Shedeur Sanders explains why he doesn't want his father Deion to visit him at Browns camp
But just in case he wanted to find time to see his son Shedeur at Cleveland Browns camp, Shedeur Sanders would nix that idea.
Talking to the media at Browns camp on Monday, Shedeur Sanders said he doesn't want his dad to come see him yet. He had a couple good reasons.
First, Shedeur Sanders is still just a late-round rookie draft pick who is practically buried on the Browns depth chart early in camp. He's focused on working his way up the pecking order.
Second, he knows what would happen if his celebrity father showed up at practice.
Shedeur Sanders focused on moving up depth chart
Shedeur Sanders explained that he'd rather work on moving up the depth chart before seeing Deion Sanders come watch him practice.
Shedeur Sanders famously fell to the fifth round of the draft and he's still working with the backups even though Kenny Pickett has been out with a hamstring injury. Joe Flacco is the projected starter and fellow rookie quarterback Dillon Gabriel was drafted two rounds ahead of Sanders. Like any rookie who isn't high on the depth chart, practice reps aren't plentiful as the team gets ready for Week 1.
"I don't want him coming to see me right now because I want to get to where I want to go, then for him to see me," Shedeur Sanders told reporters, via Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com. "I don't want him to see me get a couple reps and he's cheering like a good dad like, nah, you can't be proud of me right now. I've got to get to where I'm going and I know it's a lot I've got to do to get there."
He also wants to do that work without the circus that would come from Deion Sanders showing up to watch his son.
'A gift and a curse'
Shedeur Sanders is unlike most rookies, and definitely unlike any other fifth-round rookie. Through the offseason Sanders has gotten more attention than practically any of the 143 players taken before him. That's unusual.
Part of that is his draft fall, another part is how he has been a big name through his college career and a factor in that was that his father is one of the best known figures in sports. Deion Sanders was an all-time NFL great and his charisma and bravado has made him one of the most talked-about coaches in college football.
Shedeur Sanders can't just blend in as a fifth-round rookie trying to move up the depth chart. Everything he does is dissected. It wouldn't get easier if Deion Sanders was watching practice from the sideline, and Shedeur Sanders is self-aware enough to know that.
"I just want everything I'm doing to focus on this time and I don't want no distractions," Sanders said. "Because we know how the media, we know how everybody would take it and take away from the team, just from him being my dad showing up.
"It's a gift and a curse at the same time."
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