The Draft Slide of Shedeur Sanders: An Exercise in Framing Theory

DOCTOR OF PAPER DISCLOSURE: I have to put this here or I’ll never hear the end of this from people who know me. Here is the baggage I bring with me to this post:

• I am a decades-long Browns fan. I have seen more terrible football than I can accurately describe.
• The Browns quarterbacking situation has always been a disaster and I’ve literally hated everything they’ve ever done with it since they cut Bernie Kosar in 1993. In some cases, I’ve been right as rain (Deshaun Watson, Johnny Manziel, Brandon Weeden, Brady Quinn… How long do we have for this?) while in other cases I was dead wrong (Baker Mayfield; I hated that pick but came to love the guy. Then I hated it when they let him go.)
• I’m keeping my opinions to myself about Shedeur Sanders and Cleveland picking him for now, as to not ruin the point of the post, but if we had to say anything was “framing” my opinion, it would be the “I wish my Browns didn’t ruin everything they touch and make every bad decision about every player” frame.

 

THE LEAD: Shedeur Sanders, starting quarterback for Colorado and son of NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, was selected in the fifth round of the NFL Draft this weekend by the Cleveland Browns. Sanders had been projected in numerous mock drafts to be a first-round selection by a QB-hungry team, but fell to pick 144, where the Browns actually traded up to get him.

The slide of Sanders was a major spectacle in the draft, but the reason we’re talking about him here is more about WHY people THINK he ended up as a Day 3 instead of a Day 1 pick.

FACTS ABOUT SHEDEUR SANDERS: For all the discussion about Sanders, here is a list of actual facts about him:

(I have to say “actual facts” here, even though it’s redundant, as so many of the commentators this weekend were screaming opinions and calling them “facts.” The louder you say something doesn’t make it any more true…)

• He is the son of Deion Sanders, an NFL Hall of Famer and Shedeur’s primary coach throughout college.
• He weighs in at 6-foot-2, 215 pounds
• He was a senior at Colorado, where he played for two seasons, an FBS school (a.k.a. Division I). Before this, he played for two seasons at Jackson State University, a FCS school (formerly known as Division II)
• At Colorado, he amassed a 13-12 record, going 4-7 in 2023 and 9-4 in 2024. In 2024, the Buffaloes went to the Alamo Bowl, where they lost 36-14 to BYU.
• He received the following accolades in 2024: Second-team Associated Press All-American. Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year. First-team All-Big 12. Finalist for the Davey O’Brien Award (nation’s top QB).
• In 2024 he also set a school record with 64 career passing TDs and led the FBS by completing a school-record 74 percent of his 477 passes. He ranked second in the FBS with 353 completions and school-record 37 passing TDs (10 INTs) and was fourth with school-record 4,134 passing yards.

This is as close as we can get to a set of facts that will set the stage for how this went from a simple draft story to an epic exercise in framing theory;

FRAMING THEORY 101: Framing is a concept first championed by Erving Goffman in the 1970s that looks at not just what a story is but how it is presented and what influence that has on how the audience comes to understand it:

In essence, framing theory suggests that how something is presented to the audience (called “the frame”) influences the choices people make about how to process that information. Frames are abstractions that work to organize or structure message meaning. The most common use of frames is in terms of the frame the news or media place on the information they convey. They are thought to influence the perception of the news by the audience

Here’s a simple example: The owner of some land in the city of Springfield wants to build a complex of condominiums on that land and is petitioning the city council for the permission to do so.

We could frame this story in a number of ways:

• Government bureaucracy frame: How long does it take to get stuff done around here and why should someone have to get approval to do something with land they own?
• Growth frame: The city is clearly in good shape in terms of its financial and population if we need more places for people to live.
• Social inequity frame: Instead of building pricey condos that X percentage of the population can’t afford, why isn’t the city trying to push builders to create low-income housing that would better meet the needs of so many more people?
• Environmental frame: This is yet one more project that turns green space into concrete, which will have significant ecological impacts on this area.

There are a ton of others, but this gives you a basic idea of an array of topics.

FRAMING SHEDEUR SANDERS: In looking at the Shedeur Sanders situation, the frames varied widely. The terms I use for each frame below is just a general “vibe” and not an official title for the frames, so worry less about that and look more at the explanation:

• RACISM FRAME: One of the prominent areas of discussion was the issue of race and how Sanders was unwilling to “code switch.” That term, used in this case by former NFL player Emmanuel Acho in his analysis, meant he was basically a proud, young, Black man who spoke his mind and was unwilling to change who he was to appease the predominantly white ownership/management of the NFL. Thus, the NFL was trying to not only smack Sanders, but also “teach others a lesson” about how the league expects its Black players to “behave.”
• DADDY ISSUES FRAME: Deion Sanders has long been a vocal individual in public. (That’s probably the most neutral way I can say that.) His “Prime Time” persona was an invention of his that amplified his presence well before social media even became a thing. When it came to his son, Deion was just as vocal about everything from hinting that certain teams shouldn’t draft his son to calling out the Browns before they drafted Shedeur. This frame suggests that teams didn’t want to deal with Deion and his vocal nature.
• ARROGANCE FRAME: This is one of the flip sides of the “racism” coin that can go around and around and around until we’re dizzy. In this frame, teams passed on him because he was a “me, me, me” guy with a self-aggrandizing temperament that really didn’t sit well in a team sport. What some people saw as remaining true to one’s self, other people saw as cocky and overhyped.
• NUMBERS FRAME: For every number that showcases significant value in Sanders, someone else can offer numbers that showcase significant weakness. His completion percentage was mindboggling, but he was barely a .500 QB. He led Colorado to a bowl game two years after the team only won one game, but they got crushed by BYU. This one goes either way.

You can go into a TON of other frames as well, and even flip most of these frames on their heads. That’s the goal of today’s exercise.

EXERCISE TIME: Do a search of the Shedeur Sanders post-draft coverage and see what frames you see as showing up most prominently and most frequently. What do you think this says about the overall view of the media and how accurate do you personally feel those predominant frames are.

ALSO:

Pick any story, column, social media tirade, blog post, vlog post, whatever your professor will allow and analyze it for a specific frame in how the draft slide of Shedeur Sanders is being presented. How much do you agree or disagree with this frame and can you counter the argument in a meaningful way, relying on facts and sources to support your point?  (You could even pick out something you know you’re going to disagree with and then work hard on that end.)