April 26, 2025 • 27 mins
Stephen A. Smith is a New York Times Bestselling Author, Executive Producer, host of ESPN's First Take, and co-host of NBA Countdown.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
All right, everybody, listen up with all the big time
sports action that's happening each and every day, The Stephen A.
Smith Show wants to make sure you are taking advantage
of it all. That's why we've partnered with the Prize Picks,
the best place to win cash while watching sports. The
app is really easy to use. To make a lineup,
all you have to do is pick more or less
on a few player stats. Choose from any of your
favorite players Luka, Doncic, Jimmy Butler, and Zach Lavine all
(00:25):
in the same entry, then sit back and watch. The
list is absolutely endless. You can play Prize Pects in
over forty states, including California and Texas. Best of all,
Prizepects will give you fifty dollars when you play your
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(00:48):
Prize Picks, run your game. I smell bulls, That's what
I smell. Smell it and as we could see, my
noses pretty large. Even though I got allergies, I can
still smell well enough. I know what I'm smelling when
I'm smelling it should Doore Sanders fifth round pick, really
(01:13):
Steven A. Smith showing the house. Let's row, what's up? Everybody?
Welcome to the special edition of The Stevenismith Show, coming
at you over the digital airways of YouTube, and of
course iHeartRadio. I'm getting right into it because I'm off
(01:37):
on this particular Saturday, but I had to make sure
I let my thoughts be known, okay, because we're gonna
get started with the story that made headlines all over
all the sports networks overnight and then some, and that
was the NFL Draft and the precipitous slide of quarterbacks.
Should Door Sanders, son of primetime Dion Sanders, who many
considered the second best quarterback in January. Sanders was just
(02:01):
picked by the Cleveland Browns as the one hundred and
forty fourth selection of the fifth round overall. Schadea wasn't
drafted in round one on Thursday, he wasn't drafted on
Friday during rounds two and three, and teams passed on
them again earlier this afternoon in round four, so here's
a look at all the quarterbacks that have been taken
(02:21):
so far. Cam Ward went number one overall of Tennessee.
Then the Giants picked Jackson Dart with the twenty fifth
overall pick, a pick they moved up to get, by
the way, they moved up to get that pick. Round
two began last night and the first quarterback taken was
Tyler Schuck, who went to the New Orleans Saints with
the fortieth overall pick. Then in round three to Seattle
they took. The Seahawks took Jaylen Milroe from Alabama with
(02:44):
the ninety second overall pick, and then two picks later,
the Cleveland Browns selected Dylan Gabriel with the ninety fourth
overall pick in the third round, and there were no
more quarterbacks taken on Friday. So those are the five
quarterbacks that went ahead of Shadoor Sanders. And before I
give you my feelings on this, I want to show
(03:06):
you the five quarterbacks the Browns now have on their roster.
The quarterback room now includes Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, the
aforementioned Dylan Gabriel, Deshaan Watson who is injured with his
achilles there, and of course now Shador Sanders. Ladies and gentlemen,
you know it's bad when the President of the United States,
(03:28):
Donald Trump, is pushing out tweets about how corrupted is
Let me think about that, President Donald Trump is pulling
out tweets about how corrupt it is and how these
owners look absolutely stupid, stupid or it levised.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
And I don't know about y'all, but I want y'all
to listen before I get into it, to my man
mel kiper junior of ESPN, who is going off about
Chador Sanders being snubbed because he had Sanders as.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Arguably the best quarterback in this draft. Listen to what
this man had to say. The NFL has been clueless
for fifty years when it comes to evaluating quarterback, clueless
all that have no idea what they're doing terms of
evaluating quarterback. That's proof. There's proof of that. How many
today we know exactly what we're talking about with quarterback?
They don't you ere what he had to say. Let
(04:23):
me tell you something right now. This is some bullshit,
and I'm gonna tell you why. I'm gonna say that
while in the same breath conceding and acknowledging that Shador
Sanders is not blameless here, Primetime Deone Sanders is not
blameless here. I'm gonna say what I have to say
(04:43):
knowing that both of them have their hands at least
a little bit dirty in all of this. But if
you're the National Football League, okay, clearly it's not about
talent anymore. It's about something else. And I'm gonna tell you,
I spent the law amount of the last twenty four
hours thinking about nothing more than I was thinking about collusion.
