I feel like what is causing people to act so shocked about the Shedeur Sanders thing is that it never occurred to them that sports analysis can be just as corrupt as the rest of media. Deion was either outright buying positive press for Shedeur or people were just doing it out of love for Deion. It was the same reason why people were fawning over Deion as a coach when he first started with Colorado despite him finishing 4-8 with most of his wins being narrow and most of his loses being ugly blowouts.
It was obvious to anyone with eyes that Shedeur probably was a mid-round draft prospect at best. His huge ego and no one wanting to deal with the Deion circus is what killed any propping up he was given.
P much. Deion got a lot of eyes on Colorado and Shedeur, but the draft media never took into account that it was largely due to the spectacle of it all. Though I'm convinced Deion has something on Mel Kiper or Jordan Schultz.
This college football dude has some a decent takes on it.
There is a decent consensus that Shedeur ranking was pegged higher by the media than teams. (i.e., More like 2nd-3rd round instead of top 10) The pool of teams open to drafting a potential starting QB was limited and the Sanders family bonked those opportunities with their shenanigans. Teams were skiddish of Shedeur venturing into the NFL without his dad and aren't confident he can be successful without Deion present, of only for the fact he's never had to learn to adapt to an environment without his dad being right there.
Apparently several teams didn't have Shedeur on their draft board, which makes sense. Since Shedeur was effectively fell into backup territory, the pool of teams was restricted to:
- Teams that had Shedeur on their draft board
- Teams that were interested in drafting developmental QB
- Teams that were comfortable with Shedeur as a backup
-Teams that are comfortable with the media that having Shedeur as a backup will bring
How many teams were really left that were open to drafting him after all those layers of considerations? (TBH, I'm really curious where he'd have landed of Haslem didn't interview) It's incredibly hard to force a QB-needy team to NOT take a swing at a risky QB prospect, in the 2nd or 3rd round no less, but he managed to fuck that up in spectacular fashion. While he's a case study for fucking up his entire draft process, it's hard to see a similar scenario happening again any time soon.
I think (hope) they're trying to build a larger fanbase for the league overseas before attempting something like NFL Europe again, maybe as a spring league serving as competition with the UFL.
Maybe this time try to get the ELF involved? Not working with the existing European league is a big part of why the first iteration of NFL Europe failed.
Who knows. The NFL is in a tricky spot because I'm sure they'd love a developmental league beyond college football, but they need to consolidate talent into a single entity.
Assuming neo-NFL Europe resembles old NFL Europe, they'd have to consolidate and integrate talent from somewhere like the UFL along with a local league. The former for talent on par with guys the NFL is sending over and the latter to get local buy-in along with potentially finding hidden gems. There's simply not enough talent to sustain multiple professional football leagus, or else the product on the field for all of them is atrocious.
The NFL REALLY needs to commit to an "NFL-approved" farming system before they intend to plant a development league anywhere though. The market is clearly there because spring leagues seem to pop up and disappear, sometimes without playing a game, yearly, at least until the UFL seemed to have sorted itself out. I think a big part of that is the football programs need time to actually develop as organizations so the product they put on the field isn't absolute dogshit.
At least, I hope that's what they're doing, because the Seahawks are lucky if they're awake by the 3rd quarter playing games over there, especially in Germany. Really, if we're going to approach actual league expansion in a way that makes logistical sense, keep having Brazil games. North-South is way more feasible than East-West. Mexico City and Guadalajara could probably already sustain a team in terms of local support, it's a pity the peso is dogshit compared to the dollar.
Oh God. Yea. I mean the NFL's first target is whichever market provides the best opportunity for expand. North/South America is WAY easier on the logistical side of things, but their efforts have definitely favored Europe. I'm not sure what their true intent is because they have the mid-season Europe stretch, the occasional South America game, and now, the yearly international season opener. Last year was Brazil. This year Australia apparently. My best guess is they're deadset on starting international expansion in Europe, but putting feelers out (via the season opener) for wherever's
But you're absolutely right on the difference between game time and viewing between places like Germany and PST. It's somewhat bearable as a short-term solution to roll with how it is now, but the league is gonna have to tinker around with scheduling so west coast fans aren't watching a game at 7 AM without alienating the local team's fan