Two days before the NFL Draft, Shedeur Sanders was throwing better than Cam Ward. Ward had won the day on Wednesday, and few were there to see it.
At Cardinal Ritter High School, a private Catholic school in Indianapolis, Darrel “DJ” Colbert Jr., Ward’s and Sanders’s quarterback coach, had just arranged to use the gym. Later, it would be on the football field in the chilly, near-northwest high school campus named after Indianapolis’ first archbishop, Joseph E. Ritter. Ritter ordered the integration of diocese schools in 1938, a decade and a half before Brown v. Board of Education, and the school that bears his name was opened near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1964.
LaVar Johnson (photo courtesy Facebook)
According to LeVar Johnson, Ritter’s head football coach, that is about as close as the Shedeur Sanders controversy gets to being about race. Johnson, hired by Ritter in 2022 should know. Sure, he’s African American, but he doesn’t see the Sanders draft drop as a race issue.
He sees it as a message from the NFL to the Sanders family: You can make money, and the NFL wants it, too. But Johnson feels the NFL also sent a loud message: no one is bigger than the shield.
Coach Johnson quickly struck down the notion of race being involved. From what he saw from April 26, the Wednesday before the draft, through this past weekend, the NFL was concerned about one color: green. “It felt personal.” Johnson lamented. “It just seemed like a false narrative. I was talking with an NFL scout and longtime friend. He was just irritated, and so was I, that the NFL was treating Sanders unfairly.”
You’d be wrong if you believe a high school coach doesn’t have expertise. Johnson has 35 years of coaching experience. As the owner of InFocus Sports Training, he focused on training quarterbacks at all levels. His Athletic Director, David Scott, said just as much in a 2022 IndyStar article authored by Kyle Neddenriep: “Anytime you can get someone that has experienced working with NFL and high-level collegiate players to work with the student-athletes at the school, you have to jump at those prospects.”
Nicholas Morrow (photo courtesy USA Today)
Johnson has worked with some heavyweights around Indiana, Florida, and other places. Kenny Moore II, the Colts’ heart and soul nickel back, was in his 2017 training group class at Fishers, IN. That group also included Keelan Cole, a wide receiver formally with the Jaguars, Jets, and Raiders; Letroy Lewis, a recent Michigan assistant coach, now the defensive line coach at Toledo; Izaah Lundsford, a defensive tackle who played with the Packers and Giants; Elijah Wilkinson, currently an offensive tackle for the Atlanta Falcons; and Nicholas Morrow of the Super Bowl-winning Philadelphia Eagles.
“I’m always proud of my kids,” Johnson said.
Johnson met his publicist, Maddy Schultz, through the mercurial Kenny Moore II. On Wednesday, the week of the combine, Schultz contacted Johnson on short notice. She wanted to see if ‘Cam could come in’ to use Ritter’s gym, meaning Cam Ward, the player who would become the #1 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. It was a little too cold to use the football field. Then, around 6:30 in the gym, Johnson was surprised to meet Deion Sanders, Jr., another son of the football legend. Jr. knows what Primetime is all about. Jr. is not a player; he runs the media group. Shortly after, somebody else arrived: his brother, Shedeur.
Johnson was nonplussed. He was curious, after all. It wasn’t until after the draft that Coach Johnson became irritated with the narrative the NFL was trying to sell. He finally needed to speak out, so he posted on social media.
On his April 26 Facebook post, he wrote: “I AM FOREVER A FAN OF BOTH” [Ward and Sanders]. He emphasized that Sanders was “HUMBLE, GREAT SENSE OF HUMOR AND POLITE. He has been raised RIGHT.” He added, “Everything was YES SIR, NO SIR, YES COACH, NO COACH.”
Cam Ward (photo courtesy ABC News)
In that post, he put quotes around “Entourage” as an indictment of how the NFL and the media use that negative connotation to detract from the Sanders’ machine. In a later interview, he clarified that, from top to bottom, Cam Ward, Shedeur, Sanders Jr., Boog (Shedeur’s close body man), and everyone with them were polite and cordial. What surprised him was how far that went for two separate days.