(05:05):
Because howard the hell this? Thirty two teams in the
National Football League passed on a quarterback that was universally
recognized one of the top three quarterbacks in the country
entering this draft, and thirty two teams passed on them,
not once, not twice, not three times, but four different
times they passed on them. How the hell has that
happened four rounds? It doesn't happen to a quarterback. We've
(05:28):
never seen anything like this before.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
We've seen guys drop because of injuries, we've seen guys
drop because of all field issues, but we've never seen
a quarterback projected to be a top twenty pick, universally
recognized one of the top three quarterbacks in the draft
projected to be a first rounder in all likelihood a
safe bet, a late first rounder, and drop literally to
(05:55):
the fifth round.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
We haven't seen anything like that. And when you talk
about the owners, I'm gonna keep in mind, and I
tweeted about this, seems very Kappernick like as in college Kaepernick. Now,
I've said on many occasions, the man brought it on
himself because once he was exiled from the sport because
of taking your knee during the national anthem, and you
(06:19):
just irritating all the quote unquote patriots out there as
American citizens, I said, you know something, He didn't violate
any by laws. He didn't violate any laws, He didn't
interfere with what transpired once kickoff time arrived, people to
trip it. But still and all he had an opportunity
to get back in the NFL. All he had to
(06:39):
do is show up to that workout that the league
had organized that the Falcons to the Land of Falcons
practice facility. But he didn't show up to that, and
as a result, two hours beforehand, had everybody trying to
come to a high school football field one hundred and
twenty minutes away, two hours away. So guess what you
did that to yourself? That was not Shirr dors Anders,
(07:00):
Shatstore Sanders with the watch, Shadoor Sanders with his bravado,
Shadoor Sanders with this supposed arrogance or whatever. He's still balled.
He still threw for over four thy one hundred yards,
still threw for thirty seven touchdowns, still threw for just
ten interceptions, Still proved himself to be one of the
better quarterbacks in football. Tremendous poors, pocket presence, accuracy, throwing
(07:21):
the damn football, didn't have great wheels, doesn't have great athleticism,
but the brother can play. I certainly never heard of
no damn Dylan Gabriel or Tyler Shuck. What the hell
is that I didn't hear about them? So how is
sher Door Sanders going behind them? I'll tell you how.
(07:44):
It's collusion. And why do I bring up Kaepernick because
I keep reminding everybody that the owners. I'll never forget
this as long as I live. The owners in the
National Football League are very big on control and Colin
Kaepernick's position really railed them. It really, it really robbed
(08:07):
them and irritated them because even though they received a
check for over two hundred and forty six million dollars
a piece because of their TV rights deal. They were
mad it wasn't two fifty to two fifty five. They
blamed Colin Kaepernick. They said he compromised their bottom line.
That's what they said. They said they got a check
for two hundred and forty six million a pace and
(08:28):
was still complaining about the five million they missed out
on because of him in their estimation, no proof of that,
just speculating that that that that was Colin Kaepernick. So
if these are who they are, if these are the
kind of people that they are, this is where Deon
Sander's hands get a little bit dirty. Because we know
(08:49):
he's the greatest cornerback that ever lived. We know he's
arguably the greatest athlete we've ever seen. We know that
the man is a football savant. We also know that
he's box office. The camera, the lens, it gravitates to him.
He has that kind of magnetic effect. And because he
(09:12):
lets you know that he believed in the sun, because
he lets you know what his son could do, because
he lets you know that he damned Shore was gonna
keep an eye on things and he was gonna have
a voice in the proceeds because he alluded to if
I don't like where my son is, that's not where
we're going, and stuff like that. It's entirely plausible that
the owners were like, what the hell he think he is?
(09:32):
You don't run the shop we do, because these owners
are like that. But ultimately we got to get to
Schador Sanders himself because I spoke to some executives giving
me some background, because they didn't like some of the
(09:54):
things that they were seeing, and when they talked about it,
they said stuff like him sending out tweets tagged with
hash tag legendary. They talked about him appearing to have
(10:14):
more of an interest in his own brand and that
he thinks about that more than he thinks about the
team or the league. They talked about if he was
more buttoned up and all about ball and team as
opposed to himself, he would have fallen know later than
(10:34):
number twenty one in the draft to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Instead,
he fell at one forty four. And they call it
a minimum of a thirty million dollar mistake. It's what
they said. They also pointed out how it was the
perfect year to come out in the quarterback class because
it's the lightest, weakest quarterback class in a long time.
(10:57):
So a late one pick could easily turn into a
top ten because of position and need. But that didn't
happen with him because of his bravado, his brand, his swagger, etc.
Now you have people talking about how he possibly just
just suited NC doublea for to get his eligibility back,
possibly pay Ryan Day or somebody so he could throw
(11:19):
the ball to Smith for one year and then re
enter the NFL draft. Rather, I don't know what the
possibility is the likelihood of that happening, but basically, between
primetime Deon Sanders natural bravado coupled with that of his son,
they say that the whole interview process wasn't that impressive.
(11:39):
When he showed up at the NFL scouting combine and
refused to work out, that hurt him. The interview process
while he was there hurt him, et cetera, et cetera.
You know what, y'all, I get it. It makes perfect
damn sense if he's drafted in the second round. It's
the fact that he fell to fifth that's alarming. So
(12:01):
in other words, you're willing to collectively send that kind
of message, and don't act like it wasn't a collective effort.
For all we know, teams collectively meaning owners had come
to the conclusion nobody's gonna touch them in the first
four rounds. All right, now that the round round five
is here, our message has been sent, so y'all could
(12:22):
go about the business of sort of lifting the embargo.
