Shedeur Sanders Gives Very Wrong Take About Texas High School QBs, Claims He Beat The Odds

Everyone loves a good underdog story. And few are more inspiring than that of Shedeur Sanders.

The youngest son of an NFL Hall of Famer (who happened to be one of the greatest athletes of his generation) emerges from the lowly confines of his Texas private school and, miraculously, becomes the second-highest-paid collegiate athlete in the entire country — as the starting quarterback for a Power-5 school coached by his dad.

"I've always been against the odds," he said.

I was, of course, being facetious. Shedeur was not.

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This comment came from a press conference last week when the Colorado QB claimed that — as the product of a small private school — his path to college football stardom was much more difficult than his counterparts who went to 5A and 6A Texas high schools.

"All those other kids… went to big Texas 6A schools and stuff," he said. "I don't see those same kids around. I don't see them excelling in their programs."

Wait. Back up. Shedeur, you really don't see any kids from the Lonestar State excelling in their programs? Texas is a high school football powerhouse. So much so, they made a movie and a whole TV series about it. Two of the four quarterbacks in this year's College Football Playoff (Quinn Ewers and Jalen Milroe) went to Texas 6A high schools. And, like Shedeur, they're both Class of 2021.

And if we look outside of his graduating class, big Texas high schools can take credit for Jalen Hurts, Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, Matt Stafford and Patrick Mahomes. And we'd be here all day listing the non-quarterbacks.

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But we'll put aside the fact that his quip on big-school players is entirely wrong. Let's focus instead on the part where he had to scratch and claw his way up from his tiny private school.

The Shedeur Sanders Adversity Narrative Is Exhausting 

This press conference is not the first time Shedeur has fed us this "against all odds," "so much adversity" nonsense.

The 22-year-old says he's had to deal with a lot of "hate and negativity" since rocketing to college football stardom. There are bitter people out there who don't want him to succeed just because of his last name.

And I'll give him that. Those people do exist.

But all athletes who have ever played at a high level — especially star quarterbacks — have their fair share of haters. They all face adversity. They all have to prove themselves.

The difference is most of them don't have a multi-millionaire father who can provide them with all the connections and every resource possible to excel at the collegiate and, ultimately, the pro level. Hell, we're still more than a year away from Shedeur Sanders entering the 2025 draft, and his dad is already talking about hand-picking his NFL team for him.

I am not saying Shedeur hasn't worked his ass off to be good at football. He's earned his spot as a starting QB. But to pretend he wasn't handed every tool he needed to get to that point — that he doesn't have a tremendous advantage over his peers — is pure foolishness.

Just own it, kid. You don't have to convince us of your humble, underdog beginnings. You hit the genetic lottery, and that's OK.