Sanders and what it says about us.
Breaking the quarterback mold
Cheryl Cooky is a professor at Purdue University who studies the intersections of gender, sports, culture, and the media. When talking about Shedeur Sanders, she brought up NFL history.
She pointed out that 2023 was the first time the Super Bowl featured two Black starting quarterbacks in Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs and Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles.
‘I mean, we’re 100-plus years in the history of this league,’ she said. ‘I think that’s important context for understanding what’s happening in dynamics playing out.’
Breaking from the mostly conservative mold of quarterback, Sanders has flashed his luxury watch during games. He’s also sported diamond necklaces. It’s similar to his father, Deion, one of the most flamboyant and outspoken players in NFL history.
Of Shedeur Sanders’ style, Cooky said, “For a Black quarterback to be acting in ways that sort of violate norms and expectations gets policed even more so than I think if this was a Black player in another position or a white quarterback, for example.’
She also brought up ESPN’s Ryan Clark, who faced backlash after he said race was behind NFL evaluators anonymously criticizing Sanders for such things as being ‘arrogant’ and ‘brash.’
Said Cooky: ‘Ryan Clark making these comments five years ago, it’d be interesting to see what the response would’ve been at that particular moment when the political landscape was slightly different than what it is today.’
Comparisons to Arch Manning
Todd Boyd, the ‘Notorious Ph.D.’ at Southern California, is an expert in sports media and American pop culture. In considering the treatment of Sanders, he contemplated a future situation.
‘It’ll be interesting to watch how Arch Manning is covered,’ he said.
Manning, unlike Sanders, does not have a famous father. But he has two famous uncles (Peyton and Eli) and a legendary grandfather (Archie). They comprise the ‘First Family of Football” and may help better understand the dynamic around Shedeur.
Arch Manning, who is expected to start this season, spent the last two years primarily on the bench. Yet, Boyd noted, Arch Manning has gotten ample favorable attention.
‘The reason he’s getting that kind of attention is because of his last name, and I’ve not found anybody who’s had a problem with that,’ he said.
Being the son of Deion Sanders has not always translated into favorable attention.
‘Deion moves through the world too easily for some people’s liking,’ Boyd said.
Also, Boyd noted that for many years the narrative for Black athletes was they were underprivileged and success in athletics was their singular way out.
‘We have a generation of Black athletes now who don’t fit that stereotype, and Shedeur certainly doesn’t fit that,’ Boyd said. ‘I think some people might be slow to recognize this change, and there may be others who are potentially put off by it.’
Shades of Angel Reese
Angela Hattery, co-director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Gender Based Violence at the University of Delaware, has written extensively about sports.
Hattery, in thinking about Sanders, said she’s reminded of Angel Reese entering 2024 WNBA Draft along with her rival, Caitlin Clark.
‘There were a lot of haters of Angel Reese and everybody loved Caitlin Clark and they’re both really great players,’ Hattery said. ‘But Angel didn’t want to play the good girl. She cultivated a very different image.’
Similarly, Sanders has not conformed to the image of a traditional quarterback.
‘Black men have to fit in a much smaller box,’ Hattery said. ‘There’s just a lot of evidence for that, that we still require Black men to behave certain ways. And we prefer as a society that they behave in ways that are more normative white.
“We’re more comfortable with (President Barack) Obama, for example, than we are with Black men who are more audacious or more flashy…’
‘Some racist tendencies’
Jay Coakley, the author of ‘Sports In Society: Issues and Controversies,’ cited President Donald Trump as a factor in some of the controversial views of Sanders. In particular, Trump setting a policy captured by this quote: “We will terminate every diversity, equity, and inclusion program across the entire federal government.”
“Trump has raised this issue where if you’re not a white man and you’re getting publicity, it’s somehow unjustified,’’ Coakley said.
As a result, Coakley suggested, it’s understandable how Sanders has become controversial to some people.
“If there’s a fan who’s got some racist tendencies, they’re going to make that connection and they’re going to say, ‘This is a typical flashy Black athlete, and I just don’t go for them,” Coakley said. ‘And so race comes in that way. But I seriously doubt that somebody’s going to talk about race in a very explicit way for fear that they’re going to be attacked.
‘Now, as a sociologist, I know there is that kind of a connection.’