For lack of a better phraseology, I don't know what
the hell happened. All I know is this. It's freaking unfair.
It ain't right. I understand that your door sanders as
a kid and may have some things to learn. I
(12:43):
understand that you have to move a little bit with
a little bit more discretion, that you don't want to
stick out your chest and bloviate about who you are,
who your daddy is, and etcetera, etcetera. I get that part.
I understand that. But the kid doesn't get in any trouble.
(13:09):
He can ball, and he's healthy. And there were numerous
teams from Cleveland to New York, to New Orleans, to
Pittsburgh to la and various other places who needed quarterbacks.
And you're gonna tell me you don't take this kid
before until the fifth round, you're gonna tell me that
you're gonna take a Dylan Gabriel and a Tyler Shook
(13:33):
before him. You're gonna tell me that. You're gonna tell
me that. But we want to pride ourselves on being
the league of merit to the National Football League. I'm
not talking about Roger can Devil in the league office.
To the owners, do you have any idea how bad
you look? You understand that you've given credence to arguments
(13:55):
against you involving collusion and stuff like that. More so
than ever ever, do you realize what you've done? Because
his talent is not a fifth round talent. There's absolutely,
positively no excuse for waiting until the fifth round to
take a quarterback who could play better than most quarterbacks
(14:16):
available in the draft. With the number of teams needing
a quarterback, y'all did this, and I just think it's
sad that it happened. Shy Lowe should door with dancing
after he got picked by the Browns. That was a
good video to see. Go to Twitter to check out
(14:37):
their draft celebration dance. All of that's good and I'm
glad that it hasn't shattered his spirits, and to be
quite honest with you, should do Sandy should be able
to go into Cleveland. I mean, there's Joe Flacco there
and Kenny Pickett. I think that's a job you could
potentially win. But my Lord, for him to have to
(14:59):
go through that so wrong. And I know it's not
just the owners's team executives and then micro managing every
little thing and looking at your attitude. It can't be
about you. It can't be about team. How about it
being about production? How about that? How about it being
about a brother that knows he can play, that knows
he comes from a pristine pedigree, and me personally, no
(15:21):
matter what folks want to say about your door, Sandy,
you're hearing noise about him having taken out some loan
assuming he was going to be drafted in the first round,
of anticipating and already counting his money and stuff like that.
I'm not judging this kid like that. I don't know
if that's true or not, first of all, and secondly,
even if it was, so, what, he's a kid, he's
(15:41):
a young adult. Chill out. What what really really bothers
me is that I think a lot of this was
because of Dion Sanders. I think a lot of this
was about a message to his father. I think a
lot about this. A lot of this was about, Hey,
you'll never run this. This is us. We ain't even
hire you as a coach in the National Football League.
(16:03):
What makes you think you gonna have that kind of say, Oh,
by the way, we hire you know, we draft your son,
and then all of a sudden we gonna hear noise
turning around on how you want to coach the team. Eventually,
we don't need that kind of problem. Yeah, that's one
of the things that people can point to. Let me
tell y'all what I think. The other is a complete
and utter lack of appreciation for what primetime Deon Sanders
(16:25):
has done for the game of football. Primetime Deon Sanders
had more swag, more provider than anybody you could ever
imagine what else you do? All a brother did was
go out there and perform at a very very elite level,
bring pizazz and sizzle to your product, helping it grow
(16:45):
into this multi billion dollar brand. Has a great relationship
with the commissioner, has a great relationship with a bevy
of players and coaches in the National football League knows
the sport backwards and forward. And because of his swag
and his provider or whatever, you'all gonna turn against him.
How about y'all should have drafted. How about y'all should
(17:07):
have drafted, should door Sanders earlier? Because of that alone.
I'm not talking about at the expense of his skill.
I know he's got to have skilled. That's not what
I mean. I'm saying. Rather than look at all of
those things as a negative, how about looking at it
as a positive. You got a prime time deon Sanders.
His son is going to be motivated to perform at
a higher level. He is all about performing at a
(17:29):
higher level. He would be in his son's ear imploring
him to listen to his coaches, imploring him to play better,
imploring him to be dedicated and focused and on point.
Did you ever think about that? Of course not, because
ladies and gentlemen, as times change, they remain the same.
(17:58):
Young kid privilege to be raised by a father who's
universally recognized one of the greatest athletes the world has
ever seen, and a champion. By the way, he's still black.
(18:18):
We don't like his brashness, we don't like his absence
of humility. We gotta teach him a lesson because we
gotta make sure he understands under all circumstances, we still
run this. We're the bosses, and we can put our
foot on your neck any damn time we want to.
That's what happened to Shador Sanders and Dion Sanders over
(18:43):
the last few days, spanning five rides and one hundred
and forty three picks. That's what happened. It was a
check hook. Stay in your lane, know your position. This
is a national football league. You ain't running a damn
(19:05):
thing this way. You will be humble, You will conduct
yourself with humility. Nothing is given to you. Everything is earned,
and even then we'll decide whether we want to give
it to you or not. That's how they treat it.
