“He’ll Have Something to Fall Back On”: NFL World Reacts as Shedeur Sanders Releases New Music Video

Alex Murray | 13/02/2025
Shedeur Sanders on the red carpet before Super Bowl LIX NFL Honors at Saenger Theatre.

Shedeur Sanders is a pretty good football player. In 2024, he led the Colorado Buffaloes to their best record and just their second bowl game since 2016. He was also named the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year and is a shoo-in to be a top-five pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. However, he’s no one-trick pony. Like many of his peers, Sanders has tried his hand in the music business, and he might find more success than most other athlete-rappers.

Clearly, Sanders has been doing a lot more than preparing for the Scouting Combine and/or his own personal pro day. He’s been in the studio as well. On Wednesday, Sanders released his latest music video for his new song, “Life”.

The song continued the musical style Sanders has displayed in previous releases. He’s clearly been impacted and influenced by this most recent era of hip hop, as he’s decided to go with the mumbling, auto-tune heavy sound of guys like Young Thug and Future. In fact, the gibberish he speaks in the opening to “Life” could’ve easily been mistaken for Future’s patented mumble.

Shedeur is once again following in the footsteps of his father, Deion Sanders, who released an entire rap album, “Prime Time”, in December 1994, mere weeks before he’d win Defensive Player of the Year as well as Super Bowl XXIX. Unfortunately, the 16-track album was universally panned by critics. Coach Prime‘s second album, “The Encore Remix”, released in 2004, featured remixes of every song on “Prime Time”, but was once again not well-received.

The reception for Shedeur’s new song has been somewhat polarizing, but it seems as though he definitely has a better handle on the music pulse of his day than his father did in his. No doubt, it must feel good for Shedeur to know there’s finally something he can do better than Pop. However, as always, there was plenty of hate from the anti-Sanders crowd, but there was also a lot of support.

“He’ll have something to fall back on when he’s done with football in 4 years,” quipped one netizen, referencing former Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell, a first-round pick who played just three seasons in the league. “JaMarcus Russell should have been a rapper.”

“Life” is the second release of Shedeur Sanders’ burgeoning music career. Back in September 2024, he released his debut single, “Perfect Timing”, which came with a much more minimalist sound than his latest track. During Sanders’ big 2024 campaign, the home stadium in Boulder would play “Perfect Timing” every time the QB scored.

Now that he’s got his music career on track, Sanders can shift focus back to Combine and draft prep. And he should be looking to make a splash prior to the 2025 NFL Draft, because he has been slipping down the board for a few weeks now. While previously expected to go No. 1 overall, Sanders is now in the 5-10 pick range on most mock drafts.

Post Edited By: Samnur Reza
Shedeur Sanders

About the author

Alex Murray

Alex Murray

Alex Murray has been active in the sport media industry since his graduation from the prestigious RTA School of Media at TMU (formerly Ryerson University) in downtown Toronto. He has had a specific focus and interest on all things football and NFL, which stems from his father, who imbued him with a love of football and the NFL over all other sports at a young age. Alex even played football up until his freshman year of college, when he realized that he would find more success writing about rather than playing the sport. Alex has written for a variety of sports media outlets, including theScore, FanSided, FantasyPros, GiveMeSport, and more.

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