April 30, 2025
Jemele Hill is ruling out racism as the cause for Shedeur Sanders NFL draft slide, and instead cites his father.
Jemele Hill is weighing in on the debate over Shedeur Sanders’ slide in the NFL Draft, saying she doesn’t believe race is the issue. Instead, she suggests his Super Bowl-winning father, Deion Sanders, may be the real reason.
The sports columnist made an April 28 appearance on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, where she dismissed the narrative that Shedeur fell to the fifth round because he’s a confident Black athlete. Hill, who doesn’t think it was because of Shedeur’s race “at all,” explained why she believes Deion is the real person to blame.
“The bottom line is maybe we should accept the fact — and this is not to say that Shedeur Sanders cannot go on to have a great NFL career, can’t do great things — but maybe we, as Black people need to accept the fact that Deion Sanders may have overplayed his hand a little bit,” Hill said, as captured by Fox Sports.
“And there’s no crime in him infusing all the confidence in Shedeur. I was not bothered by the wrist flexing, none of that. NFL teams, if you’re talented enough, they don’t care. And we have seen this countless times.”
Hill pointed out that several players with controversies attached to their names were drafted well before Shedeur, who the Cleveland Browns ultimately selected as the 144th pick in the fifth round. In her view, teams tend to overlook fixable scandals when the talent is undeniable.
“In the NFL, they make these talent decisions all the time, but if the talent is worth it, they don’t give a damn if he showed up in gold-plated everything, flashing whatever, as long as you can play,” Hill said. “That’s all they care about.”
She also shared her sympathy for No. 1 pick Cam Ward, whose big moment was outshone by the widespread attention over Shedeur’s draft fall.
“But the person I really feel sorry for is Cam Ward. Cam Ward went No. 1. Cam Ward was a zero-star recruit from a two-parent home — because you know how we like to throw that around on some respectability type of stuff,” Hill said. “He is a fantastic player, confident, did all the things, drafted No. 1, and with the way people have so embraced this narrative that Shedeur was done so wrong, it’s like they’re basically making Cam Ward sound like he’s Steven from ‘Django.’”
Hill continued. “And I’m like, you don’t even know this kid! Suddenly, he’s painted in this light because, ‘Oh, the NFL will accept that type of Black but not this type of Black.’ It’s like, do you know how many players, how many Black players, went ahead of Shedeur Sanders? It’s a lot of them.”
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