Should door Sanders and I find it very very difficult
to believe that the people who would do that would
(19:30):
feel the need to have the energy to do this
to a kid straight out of college. That kind of energy,
that kind of message, that insatiable appetite to send and
cement that kind of imprint on this young man has
(19:52):
to be at least to some degree about his father.
And let me tell y'all something about Deon Sanders real quick.
He is confident as hell, supremely so it's very little
you could tell him because the brother is smart. He studied,
(20:19):
he's learned, and he's sincere with what comes out of
his mouth. But I'm gonna tell y'all something about Dion
Sanders real quick for the moment. I don't give a
damn about his greatness as a player. I want to
(20:42):
tell you about him as a man. He is a
great man. Is he always right? No? Does he always
say the wrong of the right thing?
Speaker 3 (20:53):
No?
Speaker 1 (20:53):
He does not. Was it wise for him to sit
up there and indicate that his son will be he
ain't gonna be something place where his son ain't gonna
be some place where he doesn't want them to be
before the NFL Draft, No, that was not wise. But
what he's meant to the NFL, what he's meant to
professional athletes as young men on the come up in
(21:14):
the lives that he has touched along the way, and
how much better he has assistant in helping the NFL
become because of it. He deserved better than this. Shadore Sanders,
in my opinion, was targeted because prime time Deon Sanders
(21:35):
was targeted. He'll be all right because he has a
strong faith in God, just like Prime Time Deon Sanders,
his daddy has taught him to have. But I'm speaking
to all of y'all out there as a man who
knows prime Time Deon Sanders, who's a friend of Deon Sanders,
(21:57):
who Dion Sanders has reached out out and touched and
imparted words of wisdom and support and strong love at times,
tough love at times with yours. Truly, he is a
great man. What happened is Shador Sanders, in part, not totally,
(22:23):
but in part, was a direct assault on Dion Sanders.
He did not deserve this. His son didn't deserve it.
His play didn't deserve this, his production didn't deserve this,
his projected skill set didn't deserve this, his accomplishment didn't
(22:47):
deserve this, and his pedigree didn't deserve it. Because say
what you will about Dion Sanders, he has never taken
from the game. He has only given to it. And
for Shador sand Is to be treated like this, I
(23:08):
found myself so sad because in my soul, having not
spoken to Primetime Dion Sanders in the last several weeks
having not spoken to him, but knowing him the way
that I do. Although he has the strongest faith in
God and a strong belief in his son, I know
(23:30):
there's a part of him who intimately knows that what
was done and his son dropping to the fifth round
was a direct assault on him. It's America at its worst.
(23:50):
It's the powers that be showing you that old adage
that I ripped from Mission Impossible number one when they
were looking for Tom Cruise's character Ethan Hunt and they
turned around and said, this ain't complicated. You find this
soft spot and you squeeze. You can't touch prime Tom
(24:14):
Dan sand that you can't shake his confidence, his innate
belief in himself and what he's doing and how to
go about doing it. So to rattle him, you targeted
his son. That is my opinion. I'm not saying that's
(24:37):
all it was. Certainly shoud Dorsanders could have done things better,
better interview process, a bit more humility. According to people
in the NFL, etc. I get that. And no, he
was not better than cam Ward, and maybe, just maybe
Jackson Dart was the right pick for the Giants to make.
But when thirty two teams select to pass on a
(25:00):
quarterback that was projected as a top two quarterback in
the entire draft for nearly five complete rounds. That ain't
about football. That's about something else. It's about what the
hell I just spent the last twenty twenty five minutes
(25:23):
of so telling you, and it's a damn shame. I'm
sick to my stomach. I want to throw up, and
my heart goes out to Dion Sanders more than anybody.
I know it's bad and it's a bad experience for Shador,
but he got drafted. You see him dancing. He's gonna
(25:45):
be fine. But I know in my soul that Dion
Sanders knows they did this to Chadere at least in
part because of him, to Deon Sanders, not that I
have to tell you this. Keep your head up, bro,
(26:06):
keep your head up. Chador did not deserve this. I
don't give a damn what anybody says. This is a
black mark on the National Football League. And I'm not
talking about the league office. I'm not talking about the
Roger Goodell's and Troy vince in the world and others.
I'm talking about the owners. Shame on you, Shame on
(26:29):
you Shador, do your thing, baby, this is your opportunity.
You went to Cleveland Browns. They got a pretty damn
good team. You know what you gotta do now, more
than ever before. To Saint Jackson State, the Saint Colorado.
It's National Football League.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
Bro.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
They sent the message to you. They sent the message
to their dad. You sent the message back, not just
to the thirty one teams that passed on you, but
to a Cleveland Browns team that actually picked some dude
named Dylan Gabriel before you.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
No disrespect to Gabriel. You go out there and you
show them what you made of. You show them who
the hell you are. I'll be back on Monday, y'all.
Until then, I'm out.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Piece of love,
All right, everybody, listen up with all the big time
sports action that's happening each and every day, The Stephen A.
