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President Donald Trump deserves the credit for rookie college quarterback Shedeur Sanders finally finding a team in this year’s NFL Draft, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed on Monday.
That’s despite 112 players being drafted between the first round ending and the player finding a new home.
Sanders, 23, was widely expected to be among the first players to be picked up by a pro team. But surprisingly, he had to wait until the fifth round of acquisitions before receiving a call-up from the Cleveland Browns, becoming just the 144th player to be selected overall and having to watch five others in his position go before him.
After his shock snub on Thursday, Trump vented his frustration on the players’s behalf the following day.
“What is wrong with NFL owners, are they STUPID?” he fumed on Truth Social. “Deion Sanders was a great college football player, and was even greater in the NFL. He’s also a very good coach, streetwise and smart!
“Therefore, Shedeur, his quarterback son, has PHENOMENAL GENES, and is all set for Greatness. “He should be ‘picked’ IMMEDIATELY by a team that wants to WIN. Good luck Shedeur, and say hello to your wonderful father!”
With the Texan finally securing a spot with the Browns on Saturday, Fox News’s Peter Doocy asked Leavitt during Monday’s briefing whether Trump’s intervention had made the difference.
“Hey, what I will say is the president put out a statement, and a few rounds later, he was drafted,” she responded. “So I think the facts speak for themselves on that one, Peter.”
As Trump pointed out, Sanders is the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Deoin Sanders, 57, a legendary cornerback, influential personality in the game and current head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes.
Shedeur began his college career playing under his father for the Jackson State Tigers in Mississippi before transferring to Colorado when Deoin took the top coaching role there.
He had been tipped to be among the very first picks for this year’s draft but owners instead showed a reluctance to back him, causing him to slip down the board.
The situation led fans to speculate that the scenario had been devised to “humble” a player who has been accused of displaying an arrogant and entitled attitude and who has already secured a number of lucrative sponsorship deals.
Forced to endure the humiliation of being overlooked at his draft watch party on Thursday evening, Sanders handled the setback with good grace and said: “We all didn’t expect this, of course. I don’t feel like this happened for no reason.
“All this is, of course, fuel to the fire. We all know this shouldn’t have happened. But we understand, we’re on to bigger and better things.”
English (US) ·