The irony of Shedeur Sanders missing out on $37 million-plus from potentially going No. 1 to slipping out of the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft, is his entire brand is based on money.
Instead of going the traditional route with only established brands, which the son of Deion (the original money man who has 18 trademarks himself) was never going to do, Shedeur’s newly trademarked merchandise line, 2Legendary, features his logo, which is a dollar sign to the power of two.
The “2” stands for his jersey number, his double "S" initials, but also a nod to his father’s legacy.
At his draft party, Shedeur wore a blinged-out chain, which had that logo. It’s the second coming of the original necklace, though in gold, that his father wore on his draft night.
Deion Sanders signed a four-year deal with the Atlanta Falcons, which became worth $6.5 million in total. That’s nearly $17 million in today’s dollars.
The most Shedeur can make, even if he were to become the first pick of the second round Friday, is around $12 million.
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At Sanders' draft party Thursday night, the NFL — which usually insists on no home branding — surprisingly allowed Sanders to have a photo booth/interview area and a hat rack with “Legendary” on it.
The question is, will Sanders return to that same room again Friday? And is there any path to the money logo making sense for his brand now that he has arguably missed out on more cash than any draft pick in recent memory?
Sales couldn’t have been too brisk on 2Legendary’s website, which offered two T-shirts and a hoodie ranging from $75 to $100.
One major issue for Sanders is that it appears like a big market isn’t going to save him. The New York Giants traded up to No. 25 to get a quarterback, but instead chose Mississippi's Jaxson Dart.
The next team that needs a quarterback is the Cleveland Browns, who happen to have two of the first four picks of the second round.
The Browns were also the last team to draft a quarterback who led the class in trademark filings, and one of them also happened to have money in it: 2012 Heisman winner Johnny Manziel.
Although the Cleveland market isn’t as much of the purgatory that it once was — if Manziel succeeded there he would have been huge — it is obviously not close to ideal, from a marketing perspective, for a flashy player such as Sanders.
Darren Rovell is the founder of cllct and one of the country's leading reporters on the collectibles market. He previously worked for ESPN, CNBC and The Action Network.