Shannon Sharpe and Chad Johnson went off on the Cleveland Browns’ head coach, Kevin Stefanski, for not giving Shedeur Sanders the game ball after his first career win as a starting quarterback in the NFL>
The two cohosts of the Nightcap podcast spoke about the situation after Miles Garrett received the game ball over Sanders.
“So hold on. A guy making his first start. A guy that you didn’t really want to start. A guy you didn’t want in your organization. And that’s all he get. ‘Great job, Shadeur.’ He don’t get no game ball?” argued Sharpe (around the 8:54 mark of the video below) after watching a video of coach Stefanski congratulating Garrett.
“They don’t want him to succeed, you know that,” claimed Ochocinco.
Sharpe responded by agreeing with his cohost. “We know what the play is,” said Sharpe. “The writing is on the wall. When the owner came out and said what he said about this not being my pick…we know what it is.”
“The odds are stacked against you,” added Sharpe. “When the opportunity presents itself, he has to go out there and do what he did.”
As if he couldn’t believe that Sanders didn’t receive the ball, Sharpe doubled down on why the young quarterback’s performance deserved the keepsake. “This is the guy that got no snaps with the guys that he got to play with today until Wednesday,” said Sharpe. “And, he does this on the road in a hostile environment. And all you got for him is that.”
Sanders showed out for his start against the Browns. He threw for 11 completions out of 20 attempts, 209 passing yards, one touchdown, one interception, and a QB rating of 87.3.
After the game, Sanders spoke to reporters about his performance. "Being a backup and everything, sometimes you have to compromise your personality and change the way you do things, to never step on anybody's toes," Sanders said. "The fact that I got an opportunity, and I was able to show the organization, show everybody who I really am, it's truly exciting.
"A lot of people wanted to see me fail, and it ain't going to happen," Sanders added. "It ain't going to happen."