Smith Show wants to make sure you are taking advantage
of it all. That's why we've partnered with the Prize Picks,
the best place to win cash while watching sports. The
app is really easy to use. To make a lineup,
all you have to do is pick more or less
on a few player stats. Choose from any of your
favorite players Luka, Doncic, Jimmy Butler, and Zach Lavine all
(00:25):
in the same entry, then sit back and watch. The
list is absolutely endless. You can play Prize Pects in
over forty states, including California and Texas. Best of all,
Prizepects will give you fifty dollars when you play your
first five dollars lineup. Wanna lose, You'll get fifty bucks.
Just use promo code says and download Prize Pects right
now again, download the app and use code sas to
get fifty dollars instantly after your first five dollars lineup,
(00:48):
Prize Picks, run your game. I smell bulls, That's what
I smell. Smell it and as we could see, my
noses pretty large. Even though I got allergies, I can
still smell well enough. I know what I'm smelling when
I'm smelling it should Doore Sanders fifth round pick, really
(01:13):
Steven A. Smith showing the house. Let's row, what's up? Everybody?
Welcome to the special edition of The Stevenismith Show, coming
at you over the digital airways of YouTube, and of
course iHeartRadio. I'm getting right into it because I'm off
(01:37):
on this particular Saturday, but I had to make sure
I let my thoughts be known, okay, because we're gonna
get started with the story that made headlines all over
all the sports networks overnight and then some, and that
was the NFL Draft and the precipitous slide of quarterbacks.
Should Door Sanders, son of primetime Dion Sanders, who many
considered the second best quarterback in January. Sanders was just
(02:01):
picked by the Cleveland Browns as the one hundred and
forty fourth selection of the fifth round overall. Schadea wasn't
drafted in round one on Thursday, he wasn't drafted on
Friday during rounds two and three, and teams passed on
them again earlier this afternoon in round four, so here's
a look at all the quarterbacks that have been taken
(02:21):
so far. Cam Ward went number one overall of Tennessee.
Then the Giants picked Jackson Dart with the twenty fifth
overall pick, a pick they moved up to get, by
the way, they moved up to get that pick. Round
two began last night and the first quarterback taken was
Tyler Schuck, who went to the New Orleans Saints with
the fortieth overall pick. Then in round three to Seattle
they took. The Seahawks took Jaylen Milroe from Alabama with
(02:44):
the ninety second overall pick, and then two picks later,
the Cleveland Browns selected Dylan Gabriel with the ninety fourth
overall pick in the third round, and there were no
more quarterbacks taken on Friday. So those are the five
quarterbacks that went ahead of Shadoor Sanders. And before I
give you my feelings on this, I want to show
(03:06):
you the five quarterbacks the Browns now have on their roster.
The quarterback room now includes Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, the
aforementioned Dylan Gabriel, Deshaan Watson who is injured with his
achilles there, and of course now Shador Sanders. Ladies and gentlemen,
you know it's bad when the President of the United States,
(03:28):
Donald Trump, is pushing out tweets about how corrupted is
Let me think about that, President Donald Trump is pulling
out tweets about how corrupt it is and how these
owners look absolutely stupid, stupid or it levised.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
And I don't know about y'all, but I want y'all
to listen before I get into it, to my man
mel kiper junior of ESPN, who is going off about
Chador Sanders being snubbed because he had Sanders as.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Arguably the best quarterback in this draft. Listen to what
this man had to say. The NFL has been clueless
for fifty years when it comes to evaluating quarterback, clueless
all that have no idea what they're doing terms of
evaluating quarterback. That's proof. There's proof of that. How many
today we know exactly what we're talking about with quarterback?
They don't you ere what he had to say. Let
(04:23):
me tell you something right now. This is some bullshit,
and I'm gonna tell you why. I'm gonna say that
while in the same breath conceding and acknowledging that Shador
Sanders is not blameless here, Primetime Deone Sanders is not
blameless here. I'm gonna say what I have to say
(04:43):
knowing that both of them have their hands at least
a little bit dirty in all of this. But if
you're the National Football League, okay, clearly it's not about
talent anymore. It's about something else. And I'm gonna tell you,
I spent the law amount of the last twenty four
hours thinking about nothing more than I was thinking about collusion.
