Shedeur Sanders Lawsuit: Fan’s $100M NFL Suit Faces Dismissal

The Shedeur Sanders lawsuit is a $100 million federal complaint filed on May 1, 2025 by Eric Jackson, a 55-year-old Georgia fan who claims the NFL colluded to push Sanders down the draft board and caused him emotional distress as a paying consumer of the league’s product. Legal commentators across the political and professional spectrum have called the case frivolous, and because Jackson filed without paying court fees, a judge is required to screen it for exactly that before it can proceed.¹

Who Filed the Suit and What It Claims

Jackson, a logistics company owner from Lawrenceville, Georgia, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. He initially used the pseudonym “John Doe” but had to reveal his identity because self-represented litigants cannot proceed anonymously under the court’s rules.² He also filed in forma pauperis, asking the court to waive fees on the grounds that he could not afford them.³

The complaint bundles four theories:

Antitrust collusion under the Sherman Antitrust Act, alleging teams conspired to suppress Sanders’ draft position.
Race discrimination under the Civil Rights Act, tied to the treatment of Sanders in the pre-draft process.
Consumer protection violations, on the theory the NFL misled fans about how the draft works and how players are evaluated.
Intentional infliction of emotional distress, based on leaked reports and negative narratives Jackson says harmed him as a fan and consumer.⁴

Beyond the $100 million in damages, Jackson wants the court to force the NFL to acknowledge the emotional harm, retract what he calls slanderous statements about Sanders, publicly apologize, and adopt fairer drafting practices.⁵

The Injury Jackson Says He Suffered

Sanders had been widely projected as a first-round pick. He went unselected through four rounds and was taken 144th overall by the Cleveland Browns in the fifth.⁶⁷

Jackson, a self-described University of Colorado fan who followed Sanders daily through the 2023 and 2024 seasons, said watching the slide was “debilitating.” He told the Los Angeles Times that he holds NFL Sunday Ticket and attends games, framing himself as a paying consumer rather than a casual viewer. “I was triggered. I have some previous conditions that were triggered. Anger. I was frustrated. I was emotionally disturbed,” he said, adding that he raised it in a therapy session.⁸

Jackson, who has no formal legal training and has represented himself in prior litigation, insisted the filing was serious. “This is not an intentional joke… It’s to get the NFL’s attention and let them know that they’ve been operating in this manner for years.” On the damages figure, he said he picked $100 million “because that’s what the law allows” and that a judge or jury could adjust it.²

Why Legal Experts Expect It to Be Dismissed

The reactions from lawyers who reviewed the complaint were consistent. Clare Pastore, a law professor at USC, called the lawsuit “ridiculous” and the damages “absurd.” Her core objection was standing: Jackson describes a “generalized grievance” shared with millions of other fans, not a particularized injury the courts can address. “A supposed harm someone suffers in combination with some vast number of other people is not something that one person has standing to contest,” she told Yahoo Sports.² She predicted the NFL would move for dismissal for failure to state a claim.⁹

UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh, writing on Reason, was blunter. Intentional infliction of emotional distress is a recognized tort, but it requires extreme and outrageous conduct directed at the particular plaintiff, not the ordinary operation of a sports league’s draft. Because Jackson filed in forma pauperis, the court has a statutory duty to screen the complaint for frivolousness before it can go anywhere, and Volokh expected the judge to “promptly dismiss it as frivolous.”¹

Pro Football Talk gave Jackson some credit for identifying the areas of factual inquiry a real collusion case would explore, but still expected dismissal with prejudice for failure to state a claim, with the judge likely to extend some leniency because Jackson is pro se.¹⁰

The Discovery Motion and the Arbitration Report

On May 19, 2025, Jackson filed an emergency motion for “early and targeted discovery.” He asked the court to compel the NFL to produce all internal emails, texts, and memos among league officials, team executives, general managers, scouts, and owners regarding Sanders from January 2024 through May 2025, along with scouting reports, draft boards, interview notes, audio and video from draft rooms and Combine sessions, and any communications between the league and media outlets about Sanders’ public portrayal.¹¹

The motion also sought a 61-page arbitration report Jackson said contained evidence of systemic collusion against Black quarterbacks. That report exists, but it is worth being precise about what it says. Written by arbitrator Christopher Droney and concluded on January 14, 2025, it found evidence that Commissioner Roger Goodell and general counsel Jeff Pash had urged owners to restrict guaranteed money in contracts after the Deshaun Watson deal, but held that the evidence was insufficient to prove collusion caused damages to the three quarterbacks who brought the grievance: Lamar Jackson, Russell Wilson, and Kyler Murray. The NFL and NFLPA agreed to keep it confidential; journalist Pablo Torre published it in late June 2025.¹² The report concerns veteran contract negotiations, not the draft, and does not address Shedeur Sanders.

NBC Sports’ Pro Football Talk noted there was no “pressing or compelling” reason for the NFL to open its files before the court decides whether the lawsuit itself is viable.¹⁰

Where the Case Stands

The case remains at the in forma pauperis screening stage. No hearings have been scheduled, no ruling has issued on the discovery motion, and the NFL has not publicly commented on either the complaint or the discovery request.³¹³ There is no reporting of any NFL internal investigation into the specific collusion allegations regarding Sanders’ draft position. Neither Shedeur Sanders nor his father, Colorado head coach Deion Sanders, has publicly commented on Jackson’s suit.

The threshold question the judge has to answer first is not whether NFL teams talked to each other about Sanders. It is whether a fan who watched the draft on television has suffered the kind of concrete, particularized injury that lets him into federal court at all. Every lawyer quoted on the case so far has said no.

1
Reason. Shedeur Sanders Fan Sues NFL for Emotional Distress Over Sanders’ Late Draft Pick
2
Yahoo Sports. Man Suing NFL Over Shedeur Sanders Draft Drop
3
Fox Sports. Distressed Colorado Fan Files $100M Against NFL Over Shedeur Sanders Draft Slide
4
NBC DFW. Fan Who Sued Over Shedeur Sanders Draft Slide Requests Early Discovery
5
KDVR. Fan Sues NFL for $100M After Shedeur Sanders Late Draft Pick
6
CBS Sports. Did Shedeur Sanders Get Drafted? Colorado QB Shocks by Falling Past First Three Rounds
7
Cleveland Browns. Browns Select Shedeur Sanders With No. 144 Pick in 2025 Draft
8
Los Angeles Times. NFL Lawsuit: Shedeur Sanders Draft Drop $100 Million Interview
9
Los Angeles Times. Shedeur Sanders NFL Lawsuit $100 Million
10
NBC Sports. Fan Who Sued Over Shedeur Sanders Draft Slide Requests Early Discovery
11
WSB-TV. GA Man Suing Over Shedeur Sanders Draft Drop Requests NFL Documents, Recordings
12
ESPN. NFLPA, NFL Agreed to Keep Collusion Findings Secret
13
ABC News. Football Fan Alleges Discrimination, Collusion in NFL Draft Over Shedeur Sanders