‘Shedeur (Sanders) Earned It’ — Colorado HC Deion Sanders Defends Browns QB From Nepotism Claims
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Colorado coach Deion Sanders divided opinion in July when he attended the Cleveland Browns’ training camp, where his son, Shedeur Sanders, was in a fierce QB1 battle against Deshaun Watson.
Over the years, Coach Prime has been widely criticized for interfering in his son’s football career and for favoring the quarterback when he played for the Buffaloes.
Coach Prime dismissed the claims that he favored his sons during their college football careers.
Deion Sanders Addresses Shedeur Sanders Favoritism
During this week’s segment of the “Coach Prime Playbook” podcast, the Buffs coach was adamant that both his sons earned their playing time in college football.
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“The balance. The balance of being a coach and a dad simultaneously, there’s a tremendous tightrope you gotta walk, because all the young men are watching, the coaches are watching,” Coach Prime said. “And no favoritism, no nothing. I mean, they gotta earn it. Like when they were here, Shedeur earned it, Shilo earned it. And it was so many other young men that came over with us from Jackson that I treated like my sons.
“Like those are like my kids. And I love them to this day and that’s why I smile when I think about them.”
Coach Prime coached both of his sons, Shedeur and Shilo, during their college football careers. The trio won the Southwestern Athletic Conference titles twice at Jackson State (2021 & 2022) and led the Tigers to an exciting regular season and a 12-1 record in 2022.
The charismatic coach also recruited his sons alongside Travis Hunter when he stepped up to the FBS with the Buffs.
Before the 2025 NFL Draft, Sanders was tabbed as a potential top-10 pick and Coach Prime publicly admitted that his son would turn down certain NFL teams. Coach Prime’s involvement in the quarterback’s career was blamed for Sanders’ ultimate draft-night slide to No. 144 to the Browns.
Despite his disappointing slide, Sanders climbed the depth chart in Cleveland and finished his rookie season as the Browns’ QB1, earning the league’s second-worst PFN QB Impact score of 63.0. He will start his second season in the NFL behind Deshaun Watson, but fans and analysts have tabbed him to take over the starting job during the season.
On the other hand, Shilo Sanders started his career at South Carolina before transferring to Jackson State in 2021 and Colorado in 2023.
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He signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as an undrafted free agent but was waived as part of final roster cuts in August 2025. In May, Shilo revealed that he had retired from professional football amid a bankruptcy case.
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network.
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