You just made Sanders case because everything in your post requires collusion on the part of each NFL team. That is the heart of an anti-trust case. Remember MLB has an anti-trust exemption, the NFL does not. I never said Sanders would be wise to do this, I only said he'd have a good case.
Not necessarily. A jury looking at the facts of the case, i.e. a first round rated QB fails to get drafted until the fifth, could reasonably conclude that teams would have had to collude for that to happen, whether or not they actually did collude. This is somewhat similar to the Kaepernick case. In that one the NFL reached a settlement. They would also settle with Sanders if he brought suit because the one thing the NFL doesn't want to do is lose an anti-trust case where damages awarded are automatically tripled.
He'd have a good chance of finding a lawyer that would take his money, winning the suit, not so much.
The case would be settled out of court. In my previous post, I gave the reasons why the NFL would never allow a case like this to go to trial.
Because many of the coaches and staff came to the same conclusion about his abilities, when coupled with his entitled attitude, does not mean there is collusion. He was 1-7 against ranked teams, 0-3 in bowl games. I don't watch near enough college ball to make my own judgement on his play, but his record in big games along with him reportedly not taking the interviews very seriously is more than enough for NFL teams to say no thank you all on their own without colluding.
Everything you say may be true. As I said before, it only matters what a jury might conclude (and it doesn't even need to be unanimous), after the lawyers battle it out. They might see it your way, but I think there is enough evidence, even if circumstantial, that they might see it Sanders' way. The key word here is "might" because the NFL can't afford to take a chance. For example, let's say Sanders sues for 40M (roughly the contract that Caleb Williams got.) If the NFL lost the suit, it would cost them 120M. Are you so sure of the facts of this case that you would risk losing that much? Easy to say yes if it's not your money, but settling out of court is what they would most likely do.
I don’t think there was collusion, but painting a broad brush on his record in “big games” doesn’t really take into account how bad Colorado was and how badly they lacked depth compared to their competition. Putting it squarely on Shedeur’s shoulders is unfair.
of course they got together and decided they were gonna stick it to Sanders. People in NFL front offices are all friends, often colleagues for years just taking different gigs. When the draft happens there are no real surprises, everybody in front office circles knows the gist about who is going when in the draft for example Brian Daboll who Shadeur "disrespected" has worked for 7 NFL organizations. He feels disrespected and tells his friends from 7 teams, who tell their friends with similar reach and soon every team is aware. -- thats not so much the problem IMO as the fact that the NFL is monopoly so we have no alternative. A true competitive league, not this weak XFL, but a league like the USFL in the 80s that could take good players away from the NFL would go a long way towards ending these silly crusades the league goes on -- the NBA gets a lot of shit and its not the best model of course, but one thing they get right is that they are all in on talent. It doesnt matter where you come from (slums of Greece, Hollywood Hills USA) or whether you are a total dick (Shawn Kemp, Karl Malone), if you can play you aren't shut out of the boys club
If one NFL team's coach calls his buddy, who is a coach on another NFL team and tells him that Sanders failed the interview and/or had an entitled attitude, is that considered collusion? What is considered collusion in a court of law?
Teams are desperate for a QB. Desperate. If Shadeur had the talent to be a 1st round pick he could have literally had 30 females accusing him of sexual misconduct and he’d still go in the first round as long as the girls could be bought off. That’s how desperate the NFL is for good QB’s. They don’t give a fuck if Shadeur is arrogant or who his dad is. Can he ball at an elite level? He’d be a first rounder. Fact is he has a weak arm, weak physicality, not very fast, and apparently not very smart with a playbook either. Shadeur had the money and the clout to run a full scale media campaign using algorithms that pushed him in front of every fan and media source possible. That’s why he even got any attention. If he wasn’t daddy’s son he wouldn’t even be talked about at all.
I agree. There is no plausible explanation for his fall other than collusion. You can talk all you want about Shedeur's supposed shortcomings, but most draft experts had him as a top 10 pick minimum. Then you have the draft day announcers like Rich Eisen struggling to come up with an explanation. I think he would have a good case if he took it court but probably won't. Now let's say all the naysayers are right and Sanders turns out to be a bust and is out of the league after three years. I think he can still sue depending on the statute of limitations.
I dont see it working out for Sanders. Cleveland is a mess and his development isn't their priority. But I am rooting for him. Sanders is just the one of many players that will start entering the league like him. With NIL, more and more are going to enter the league as millionaires already, and the "entitlement" that being a 21 year old multi-millionaire college student brings. Front offices better get the fuck over it, quickly.
I wish I was a multi-millionaire college student... there's a limit to how many ramen noodles "meals" a kid can eat.
Carson Beck, NFL draft next year, was over at his mega hot girlfriends house, eating ramen noodles I’m sure, and had both his Mercedes and Lamborghini stolen
Yeah this NIL thing is going to wreak havoc and it’s going to get worse…if kids can make more money in college than they can as a mid- to later-round draft pick, then there is much less incentive to come out. Will be fascinating to see what happens when a kid declares but then doesn’t get drafted high enough and wants to go back to college. That will challenge the NCAA’s rules on declaring and coming back and all that jazz. Not saying that the kids don’t deserve to be rewarded while the schools make so much money off of them, but it does shake up the entire system.
Agreed, the O line was trash and it is not all on Shedeur. I don't watch near enough college ball to make my own judgement on his abilities, I was just trying to come up with plausible excuses the coaches and GMs could use to counter if accused of collusion.
You hear rumors every draft, unless they tell the other coach that everyone needs to get together and not draft him until the 5th, then there is no collusion. Saying he tanked the interview is not collusion at all. It is just stating his personal view.
