Shedeur Sanders

Early life

Sanders was born on February 7, 2002, in Tyler, Texas, to former NFL player Deion Sanders and Pilar Sanders. His parents are divorced. He has four siblings: Deiondra, Deion, Shilo, and Shelomi. He attended Trinity Christian School in Cedar Hill, Texas, where his father was the school's offensive coordinator. As a senior, he completed 251 of 366 pass attempts for 3,702 yards and 43 touchdowns. He threw for 166 touchdowns over his four year high school career. Sanders was rated a three-star prospect, the #12 quarterback in his class, and initially committed to play college football at Florida Atlantic before flipping to Jackson State after his father was named head coach.

Jackson State

Sanders enrolled at Jackson State in January 2021, but was ineligible to play for the team in its spring season which was abbreviated and delayed from its normally intended 2020 schedule due to COVID-19. Sanders was named the Tigers' starting quarterback going into the 2021 fall season, and passed for 3,231 yards with 30 touchdowns and eight interceptions. He was named the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Freshman of the Year and second-team All-SWAC and won the Jerry Rice Award as the most outstanding freshman in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision, becoming the first player from a historically black college or university (HBCU) to win the award. He signed name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals with Gatorade, Beats by Dre, and Nike, being the first college football player to sign with the latter.

To open his sophomore season, Sanders completed 29 of 33 passes for 323 yards and five touchdowns in the Tigers' 59–3 win over Florida A&M. He completed 70.6% of his pass attempts for 3,732 yards with 40 touchdowns and six interceptions as a sophomore and was named the SWAC Offensive Player of the Year. Sanders was also awarded the Deacon Jones Trophy as the nation's top HBCU player. He entered the NCAA transfer portal after the 2022 Celebration Bowl.

Colorado

After his father Deion was hired as head coach at Colorado, Sanders joined his father and transferred to Colorado. He was immediately named the Buffaloes' starting quarterback.

In his first game for the Buffaloes, Sanders completed 38 of 47 pass attempts for a school-record 510 yards and four touchdowns in the team's 45–42 win over 17th-ranked TCU. In the following game against Nebraska, he had 393 passing yards and two passing touchdowns to go with a rushing touchdown in the win. Sanders quickly became the centerpiece of Colorado's offense, setting a school record for single-season passing yards. He led the Buffaloes to a 3–0 start with 348 yards, four touchdowns, and one interception in the next game, a win over Colorado State. Following the team's first setback against Oregon, he had 371 passing yards, four passing touchdowns, and one interception and a rushing touchdown in a narrow loss to USC. Following a win over Arizona State, he had 400 yards, five touchdowns, and one interception in a loss to Stanford. He missed the season's final game against Utah with a fracture in his back. Overall, he finished the 2023 season with 3,230 passing yards, 27 passing touchdowns, and three interceptions to go with four rushing touchdowns in 11 games as the Buffaloes went 4–8.

Sanders led the Buffaloes to a 9–4 record in 2024 and an appearance in the Alamo Bowl. He finished the season with 4,134 passing yards and 37 touchdowns, with an NCAA-leading 74% completion percentage. He earned Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year honors and named the winner of the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award. In April 2025, Colorado announced Sanders's jersey number, along with Travis Hunter's, would be retired before the school's spring game.

Personal life

Sanders's older brother, Shilo, also played college football under their father at Jackson State and Colorado. He was signed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as an undrafted free agent following the 2025 NFL draft.

Sanders released a hip-hop track, "Perfect Timing", in May 2024.

Sanders has also been involved in fashion modeling.