Deion Sanders Jr. Refutes Claims Linking Shedeur To the Las Vegas Raiders and the Dallas Cowboys

Most of the worst NFL teams this season, including the Las Vegas Raiders, Cleveland Browns, and New York Giants, are in quarterback hell right now. Shedeur Sanders (or perhaps Miami’s Heisman finalist Cam Ward) could be their way out. So naturally, links between Shedeur and those teams have begun to pop up—though Shedeur’s brother says there’s been no talk of Shedeur refusing to play for the team that selects him.

On Saturday, NFL Rookie Watch, a Twitter account with over 159k followers, tweeted that there was a “high likelihood” that Shedeur would refuse to play if he was drafted by the Giants or Browns. Similar to what Eli Manning did after getting drafted by the Chargers in 2004. Shedeur’s oldest brother, Deion Sanders Jr., quickly refuted the claims in the strongest possible terms.

“Bro is completely lying about everything he just tweeted”

In the post that Deion Jr. was quoting, NFL Rookie Watch used words like “reportedly” and quotation marks to give the impression of a report with actual genuine sources. The post claimed that Shedeur would play for the Cowboys or Raiders, but not the Giants and Browns. It also suggested that “NFL scouts” believe the Giants will draft Ward because of the expectation that Shedeur would refuse them.

It’s one of the more blatant examples of irresponsible reporting we’ve seen in an age defined by such practices.

However, it was not completely without basis. It is true that over the last year or so, Shedeur’s father, NFL legend Deion Sanders, has said publicly that he didn’t want his kid playing somewhere “cold”. He also said that he would “privately” tell NFL teams not to draft Shedeur if it wasn’t the right fit.

However, Shedeur has not personally indicated he would refuse to play anywhere. We’re not even going to dignify the idea that the Cowboys would draft Shedeur the year after handing Dak Prescott a $60 million deal with a response.

Shedeur has, however, shared posts and videos on his social media pages that would suggest he’s more than okay playing for the Raiders or Giants. Shedeur was seen playing catch with Giants rookie wideout Malik Nabers this past week. That was merely one of many hints of an impending Giants-Shedeur marriage.

Even the social media replies to the original post by @NFLRookieWatxh lambasted the account for its intentional click-bait content. The tweet contained no links or references to any reputable (or non-reputable) sources, despite making some wild claims.

Hopefully, social media users can continue to use their critical thinking to discern good journalism and sports reporting from the false reports only intended to farm clicks and foster animosity and strife online. Just as they did here.