According to Johnson, Cam Ward was the better thrower on Wednesday, but not by much. What impressed him the most was Ward’s request to turn on the football field lights on a 40-degree early Indy spring day. Ward threw to Xavier Restrepo, the soon-to-be Titans UFA. They worked with DJ (the QB coach) on a pro day script of plays.
Sanders, who arrived later, was throwing well, too, but not as tight. It wasn’t bad at all, though. According to Johnson, he and AD Scott discussed what they saw, which gave Ward a slight edge.
Shedeur Sanders (photo courtesy CBS Sports)
The practice went well enough that the group asked to come back on Friday. Around 2 pm that day, Ward arrived while school was in session. Johnson watched as Ward interacted with the student body with grace and ease. When the polite circus made its way to the field, it was not a clown show in any way; it was serious business. The school’s track and baseball teams were politely hitting balls on half the field, while Ward worked out on the other half for nearly an hour and a half. After his routine, Ward ran an astonishing thirteen 100-yard sprints.
Then, Shedeur arrived with his “entourage,” which included Colorado receiver Jimmy Horn Jr., whom the Panthers drafted. They put on an intense show using the same ½ of the Cardinal Ritter High School field. AD Scott and Coach Johnson conferred again, and agreed that Sanders was sharper that day. If they were grading the magical competition, Ward would have won on Wednesday, and Sanders would have won on Friday.
Sanders, for his part, with no cameras present, saw a coach’s nine-year-old son in awe, throwing the ball with his Dad and pretending not to stare. Without fanfare, Johnson witnessed Shedeur approach the nervous nine-year-old and spend a few minutes talking. Coach LeVar, at that point, was sold on both prospects.
Johnson asked if Sanders would sign the wall in Johnson’s office, and Sanders jumped out of the car, hustled to the office, and signed the wall. Ward, Horn Jr., and all the week’s players signed that wall, too. On Friday, Sanders, ever one to try and improve (because, in Johnson’s words, was raised right), did one better.
In the Coach’s post, he wrote:
Shedeur: Coach, what shoe or cleat do your players wear?
Johnson: Whatever the kids buy.
Shedeur: How many players are on the team?
Johnson: I’m not sure the final count is until June, but maybe it will be 60.
Shedeur: Boog (his handler/body man, etc.), we can make that happen. Get them some travel shoes/cleats.
Johnson: You don’t have to do that.
Shedeur: I want to do it for your hospitality.
Johnson: Again, you don’t have to do that.
Shedeur: Boog, ensure you exchange contact info so we can get it done.
(After it was all said and done and his transportation had arrived, his “Entourage” walked ahead of me and Shedeur in our school parking lot.)
Johnson: Good luck to you, and kill it at your Pro Day!
Shedeur: Yes, Sir!
Johnson: Whatever team you end up with…….if you’re in town and you want a home-cooked meal, hit me up.
Shedeur: Yes, Sir, I will. Thanks Coach!
LeVar Johnson knows athletes. Asked about his feelings of what he thought would happen in the draft, he said, “100% thought both would go Top 5. Ward was a 1, but not by much. My AD thinks Shedeur is better than Cam.”
Coach Johnson had had enough after Sanders fell to the 5th round and made an uncharacteristic social media post to set the record straight.
LaVar Johnson: I think it’s a power issue, and we are polarized in America. The NFL doesn’t like Sanders Jr. having a media company, and that shocks me because it makes money. And the NFL is all about money. The NFL is not about health; these kids create and control their image to have a life after football. But if any team wanted to make money, they would draft Shedeur. It’s just that simple, no disrespect to the other QBs in the draft. He’s loud, he’s flashy, whatever. But he is all about family, and that includes his Dad. The NFL said you cannot be more significant than the shield. I think it’s bullshit.
“Shedeur is certainly not dumb,” Coach sighed. He’s a smart guy. Coach him up. This false narrative is a bad look.”
Johnson is not naive to the business of football. “Real football people were confused, just look at ESPN. If I’m an NFL coach, he’s putting butts in the seats. You know those guys in the ‘68 Olympics who wore black gloves to stand for change? We all celebrate them now. But they were punished. Makes you wonder.”
The Coach’s comparison, he emphasized, was not about race. “Football doesn’t last forever. [After seeing Sanders perform], the issue became bizarre and personal as a football coach.”
