(NEW YORK) — A football fan is suing the NFL for $100 million, claiming the league worked together to prevent quarterback Shedeur Sanders from being picked early in this year’s draft, according to court documents obtained by ABC News.
The lawsuit was filed last week in Atlanta by someone identified only as “John Doe,” who says he’s a big fan of Sanders from his time playing college football at Colorado.
Sanders was widely expected to be one of the first players chosen in the 2025 NFL draft. ESPN draft expert Mel Kiper ranked him as the second best quarterback available and predicted he would be picked in the top five.
Sanders’ completion percentage for the 2024 college football season was 74%. He completed 353 of 477 passes, which led college football and helped the Colorado Buffaloes to their first nine-win season since 2014.
However, Sanders wasn’t picked until the fifth round by the Cleveland Browns. The Browns passed on Sanders six different times and even chose another quarterback, Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel, in the third round. Kiper had ranked Gabriel as only the eighth-best quarterback in the draft.
Sanders’ unexpected drop became the biggest story of draft weekend. The drama led to record TV ratings for the draft’s final day, while the average of 7.5 million viewers per day made it the second-most watched draft ever, according to ESPN.
“The NFL’s actions and the spread of harmful statements about Sanders have caused me severe emotional distress and trauma,” the fan claims in the lawsuit.
According to court documents, Doe lives in Georgia and is a “dedicated fan of Colorado football” who attended the Colorado vs. TCU football game in 2023. That was the debut of Sanders after he transferred from Jackson State University. The Buffaloes won 45-42, with Sanders throwing for 510 yards and four touchdowns.
The lawsuit claims that reports about Sanders’ interviews with NFL teams “unfairly hurt his reputation and chances as a player.”
The lawsuit accuses the NFL of breaking three different laws. First, it claims NFL teams worked together to push Sanders to a later round, which would violate the Sherman Antitrust Act.
The suit also suggests racial discrimination might have played a role in Sanders’ draft position, which would violate the Civil Rights Act. Finally, it claims the NFL misled fans about how the draft process works and how players are evaluated, which would violate consumer protection laws.
The case was filed in federal court in Atlanta. The NFL has not yet commented on the lawsuit.
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