By now, everyone knows Tom Brady is a minority owner for the Las Vegas Raiders; someone in the NFL world mentions it every five minutes. Something else about Brady that’s frequently mentioned is his relationship with Shedeur Sanders, the recently drafted quarterback of the Cleveland Browns.
Brady has served as a mentor to Sanders, the youngest son of icon Deion Sanders, sharing his knowledge about the quarterback position on and off the field. The relationship between the two became a huge talking point throughout the pre-draft process and the draft itself.
Leading up to the draft, everyone circled Vegas as a possible landing spot for Sanders. Although the Raiders recently traded for and extended Geno Smith, they’ll eventually need a succession plan for the quarterback who turns 35 in October. On the outside looking in, Sanders made perfect sense as the successor.
Analysts and fans made sure to bring that up every time the Raiders had a chance to grab him in the draft. They ended up having more chances than anyone expected, as Sanders ultimately fell to the fifth round, being selected by Cleveland with the 144th pick. Now, everyone is wondering what it says about Sanders that one of his mentors wouldn’t draft him.
However, the truth is that Brady wasn’t as involved in the draft process as everyone thinks— at least during the draft. While the NFL world has convinced itself that Brady is calling all of the shots in Vegas, he apparently wasn’t even with the team throughout the draft.
Hall of Famer Michael Strahan unintentionally revealed that while talking about Sanders going in the fifth round on Good Morning America. When discussing his reaction to the entire Sanders story, Strahan said he was watching the draft with Brady, and the legendary quarterback used his self as an example to emphasize that it doesn’t matter where you’re picked.
Now if Brady was watching the draft with Strahan, he couldn’t have been in the Raiders’ war room calling all the shots like everyone insinuated he was. The former quarterback likely gave the team some input heading into the draft, but was seemingly hands off, allowing everyone to do their job during the three days of the draft.
That should probably put to bed two running narratives. The first: Brady single-handily decided not to draft his mentee Shedeur Sanders, and the second: Brady is calling all of the shots in Vegas. However, everyone knows the truth doesn’t matter when it comes to pushing narratives.