Colorado football head coach Deion Sanders called out NFL franchises for intentionally sabotaging prospects' draft stocks during an appearance on the Front Office Sports Today podcast, claiming their actions are far worse than a player who refuses to sign with a team since it affects a man's livelihood to do so.
"You have guys that are slated to go and slot it to go at this number pick," Sanders said (h/t Bleacher Report). "Randomly, something comes out that they flunked their drug tests, or they have this type of injury, or they were seen with this and wildly, their draft grade drops later in the round, or even the next round. How does that happen? How does that mysteriously come out right before the draft?
"That's even more harsh , because now you're affecting someone's livelihood, and you're putting a tremendous rumor on somebody that may not even be true. So that's done every year. The reason I know is that I worked the draft for about 10 to 12 years straight. I know that to be true."
Colorado football head coach Deion Sanders aiming to maximize player empowerment in the NFL
It's hard not to notice Sanders' efforts to emphasize player empowerment in recent months given his draft demands for his sons, Shilo and Shedeur Sanders, and Travis Hunter to play for only Coach Prime-approved NFL franchises.
With this latest shot at NFL teams for manipulating draft positions, Sanders is putting all the pressure on the league to better the situations of its players; who oftentimes are traumatized physically from the sport and only recently got proper post-playing days care from the league.
It's laudable in many ways. Sanders got almost everything one can get from the NFL, but he's still on the side of players being in the right cities to thrive and for teams to have far less control over their careers.
Guess that's what makes Sanders such a good fit coaching in college and not a league that'd have a field day fining him over his judgements of it.