05/03/2025
Very grateful to have like-minded brothers who pull the best out of you and push you to the stars.
I wrote this for every Black boy and girl who showed up as their full, brilliant, bold selves — and got punished for it.
For the ones who didn’t have a Deion to fight for them.
For the ones who were overlooked, boxed out, told to shrink.
Shedeur Sanders deserves the world.
But this piece is for the rest of us.
📣 Read my Op-Ed in Black With No Chaser:
🟣 “To the Ones Without a Deion: Rooting for Shedeur — Mourning for Us”
https://blackwithnochaser.com/to-the-ones-without-a-deion-rooting-for-shedeur-mourning-for-us/
Like so many others, I am rooting for Shedeur Sanders. Rooting for his gifts, his brilliance, his boldness, his audacity to show up exactly as he is — confident, stylish, unbothered, Black and unapologetic. He deserves every ounce of success that comes his way.
Shedeur isn’t just talented — he’s exceptional. A record-shattering quarterback who led Colorado through a historic season, smashing statistics and rewriting expectations, all while carrying the weight of his family’s legacy and his bold individuality. Off the field, he holds a 3.9 GPA — academic excellence that should silence doubts about his discipline or leadership. Yet he was overlooked for the Heisman, a snub so glaring that it felt personal and unprofessional. And now, as the NFL Draft conversations unfold, some analysts have dared to rank him below quarterbacks who couldn’t hold a light to him in a fire pit. This isn’t just sports politics — it’s systemic racism dressed up in scouting reports and press releases. It’s the same old bias: punish the confident Black boy, reward the one who knows how to play small.
And yet, as the world gathers to cheer for Shedeur, I find myself mourning. Not mourning him, but mourning us — the ones who dared to show up the same way and paid the price for it. The ones who didn’t have a Deion to go to war for them. The ones who didn’t have a safety net stitched together by fame, legacy, or second chances.
There’s something beautiful about watching Shedeur stand tall, refusing to shrink to fit into old molds, navigating a system that wasn’t designed for his kind of confidence. But something is haunting, too, because many of us know what happens when you don’t have a world-class advocate behind you.
We know what happens when you show up in your fullness, refuse to play small, demand to be seen, and no one powerful is there to explain, defend, or shield you. (Cont. Below)
