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How do you think it might have felt being named Jack Nicklaus, Jr.?
Jack Nicklaus, Jr. (who goes by the name Jackie) was born in 1961 and is the first son of the greatest golfer of all time.
His father, Jack Nicklaus, dominated professional golf for the first 25 years of young Jackie Nicklaus’ life.
Can you imagine how many times per day the young blond-haired Jack Nicklaus, Jr. was asked if he played golf just like his Dad? He was proud of his famous father, but young Jackie Nicklaus was placed under a golf microscope whether he wanted it or not.
Jackie Nicklaus became good enough at golf to earn a scholarship to play for the University of North Carolina. He also tried his hand at professional golf – just like his famous father.
After working through the qualifying tours, Jack Nicklaus, Jr. eventually reached the PGA Tour. He then missed an incredible 24 straight cuts on the same professional golf tour which his father once dominated.
The younger Nicklaus never earned a dime playing professional golf on the world’s biggest tour.
Jackie Nicklaus opted to change careers and became a very successful golf course designer for his father’s company, Nicklaus Design.
What does this have to do with Deion Sanders?
How do you think it might feel being a son of NFL Hall-of-Famer Deion Sanders?
Deion Sanders was a college phenom at Florida State.
Sanders excelled as a defensive back for the Seminoles football team, played center field for the baseball team, and even ran on the 4 x 100 relay team during Florida State’s track season.
Deion Sanders then played professional baseball and pro football – at the same time!
He was drafted by baseball’s New York Yankees and the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons in 1989.
Sanders’ professional football and baseball contracts allowed him to play both sports during the same calendar year.
He would start playing baseball in the spring, leave for the NFL during early August, and return to play baseball in late September if his team qualified for the playoffs.
Deion picked up the nickname “Prime Time” by a high school basketball teammate after Sanders scored 37 points during a road victory.
While still playing professional sports, Deion Sanders’ interest in rap music led him to release a 1994 album titled (what else) “Prime Time”.
His over-the-top level of personal confidence and penchant for wearing flashy jewelry in college and professional sports helped to create a persona which sports fans learned to either love or loathe.
Like father, like sons?
Deion Sanders retired from the NFL in 2001. He worked as a television analyst for CBS Sports and the NFL Network.
After his pro sports career ended, Sanders was able to spend more time helping to raise five children (two daughters and three sons) from his two marriages.
His first son (born from marriage #1) is named Deion Sanders, Jr.
Deion, Jr. played football well enough to land a scholarship at SMU in Dallas.
The young man eventually moved into fashion design after college and has produced a few rap albums, too.
Daddy Deion’s second marriage produced two more sons – Shilo and Shedeur Sanders.
Their high profile father became an assistant coach for his two sons’ high school football team in suburban Dallas.
Having a world-famous father named Deion Sanders coaching your high school football team brought a lot of attention to Shilo (a defensive back like his father) and Shedeur (a quarterback).
Shilo played well enough to earn a football scholarship to the University of South Carolina.
His younger brother, Shedeur, developed into a top rated high school quarterback.
Deion Sanders interviewed for and was hired as the new head football coach at Jackson State University in 2020. Both sons (Shedeur and Shilo) came along as a package deal beginning in 2021.
The Deion Sanders-led Jackson State Tigers won 11 games in 2021 and established a school record with 12 victories in 2022.
Coach Deion Sanders surprised the college football world by accepting the top football job at the University of Colorado beginning in 2023.
Of course, his two talented sons transferred to CU to play for their famous father for their final two years of college eligibility.
The NCAA’s Name, Image, and Likeness rules allowed both Shilo and Shedeur to financially benefit from living in the incredible media spotlight at the University of Colorado.
Quarterback Shedeur Sanders’ NIL endorsement value was estimated at more than $5 million by the end of his first year with the Buffaloes.
To put that in perspective, the young quarterback’s net worth was higher than the 2024 NFL salary for a middle-of-the-first round draft choice.
The Colorado Buffaloes improved from 1-13 two years ago to a sterling 9-4 record and a college bowl game last season after just two years in Boulder.
Coach Deion Sanders was rewarded with a 5-year $54 million contract extension signed a few months ago.
The Sanders’ family balloon bursts at last weekend’s 2025 NFL draft
Quarterback Shedeur Sanders’ ego grew exponentially after his increasing media fame at both Jackson State and Colorado.
Playing football for your famous father both in high school and college made him one of the rarest players on the planet.
Shedeur Sanders has been coached using the same offensive scheme in high school and through all four years of college. NFL teams likely had concerns about young Sanders’ ability to successfully adapt to a different type of offensive system.
Some pro football scouts think Shedeur’s success as a quarterback at Colorado had been greatly assisted by having the Heisman Trophy winning (and 2nd overall NFL draft selection) Travis Hunter as the team’s primary wide receiver.
The media hype about Colorado’s turnaround story drove the Sanders’ family narrative, too. The team was prominently featured in numerous nationally televised games in both 2023 and 2024.
