Shedeur Sanders makes big off-the-field move with Nike at Colorado graduation originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Former Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders returned to Boulder on Saturday to march with his fellow CU graduates. Despite almost no reference to continuing his education after making it to the NFL, Sanders graduated from Colorado with a degree in Sociology.
Advertisement
Shedeur Sanders is involved in an important quarterback competition in Cleveland. With four quarterbacks on the current roster, that competition is believed to be between Sanders and Deshaun Watson. If he can win that competition, his career trajectory is in a good place. While his competition counterpart is in more of a ‘last chance’ situation.
That storyline reached viral levels this week when Cleveland reporter Mary Kay Cabot reported that Watson was the frontrunner after only three minicamp practices afforded to only new head coaches. New head coach Todd Monken debunked the report less than 48 hours later.
Monken had previously commented on that minicamp conducted before the 2026 NFL Draft. Claiming that everyone “looked good”. While those comments were not Shedeur-specific, on Saturday from Boulder, fans got to see the physique improvement Sanders has made this offseason.
Shedeur marched at graduation in Nike heat
Sanders returned to Boulder on Saturday. As part of an Instagram post, fans can see Shedeur standing inside gate 14 at Folsom Field surrounded by a sea of graduates. Shedeur is dressed in his graduation gown, student/athlete stole and sporting a new haircut.
Advertisement
What makes Shedeur’s graduation post even more interesting is what was posted before he donned the CU cap and gown. At approximately 10am EST Shedeur posted an image to Instagram that was revealing on three fronts.
First, this image is a homage to the image of his father Deion Sanders, who laid out his San Francisco uniform on the floor in the locker room before that Super Bowl game. This is not the first homage of this type. In 2025 Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter did the same thing with his Heisman suit before the ceremony. A nice, if not predictable, nod to Deion Sanders.
The second big factor of this post is Shedeur’s physique. In the picture, Sanders is seen looking at his cap and gown while seated in Coach Prime’s office, sitting shirtless. The reason that is noteworthy is it reveals a physical transformation that has taken place. Shedeur appears to be almost shredded, as compared to his physique in 2025 and while at Colorado.
Finally, in that image is included the shoes he planned to wear under the gown at the ceremony. Shedeur has often stated that he almost exclusively wears the DT Max 96s (or Diamond Turf 3s-his father’s signature shoe). In this image, he’s only slightly deviating from that claim by wearing the Proto 92; a prototype that Nike never released in 1992.
In the image you can clearly see the Nike Air Diamond Turf Proto 92, but in an unreleased colorway. Bucky (Deion Sanders Jr) revealed this colorway in a Well Off Media video posted in August of 2025. The Proto 92 has released to the public, but only in the Wht/Blk/Red and Blk/Gold/Wht colorways. The unreleased PE (player exclusive) was a unique choice. An exclusive colorway is on brand for the Sanders family.
Advertisement
The colorway chosen was a nice nod to CU history. This colorway is the closest thing Nike has manufactured to the throwback yellow gold and black that debuted in 1959 and was a staple through the Bill McCartney era. An era that even head coach Deion Sanders paid tribute to in August of 2025 vs Georgia Tech.
Shedeur Sanders is a legacy athlete on multiple fronts
The widely accepted meaning of legacy athlete is a student who has ‘familial ties’ to the program. A more streamlined meaning is any student, or athlete follows a similar path as their parent. In the simplest of terms, Shedeur is a legacy because he is a college then pro football player like his father.
Deion Sanders is a Nike Signature athlete, or a player who had his own signature shoe line. While at Colorado, Shedeur often wore Prime edition Diamond Turf 3s. Since before his last game for the Buffaloes, Shedeur was already a part of the Nike family in his own right. During a recent Well Off Media video where the elder Sanders identified family members abusing the Nike connection, Prime made it clear Shedeur is not the problem.
Advertisement
When Deiondra, the eldest Sanders sibling began listing siblings, she got to Shedeur’s name. “It can’t be Shedeur” Deiondra said dismissively. “No, no. He’s got his own…” replied the head coach. Early in 2025, Shedeur was a guest speaker for a Nike event held at the Nike store in Boulder. There Shedeur announced a signature shoe concept in the design phase.
While fans and consumers have yet to see a Shedeur-specific signature shoe, he did debut a PE (player exclusive) in the rookie NFL season. Three pairs of Nike Air DT Max 96s in Browns specific colorways. Wearing modified DT3s is a step in the right direction. However, if Shedeur is to receive his own unique Nike signature shoe line as separate from his father’s line, that would be a first. The first ever Father/Son duo to have a their own signature line in a professional sport.
