Fan Sues NFL For Emotional Distress Over Shedeur Sanders Draft

There’s a fine line between being passionate fandom and being downright crazy. Filing a federal lawsuit seeking $100 million in punitive damages from the NFL for the emotional distress of watching a favorite player not get drafted in the first round falls on the latter side of that line.

A suit, filed pro se (naturally) in the Northern District of Georgia, alleges a vast NFL conspiracy to collude and depress Shedeur Sanders’s draft stock, violating antitrust law, civil rights law, and consumer protection statutes. The plaintiff identifies himself as “John Doe” of Lawrenceville, Georgia, and… have we checked to make sure Deion doesn’t have a house in Lawrenceville?

That Doe now has to watch the Browns every week is not listed as an injury. But it should be.

Doe describes himself as “a dedicated fan of Colorado football” who “has closely followed Shedeur Sanders throughout the 2023 and 2024 seasons.” Apparently not closely enough if he still thought Shedeur was graded as a first-rounder. Or he only read Mel Kiper.

Plaintiff attended the Colorado Buffaloes’ first game against the TCU Horned Frogs on September 2, 2023, witnessing firsthand Sanders’ exceptional talent and potential as a quarterback in Coach Deion Sanders’ debut with the program.

Hmm. I remember that game. What happened after that?

Right. The Buffs finished 4-8 that year, though they chased it with a decent 9-4 campaign through the desiccated corpse of the Big XII before falling in the Alamo Bowl to conference rival BYU (realignment is weird). Sanders is a talented player who boasted a solid completion percentage though it’s easy to get good completion numbers when you take unnecessary sacks whenever no one is open. Other than the aforementioned Kiper, analysts had moved their Sanders ratings out of the first-round well before the draft.

Also, the plaintiff requests to go forward in forma pauperis, lacking the funds to even pay the filing fees. Probably shouldn’t have flown out to that TCU game.

What the complaint gets right, however, is the cloud of nonsense that surrounded Sanders during the draft:

Reports and leaked statements suggested that Sanders ”tanked interviews,” “wasn’t prepared,” and “was too cocky,” which contributed to a narrative that has unjustly harmed his reputation and potential as a player.

That definitely happened. Some of this might be due to not having an agent to prep him. And let’s not underestimate how loud an echo chamber can get when Deion Sanders is in it. But it’s one thing to adjust ratings and another to leak about it and the narrative created by all those leaks became disgustingly racially coded. It’s a lazy narrative with an ugly history.

But it’s quite a leap to get from there to a conspiracy.

In fairness, I do have my own conspiracy theory about this pick. Remember when Donald Trump posted about Shedeur’s drop, leaning on teams to draft him “IMMEDIATELY”?

Fast forward from there to Shedeur getting drafted by the Browns even though they’d already taken a quarterback and the shot of the Browns war room showed the coach and GM clapping like they were in a hostage video. Browns owner Jimmy Haslam is a known GOP donor. COINCIDENCE?!?!? Here’s a clip from last week’s Dan LeBatard Show where I got namechecked for this theory:

Of course, even that theory doesn’t warrant a federal lawsuit.

The complaint ends by demanding an apology, a retraction of “slanderous statements,” and $100 million for the plaintiff’s “emotional distress and trauma.” I regret to inform you that “your favorite team hurt your feelings” is not yet a legally cognizable injury.

And as soon as it is, Jets fans are going to send someone to the electric chair.

Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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