It happened in 1983. It happened 21 years later in 2004. It will happen again 21 years later in 2025.
Colorado coach Deion Sanders promised last week that Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders and cornerback/receiver Travis Hunter will select his NFL team next year.
“I know where I want them to go,” Sanders said on Friday Million dollar game price Podcast, via Brandon Champion of MLive.com. “So it’s certain cities that don’t happen. It’s going to be a turtle.He said.
Eli Manning is the last player with the first overall pick to say he doesn’t want to play there for the team. However, the Chargers drafted him, but then traded him to the Giants.
It was John Elway who didn’t want to play for the Colts in 1983. They took it away and took it to the Broncos.
“There were some cities that were compatible,” Dion said. “Atlanta is a fit, and I want that for my kids. All of them. I want the right fit. [Atlanta] It was the first time I saw black people in positions of power. It blew my mind. It was true in Atlanta. I had never seen anything like this in my life. “
Sanders mentioned San Francisco, Dallas, Washington and Baltimore as possible destinations. (Dion said earlier He doesn’t want to. Shedeur to play in a cold weather town.)
Of course, the spots Dion named should look for Shedeur Sanders or Travis Hunter. Of the cities on the list, only Dallas could look for a starting quarterback in 2025, if Dak Prescott leaves in free agency.
Yet another top prospect will inevitably do what Manning and Elway did. (Bo Jackson, in 1986, warned the Buccaneers that if they took him with the No. 1 overall pick, they would play baseball. They did. And he did.) As the reality of the NIL widened in college football, the credible threat/commitment of players to sit out a full year. They will, because they have more money in the bank and can afford to do so.
Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter have NIL money in the bank. They have other things to do. They must not say a word about it. Deion makes it.
Eli had his father, Archie, as the voice of his efforts to get rid of the Chargers. Although Eli didn’t want to play there, Archie took the heat.
It gives the player a buffer against the criticism of the player who does not have a prominent family member who can make the case. And there will be criticism from some in the media and from many fans.
We have all been brainwashed into accepting the basic idea of the abstract industrial complex. Being told to move to a city where the player doesn’t want to live and having a dysfunctional owner and/or dysfunctional GM and/or dysfunctional coach and/or an empty talent cupboard surrounding the player.
The push should happen regularly. Deion, who was in many ways a player’s successor, may have sparked a new era of dissent against the notion that great players should be approached for the Harry Potter Sorting Hat that determines whether college football players start or not. NFL careers, however, may determine their ultimate football fate. Because after a year or two or three, if a player doesn’t develop well, it’s considered a fluke – even if it’s the team’s fault for not developing and/or supporting him the way other teams might.
So, yes, we are here for the coming storm. It’s timed out. And who knows? Maybe it will still be in 2024.