By: Donovan Martin, Sr. Editor in Chief
From the moment Shedeur Sanders arrived in Cleveland, it was clear the Browns had no intention of giving him a fair chance. Effort? He put it in—showing up early, staying late, grinding through practices, and making his presence felt in the community. Talent? Everyone can see it. Accuracy? Undeniable. Yet Sanders was doomed before he ever threw a pass in orange and brown.
Don’t just take our word for it. Analysts across the board—Skip Bayless, Stephen A. Smith, NFL legends and even Hall of Famers—have all said the same. Eric Dickerson recently revealed he’d heard from a reliable source that the NFL collectively worked to make sure Sanders wasn’t drafted in the early rounds. Collusion may be a strong word, but if it looks like it, walks like it, and quacks like it…
The Browns didn’t just sideline him; they disrespected him. Sanders wasn’t given reps with the first team, wasn’t given a true competition, and wasn’t given the same treatment as countless rookies across the league. Other teams allow their young quarterbacks—rookies, veterans, undrafted—to fight for their spot. That’s football. That’s Darwinism. But in Cleveland? They made sure the fight never even started.
And so, as Skip Bayless put it, we’re once again left with “those sorry-ass Browns.” This is why their franchise is the butt of league-wide jokes, why fans wear paper bags over their heads in the stands, why year after year they’re bottom feeders. Bad decisions at the top. Bad management. Bad coaching. Garbage, through and through.
And for what? Sanders moves jerseys. He boosts TV ratings. He has the poise, the marketability, and the arm talent. Instead of giving him the chance to win, the Browns are likely to bury him on the practice squad or keep him as a third-stringer, wasting a year of his career. If they had any integrity, they’d waive him or trade him to a team that actually wants to win.
But let’s not kid ourselves—every other team that passed on Sanders is complicit. If what Dickerson says is true, the NFL sent Sanders a message: we’ll show you your place. Hot garbage. And the league wonders why fans call it the “No Fun League,” a phrase Vince McMahon turned into his rallying cry for the XFL.
Double standards abound. Remember when Eli Manning refused to play for the Chargers? The league didn’t punish the Mannings for that. And do you really believe the NFL would ever let Arch Manning get stuck in Cleveland if the Browns are in draft position next year? Not a chance. The Mannings get protection. The Sanders family gets stonewalled.
It’s shameful, it’s ugly, and it’s everything wrong with the league. Kevin Stefanski deserves to be on the hot seat for this alone. He trotted Sanders out behind an offensive line filled with players destined to be cut, running plays they barely practiced. That’s not evaluation—it’s sabotage, say former players and sports analysts. If the Browns cared about winning, they would’ve given Sanders regular reps with the first team and let the competition play out on the field.
But they didn’t. And they won’t. Which is why this franchise stays stuck in the mud. To borrow again from Skip Bayless: despicable.
And I guess when you’re not used to having a winning culture, when you don’t know what it means to put a product on the field that fans can actually be proud of, this is what mediocrity looks like. The Browns probably had their most viewership of the entire season the one night Sanders started in the preseason. Think about that. Who really wants to tune in to watch the Cleveland Browns? Nobody—unless Sanders is under center. But when you’ve been marinating in mediocrity for decades, when you’ve accepted losing as part of your DNA, the results speak for themselves.
The Browns have shown, once again, why they are who they are. They’ve buried talent, alienated fans, and confirmed every criticism about their inability to build a winning culture. And until something fundamentally changes, they’ll keep doing what they’ve always done: drag down promising players and waste away seasons while the rest of the NFL moves forward.
In the end, it’s simple—Cleveland didn’t fumble Sanders, they flat-out dropped him before the snap. And that’s why they’ll keep losing, because the Browns don’t just mismanage quarterbacks… they mismanage hope.
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