The television ratings for those games were winners, too.
Coach Deion Sanders’ wide open offense allowed quarterback Shedeur Sanders to improvise quite a bit.
He made a number of spectacular downfield throws to speedy Travis Hunter over the past two seasons.
Colorado’s 9-4 record in 2024 should also be attributed to a significant improvement in the Buffs’ defense, too.
All the while, quarterback Shedeur Sanders was being talked-up by his father/coach as a top NFL quarterback prospect worthy of being an early first round draft pick in 2025.
Shedeur Sanders posted a terrific 2024 season at Colorado and was named the Big 12 Conference offensive player of the year. Those post-season accolades may have served to further inflate the young quarterback’s ego leading into this spring’s NFL draft.
The young NIL marketer started his own “Legendary” brand featuring Shedeur’s personal logo – a large dollar sign to the 2nd power (his football jersey number was #2).
Shedeur Sanders feels “special” and wasn’t shy letting NFL folks know about his own perceived worth.
Unsurprisingly, several NFL teams said that Shedeur Sanders performed very poorly during interviews conducted in the weeks leading up to last weekend’s draft.
The general consensus was that Sanders’ massive ego along with his overbearing father would quickly become a locker room concern for the NFL team which selected him/them.
Shedeur Sanders fell into the 5th round of the NFL draft on Saturday
ESPN’s long-time draft analyst Mel Kiper, Jr. (who never played college football) touted Shedeur Sanders as a very likely first round selection. With 32 NFL teams selecting in each round, 143 selections were made before Shedeur Sanders’ name was called by the Cleveland Browns as #144 during the fifth round on Saturday.
In the 3rd round of this same draft, Cleveland had already selected University of Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel.
Sanders had just become the fifth quarterback on the Cleveland Browns roster. Most NFL teams only carry three quarterbacks into the regular season.
Cleveland Browns General Manager Andrew Berry said that selecting a second quarterback in the fifth round of the draft was primarily motivated by Shedeur Sanders’ falling price tag.
“Once it got to the point where it felt like it was a pretty steep discount, we just felt like this made the most sense”, said Berry over the weekend.
Mel Kiper literally melted down on the ESPN set Saturday afternoon after Shedeur Sanders became the 144th overall selection in the 2025 NFL draft.
The four commentators went back and forth for nearly 15 minutes as Kiper was flabbergasted that Shedeur Sanders had been passed by all 32 NFL teams in the four preceding rounds.
The draft demotion to the fifth round will cost Shedeur Sanders millions of dollars, too. Last season, NFL fifth round picks earned an average signing bonus of $360,000 with a total four-year compensation valued at $4.2 million.
Remember, Shedeur Sanders earned more as a college football player at Colorado with his massive NIL deals. Sanders cannot return to college football after exhausting his fourth year of eligibility last season.
Let’s assume that Shedeur Sanders does become a quality NFL starter during his initial four-year contract. He could still earn hundreds of millions during his next two NFL contracts.
What happened to his brother, Shilo Sanders?
Older brother Shilo Sanders was not selected during this weekend’s NFL seven round draft.
Interestingly, Shilo dumped his father Deion Sanders as his primary representative and hired highly regarded NFL agent Drew Rosenhaus to help him find a pro football job.
The defensive back was quickly signed to a free agent contract by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with a guarantee of $50,000 whether he makes the team or not.
Any player who makes the final NFL roster in early September will earn no less than the NFL’s 2025 minimum pay of $840,000.
Is it fair to compare the Sanders’ family situation to the family of Archie Manning?
No.
Former New Orleans Saints quarterback Archie Manning was never as talented or famous as Deion Sanders.
He spent much of his pro football career running for his life behind a horrible Saints’ offensive line during the early years of the Crescent City’s expansion NFL franchise.
Archie Manning never coached his two famous quarterback sons (Peyton and Eli) in high school or college. Papa Manning was not voted into the NFL Hall-of-Fame, either.
Peyton Manning went to college at the University of Tennessee. His younger brother, Eli, followed in Dad’s footsteps at Ole Miss.
After Peyton Manning was selected #1 overall in the 1998 NFL draft to Indianapolis, brother Eli’s turn arrived six years later in 2004.
The San Diego Chargers drafted Eli Manning with the #1 overall pick (though he was quickly traded to the New York Giants – at his request – days later).
Peyton Manning won two Super Bowl games and was elected to the NFL Hall-of-Fame. Eli also won two Super Bowl games but failed to make the Hall-of-Fame Class of 2025 during his first year of eligibility.
Neither of Deion Sanders’ youngest two sons were drafted #1 overall this year. One or both of those young men may go on to have a very successful and profitable professional football career.
We must wait for a few decades to see whether quarterback Shedeur Sanders or defensive back Shilo Sanders will perform well enough to receive a nomination to become part of a future NFL Hall-of-Fame class and join their famous father.
The messy outcome of this weekend’s NFL Draft should serve as an exceptional teaching moment for some overly-proud fathers and their talented sons.