The relationship between former Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders and seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Tom Brady has been well documented. Going back to Shedeur’s early college days at Jackson State University, the two developed a mentor/mentee bond, and Brady was also one of the first to give Shedeur an NIL deal with his BRADY brand.
Their relationship, while still in good standing, is different, as Tom Brady is now the minority owner for the Las Vegas Raiders, a team Sanders was commonly linked to before the 2025 NFL Draft, in part due to the notable relationship with Brady. Despite the connection, the Raiders passed on Sanders multiple times as Shedeur fell far past his first-round projections to the fifth round, where he was eventually selected by the Cleveland Browns with the 144th pick.
One of the most emphasized media narratives during Sanders decent was that if Brady, who seemingly knew Shedeur better than anyone at the NFL level, passed on him multiple times, why would any other team take a chance on the polarizing young quarterback? To that, Brady finally responded on a major podcast, dispelling those narratives emphatically while chastising the media for their portrayal.
“I wasn’t a part of any evaluation process. … That’s the problem with media is everyone can just say whatever the f— they want and get away with it,” Tom Brady said on the Impaulsive Podcast.
“I actually texted Shedeur because I know him very well,” Brady said. “I said, dude, whatever happens, wherever you go, that’s your first day. Day 2 matters more than the draft. I was 199. So who could speak on it better than me, what that really means? Use it as motivation. You’re going to get your chances. Go take advantage of it.”
While there’s nothing that can be said from anyone, no matter how great, that could ease the pain and frustration from being a first-round lock to becoming a fifth-round pick, it’s the right advice. Sanders now has the opportunity to prove himself, away from his father, and win a job in the NFL. In a sense, Sanders has gone from what some would call a coddled, arrogant player to an underdog overnight. It’s quite the shift, but one Sanders is built to handle.
Shedeur has already been in Cleveland for nearly a week and has hit the ground running with his training in preparation for rookie minicamp, which begins shortly. Sanders has also begun to entrench himself in the community, visiting a local school, speaking to the young students, and signing autographs. In place of the outside noise, Sanders is doing what he’s always done: putting in the work. It’s a trait Brady noticed in Shedeur years ago.
"Naturally, he's very proactive," Tom Brady said of Sanders in 2023. "We had a conversation and then phone calls and then text messages, and then him making the commitment to say, 'Hey, this is what I want to do, I'm really serious about it.' A lot it is you want to see what their intention is too because when you see someone that's really open to learning and has this thirst for knowledge, you want to be able to support that."
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