(05:05):
Because howard the hell this? Thirty two teams in the
National Football League passed on a quarterback that was universally
recognized one of the top three quarterbacks in the country
entering this draft, and thirty two teams passed on them,
not once, not twice, not three times, but four different
times they passed on them. How the hell has that
happened four rounds? It doesn't happen to a quarterback. We've
(05:28):
never seen anything like this before.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
We've seen guys drop because of injuries, we've seen guys
drop because of all field issues, but we've never seen
a quarterback projected to be a top twenty pick, universally
recognized one of the top three quarterbacks in the draft
projected to be a first rounder in all likelihood a
safe bet, a late first rounder, and drop literally to
(05:55):
the fifth round.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
We haven't seen anything like that. And when you talk
about the owners, I'm gonna keep in mind, and I
tweeted about this, seems very Kappernick like as in college Kaepernick. Now,
I've said on many occasions, the man brought it on
himself because once he was exiled from the sport because
of taking your knee during the national anthem, and you
(06:19):
just irritating all the quote unquote patriots out there as
American citizens, I said, you know something, He didn't violate
any by laws. He didn't violate any laws, He didn't
interfere with what transpired once kickoff time arrived, people to
trip it. But still and all he had an opportunity
to get back in the NFL. All he had to
(06:39):
do is show up to that workout that the league
had organized that the Falcons to the Land of Falcons
practice facility. But he didn't show up to that, and
as a result, two hours beforehand, had everybody trying to
come to a high school football field one hundred and
twenty minutes away, two hours away. So guess what you
did that to yourself? That was not Shirr dors Anders,
(07:00):
Shatstore Sanders with the watch, Shadoor Sanders with his bravado,
Shadoor Sanders with this supposed arrogance or whatever. He's still balled.
He still threw for over four thy one hundred yards,
still threw for thirty seven touchdowns, still threw for just
ten interceptions, Still proved himself to be one of the
better quarterbacks in football. Tremendous poors, pocket presence, accuracy, throwing
(07:21):
the damn football, didn't have great wheels, doesn't have great athleticism,
but the brother can play. I certainly never heard of
no damn Dylan Gabriel or Tyler Shuck. What the hell
is that I didn't hear about them? So how is
sher Door Sanders going behind them? I'll tell you how.
(07:44):
It's collusion. And why do I bring up Kaepernick because
I keep reminding everybody that the owners. I'll never forget
this as long as I live. The owners in the
National Football League are very big on control and Colin
Kaepernick's position really railed them. It really, it really robbed
(08:07):
them and irritated them because even though they received a
check for over two hundred and forty six million dollars
a piece because of their TV rights deal. They were
mad it wasn't two fifty to two fifty five. They
blamed Colin Kaepernick. They said he compromised their bottom line.
That's what they said. They said they got a check
for two hundred and forty six million a pace and
(08:28):
was still complaining about the five million they missed out
on because of him in their estimation, no proof of that,
just speculating that that that that was Colin Kaepernick. So
if these are who they are, if these are the
kind of people that they are, this is where Deon
Sander's hands get a little bit dirty. Because we know
(08:49):
he's the greatest cornerback that ever lived. We know he's
arguably the greatest athlete we've ever seen. We know that
the man is a football savant. We also know that
he's box office. The camera, the lens, it gravitates to him.
He has that kind of magnetic effect. And because he
(09:12):
lets you know that he believed in the sun, because
he lets you know what his son could do, because
he lets you know that he damned Shore was gonna
keep an eye on things and he was gonna have
a voice in the proceeds because he alluded to if
I don't like where my son is, that's not where
we're going, and stuff like that. It's entirely plausible that
the owners were like, what the hell he think he is?
(09:32):
You don't run the shop we do, because these owners
are like that. But ultimately we got to get to
Schador Sanders himself because I spoke to some executives giving
me some background, because they didn't like some of the
(09:54):
things that they were seeing, and when they talked about it,
they said stuff like him sending out tweets tagged with
hash tag legendary. They talked about him appearing to have
(10:14):
more of an interest in his own brand and that
he thinks about that more than he thinks about the
team or the league. They talked about if he was
more buttoned up and all about ball and team as
opposed to himself, he would have fallen know later than
(10:34):
number twenty one in the draft to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Instead,
he fell at one forty four. And they call it
a minimum of a thirty million dollar mistake. It's what
they said. They also pointed out how it was the
perfect year to come out in the quarterback class because
it's the lightest, weakest quarterback class in a long time.
(10:57):
So a late one pick could easily turn into a
top ten because of position and need. But that didn't
happen with him because of his bravado, his brand, his swagger, etc.
Now you have people talking about how he possibly just
just suited NC doublea for to get his eligibility back,
possibly pay Ryan Day or somebody so he could throw
(11:19):
the ball to Smith for one year and then re
enter the NFL draft. Rather, I don't know what the
possibility is the likelihood of that happening, but basically, between
primetime Deon Sanders natural bravado coupled with that of his son,
they say that the whole interview process wasn't that impressive.
(11:39):
When he showed up at the NFL scouting combine and
refused to work out, that hurt him. The interview process
while he was there hurt him, et cetera, et cetera.
You know what, y'all, I get it. It makes perfect
damn sense if he's drafted in the second round. It's
the fact that he fell to fifth that's alarming. So
(12:01):
in other words, you're willing to collectively send that kind
of message, and don't act like it wasn't a collective effort.
For all we know, teams collectively meaning owners had come
to the conclusion nobody's gonna touch them in the first
four rounds. All right, now that the round round five
is here, our message has been sent, so y'all could
(12:22):
go about the business of sort of lifting the embargo.
