Shilo Sanders is a man without an NFL team, for a very well-known reason at this point. His father Deion Sanders thinks he's going to be just fine.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, the Colorado head coach said he was "praying" that another team will pick up Shilo in the wake of his waiver by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, adding that the 25-year-old will be fine either way:
"I'm proud of my kids, all of them. I prepared my kids for any and everything that could possibly happen in life and in sports. That's part of fathering, that's part of parenting, that's part of having a relationship. So, he is mentally where he needs to be, physically where he needs to be.
"We're praying that he gets another opportunity to go with a team. But if he doesn't, the plans have already been put forward to what he's going to do next. Shilo's a man of many talents and he's going to be straight. All of the Sanders are going to be straight, with or without football. You better believe that."
The younger Sanders made the bad kind of headlines on Saturday when he was ejected from the Bucs' preseason finale for taking a swing at Buffalo Bills tight end Zach Davidson. Davidson had been blocking Sanders through the end of the play, which led to Sanders winding up and smacking his opponent in the helmet.
Sanders entered the game already on the Tampa Bay roster bubble after going unselected in the 2025 NFL Draft. A spot on the team's 53-man roster appeared to be a long shot given that his fall out of the draft wasn't exactly a surprise — at least compared to his brother Shedeur's fifth-round selection — but Sanders' ejection likely made the decision easy.
Buccaneers head coach Toddy Bowles was frank about his thoughts on the incident after the game:
"You can't throw punches in this league. I mean, that's inexcusable. They're gonna get you every time. Gotta grow from that."
Sanders will now have to do that growth with a different team, unless Tampa Bay signs him to its practice squad. With Sanders on waivers, any NFL team can put in a claim for him until Wednesday afternoon. If he goes unclaimed, he will be a free agent and will likely need to join a team's practice squad to remain in the league.
This is all happening with the 25-year-old in a unique financial position, as he's still going through a personal bankruptcy case in the wake of an $11 million legal judgement. Sanders filed for bankruptcy in 2023 in an attempt to erase a debt he owes to a former security guard he was accused of attacking in high school, who took him to court and won via a default judgement. It remains to be seen whether he will be forced to pay out that eight-figure sum.
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