/>iA football fan identifying himself as John Doe of Lawrenceville, GA has sued the NFL for $100MM because of Shedeur Sanders’ draft slide. Yes, this is preposterous. But then again its kind of interesting from a legal perspective.
The media is covering this story at large yet they have not provided a copy of the Complaint so I figured I would.
The meat of the charging allegations are:
Plaintiff is a dedicated fan of Colorado football and has closely followed Shedeur Sanders throughout the 2023 and 2024 seasons.
Plaintiff attended the Colorado Buffaloes’ first game against the TCU Homed Frogs on September 2, 2023, witnessing firsthand Sanders’ exceptional talent and potential as a quarterback in Coach Deion Sanders’ debut with the program.
Plaintiff regularly consumes media content related to Shedeur Sanders, including programming from Well Off Media.
Despite Sanders’ demonstrated skills and significant attention during the 2023 and 2024 seasons, the NFL drafted him at the 144th pick during the 2025 NFL Draft.
Among the alleged causes of action is a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act (15 U.S.C. §§ 1-7), which I find particularly interesting.
The NFL may be viewed as a monopoly of sorts and the Sherman Antitrust Act generally does prohibit agreements or conspiracies that unreasonably restrain interstate trade. So the claim an alleged “collusion among NFL teams to influence the drafting process and the subsequent low selection of Shedeur Sanders constitutes a conspiracy to restrain trade and limit competition within the league” is not completely insane.
Still the Plaintiff’s effort to recover $100,000,000.00 “for the harm caused to the Plaintiff and the impact of the NFL’s actions on his emotional well-being” is certainly outlandish, but enjoyably so.
Full complaint here: NFL Complaint