For lack of a better phraseology, I don't know what
the hell happened. All I know is this. It's freaking unfair.
It ain't right. I understand that your door sanders as
a kid and may have some things to learn. I
(12:43):
understand that you have to move a little bit with
a little bit more discretion, that you don't want to
stick out your chest and bloviate about who you are,
who your daddy is, and etcetera, etcetera. I get that part.
I understand that. But the kid doesn't get in any trouble.
(13:09):
He can ball, and he's healthy. And there were numerous
teams from Cleveland to New York, to New Orleans, to
Pittsburgh to la and various other places who needed quarterbacks.
And you're gonna tell me you don't take this kid
before until the fifth round, you're gonna tell me that
you're gonna take a Dylan Gabriel and a Tyler Shook
(13:33):
before him. You're gonna tell me that. You're gonna tell
me that. But we want to pride ourselves on being
the league of merit to the National Football League. I'm
not talking about Roger can Devil in the league office.
To the owners, do you have any idea how bad
you look? You understand that you've given credence to arguments
(13:55):
against you involving collusion and stuff like that. More so
than ever ever, do you realize what you've done? Because
his talent is not a fifth round talent. There's absolutely,
positively no excuse for waiting until the fifth round to
take a quarterback who could play better than most quarterbacks
(14:16):
available in the draft. With the number of teams needing
a quarterback, y'all did this, and I just think it's
sad that it happened. Shy Lowe should door with dancing
after he got picked by the Browns. That was a
good video to see. Go to Twitter to check out
(14:37):
their draft celebration dance. All of that's good and I'm
glad that it hasn't shattered his spirits, and to be
quite honest with you, should do Sandy should be able
to go into Cleveland. I mean, there's Joe Flacco there
and Kenny Pickett. I think that's a job you could
potentially win. But my Lord, for him to have to
(14:59):
go through that so wrong. And I know it's not
just the owners's team executives and then micro managing every
little thing and looking at your attitude. It can't be
about you. It can't be about team. How about it
being about production? How about that? How about it being
about a brother that knows he can play, that knows
he comes from a pristine pedigree, and me personally, no
(15:21):
matter what folks want to say about your door, Sandy,
you're hearing noise about him having taken out some loan
assuming he was going to be drafted in the first round,
of anticipating and already counting his money and stuff like that.
I'm not judging this kid like that. I don't know
if that's true or not, first of all, and secondly,
even if it was, so, what, he's a kid, he's
(15:41):
a young adult. Chill out. What what really really bothers
me is that I think a lot of this was
because of Dion Sanders. I think a lot of this
was about a message to his father. I think a
lot about this. A lot of this was about, Hey,
you'll never run this. This is us. We ain't even
hire you as a coach in the National Football League.
(16:03):
What makes you think you gonna have that kind of say, Oh,
by the way, we hire you know, we draft your son,
and then all of a sudden we gonna hear noise
turning around on how you want to coach the team. Eventually,
we don't need that kind of problem. Yeah, that's one
of the things that people can point to. Let me
tell y'all what I think. The other is a complete
and utter lack of appreciation for what primetime Deon Sanders
(16:25):
has done for the game of football. Primetime Deon Sanders
had more swag, more provider than anybody you could ever
imagine what else you do? All a brother did was
go out there and perform at a very very elite level,
bring pizazz and sizzle to your product, helping it grow
(16:45):
into this multi billion dollar brand. Has a great relationship
with the commissioner, has a great relationship with a bevy
of players and coaches in the National football League knows
the sport backwards and forward. And because of his swag
and his provider or whatever, you'all gonna turn against him.
How about y'all should have drafted. How about y'all should
(17:07):
have drafted, should door Sanders earlier? Because of that alone.
I'm not talking about at the expense of his skill.
I know he's got to have skilled. That's not what
I mean. I'm saying. Rather than look at all of
those things as a negative, how about looking at it
as a positive. You got a prime time deon Sanders.
His son is going to be motivated to perform at
a higher level. He is all about performing at a
(17:29):
higher level. He would be in his son's ear imploring
him to listen to his coaches, imploring him to play better,
imploring him to be dedicated and focused and on point.
Did you ever think about that? Of course not, because
ladies and gentlemen, as times change, they remain the same.
(17:58):
Young kid privilege to be raised by a father who's
universally recognized one of the greatest athletes the world has
ever seen, and a champion. By the way, he's still black.
(18:18):
We don't like his brashness, we don't like his absence
of humility. We gotta teach him a lesson because we
gotta make sure he understands under all circumstances, we still
run this. We're the bosses, and we can put our
foot on your neck any damn time we want to.
That's what happened to Shador Sanders and Dion Sanders over
(18:43):
the last few days, spanning five rides and one hundred
and forty three picks. That's what happened. It was a
check hook. Stay in your lane, know your position. This
is a national football league. You ain't running a damn
(19:05):
thing this way. You will be humble, You will conduct
yourself with humility. Nothing is given to you. Everything is earned,
and even then we'll decide whether we want to give
it to you or not. That's how they treat it.
Should door Sanders and I find it very very difficult
to believe that the people who would do that would
(19:30):
feel the need to have the energy to do this
to a kid straight out of college. That kind of energy,
that kind of message, that insatiable appetite to send and
cement that kind of imprint on this young man has
(19:52):
to be at least to some degree about his father.
And let me tell y'all something about Deon Sanders real quick.
He is confident as hell, supremely so it's very little
you could tell him because the brother is smart. He studied,
(20:19):
he's learned, and he's sincere with what comes out of
his mouth. But I'm gonna tell y'all something about Dion
Sanders real quick for the moment. I don't give a
damn about his greatness as a player. I want to
(20:42):
tell you about him as a man. He is a
great man. Is he always right? No? Does he always
say the wrong of the right thing?
Speaker 3 (20:53):
No?
Speaker 1 (20:53):
He does not. Was it wise for him to sit
up there and indicate that his son will be he
ain't gonna be something place where his son ain't gonna
be some place where he doesn't want them to be
before the NFL Draft, No, that was not wise. But
what he's meant to the NFL, what he's meant to
professional athletes as young men on the come up in
(21:14):
the lives that he has touched along the way, and
how much better he has assistant in helping the NFL
become because of it. He deserved better than this. Shadore Sanders,
in my opinion, was targeted because prime time Deon Sanders
(21:35):
was targeted. He'll be all right because he has a
strong faith in God, just like Prime Time Deon Sanders,
his daddy has taught him to have. But I'm speaking
to all of y'all out there as a man who
knows prime Time Deon Sanders, who's a friend of Deon Sanders,
(21:57):
who Dion Sanders has reached out out and touched and
imparted words of wisdom and support and strong love at times,
tough love at times with yours. Truly, he is a
great man. What happened is Shador Sanders, in part, not totally,
(22:23):
but in part, was a direct assault on Dion Sanders.
He did not deserve this. His son didn't deserve it.
His play didn't deserve this, his production didn't deserve this,
his projected skill set didn't deserve this, his accomplishment didn't
(22:47):
deserve this, and his pedigree didn't deserve it. Because say
what you will about Dion Sanders, he has never taken
from the game. He has only given to it. And
for Shador sand Is to be treated like this, I
(23:08):
found myself so sad because in my soul, having not
spoken to Primetime Dion Sanders in the last several weeks
having not spoken to him, but knowing him the way
that I do. Although he has the strongest faith in
God and a strong belief in his son, I know
(23:30):
there's a part of him who intimately knows that what
was done and his son dropping to the fifth round
was a direct assault on him. It's America at its worst.
(23:50):
It's the powers that be showing you that old adage
that I ripped from Mission Impossible number one when they
were looking for Tom Cruise's character Ethan Hunt and they
turned around and said, this ain't complicated. You find this
soft spot and you squeeze. You can't touch prime Tom
(24:14):
Dan sand that you can't shake his confidence, his innate
belief in himself and what he's doing and how to
go about doing it. So to rattle him, you targeted
his son. That is my opinion. I'm not saying that's
(24:37):
all it was. Certainly shoud Dorsanders could have done things better,
better interview process, a bit more humility. According to people
in the NFL, etc. I get that. And no, he
was not better than cam Ward, and maybe, just maybe
Jackson Dart was the right pick for the Giants to make.
But when thirty two teams select to pass on a
(25:00):
quarterback that was projected as a top two quarterback in
the entire draft for nearly five complete rounds. That ain't
about football. That's about something else. It's about what the
hell I just spent the last twenty twenty five minutes
(25:23):
of so telling you, and it's a damn shame. I'm
sick to my stomach. I want to throw up, and
my heart goes out to Dion Sanders more than anybody.
I know it's bad and it's a bad experience for Shador,
but he got drafted. You see him dancing. He's gonna
(25:45):
be fine. But I know in my soul that Dion
Sanders knows they did this to Chadere at least in
part because of him, to Deon Sanders, not that I
have to tell you this. Keep your head up, bro,
(26:06):
keep your head up. Chador did not deserve this. I
don't give a damn what anybody says. This is a
black mark on the National Football League. And I'm not
talking about the league office. I'm not talking about the
Roger Goodell's and Troy vince in the world and others.
I'm talking about the owners. Shame on you, Shame on
(26:29):
you Shador, do your thing, baby, this is your opportunity.
You went to Cleveland Browns. They got a pretty damn
good team. You know what you gotta do now, more
than ever before. To Saint Jackson State, the Saint Colorado.
It's National Football League.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
Bro.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
They sent the message to you. They sent the message
to their dad. You sent the message back, not just
to the thirty one teams that passed on you, but
to a Cleveland Browns team that actually picked some dude
named Dylan Gabriel before you.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
No disrespect to Gabriel. You go out there and you
show them what you made of. You show them who
the hell you are. I'll be back on Monday, y'all.
Until then, I'm out.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Piece of love,
Host
Stephen A. Smith
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