Broadcasting from the Civic Cipher Studios. Welcome to the QR Code, where we share a perspective, seek understanding, and shape outcomes. I am Rams's job and I am q Ward, and we would like for you to stick around today because we have a lot to talk about. First up, we're gonna be talking about Shaudure Sanders. Is IM not saying that right? Yes? Should Sanders? Okay? You know, I famously am not the uh the sports guy, but Q is so he keeps me, he keeps me in line here.
But we're going to talk about him and his uh, his getting drafted so late, the one hundred and forty fourth overall pick, and we're gonna, you know, kind of discuss, you know, some of the goings on and try to sort out why that happened. There's a lot of opinions online and I'm learning, so I know that Q is going to provide some insight there, but we're definitely gonna get into that. We're also gonna be talking about Shannon Sharp and uh, you know, his the lawsuit, the fifty
million dollars lawsuit that's been filed against him. We're going to offer some maybe opinions on that. Story, So that's a troubling one, but obviously one we need to cover. We're also going to spend some time, if you're able to stick around for later in the show, discussing a judge that was arrested for trying to protect an immigrant, and we're kind of seeing the role of judges and the esteem that we typically assigned to judges. We're seeing that evolve in real time, and so we're going to
spend some time discussing that story. And for our final story of the day, we're going to be discussing the movie Centers. So for those that are able to stick around for the entertainment section, we're going to hear from Ryan Coogler. There's a clip that I want to play for everyone. But also we're going to discuss the movie and kind of the cultural impact of the movie, because that's an exciting thing that a lot of folks are talking about as well. All that and so much more
to stick around for. But around here, we'd like to start off feeling good. We hope you're feeling good too, So let's start off with our feel good feature. We're going to share a bit from MSN. This is the headline, rather is ACLU defeats Trump, signals Supreme Court shift. So I'll share a bit. The Supreme Court recently blocked the Trump administration from deporting Venezuelan's detained in Northern Texas under
the Alien Enemies Act of seventeen to ninety eight. The Court's ruling overturned earlier guidance re requiring individuals to have a chance to present their cases before deportation. The American Civil Liberties Union or the ACLU, initiated the emergency appeal leading to this ruling, which may signal a shift in the conservative leading high court. So that's not nothing.
I guess we can hold out hope. I tend not to and in instances like this because I don't look
forward to being let down in that way. But you know it, someone standing up to Donald Trump and the idea that or getting back to the idea that everyone deserves due process, not just those who the other side deems worthy, was even themselves without due process, could be held in these same circumstances and could do nothing to prove that they don't deserve the same bad treatment that they're wishing on other people.
Absolutely, you know, one of the things that you know, for people that aren't able to imagine or put themselves
in the shoes of an illegal quote unquote person. Just imagine if you were taking a vacation and you were in England or you know, some country in the Middle East or Africa, and you were accused of stealing a candy bar from the store, and then they just took you and threw you to jail or sent you to some country where you don't know anyone, and you never had a chance to say, wait a minute, I didn't
accuse that. That's what it must feel like to be You know a lot of people in this country right now, and so the acl you fighting for a due process in the Supreme Court, falling on the right side of history is not nothing. So we'll take it. Moving on for our first topic, we want to discuss today a little bit about culture. Shadure Sanders. I'm going to share
a bit from PBS. It's not often that the one hundred and forty fourth pick is the biggest story of the NFL draft, but Shadur Sanders was not the usual one hundred and forty fourth pick, and a situation transcended football. The narrative around Sanders blurred lines between sports, race, and culture. The former University of Colorado quarterback was the center of a three day spectacle of cringe that will live in
football lore for a long time. Sanders fell from a potential top five overall selection on Thursday to the fifth round on Saturday in an excruciating slide that had his supporters fuming and detractors laughing. The Cleveland Browns finally ended sanders As misery with the number one hundred and forty fourth selection, adding the twenty three year old to a crowded quarterback room that includes Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Fell,
rookie Dylan Gabriel, and the injured Deshaun Watson. So yeah, you know, I I'm really excited to hear your thoughts on the story because you know, famously, you know, of all the programs that we that we do together. You are and you're an athlete yourself. You come from that stock, you know for former athlete. I saw your face today.
I'm definitely not saw your face, but you know kind of kind of uh, you know, help me and our listeners that may not be as familiar with the story understand kind of what's going on here, why this took place, and so.
For those who are not you know, sports fans like my brother here, Shador Sanders, the son of Hall of Famer, you know, all time all pro Dion Sanders Uh as a quarterback at the University of Colorado, which I was lucky enough to be able to go on cover for iHeart he had. He had a pretty incredible college career.
Started off at an HBC. You transferred to a Division I program where expectations were both very high and some expected him to fall in his face, you know, HBCUs they considered not high enough level of competition that he wouldn't be able to thrive or succeed with the big boys, and he proved a lot of people very wrong. The interesting thing about his career was that once he got to Colorado and they started seeing a little bit of success, people lined up to see them fail, and when they
fell short, people standing ovation celebrated their losses. Part of that was resentment for his very very confident father, his very successful father, his very flamboyant father of must be the money fame, and of telling teams when he was about to get drafted they wouldn't be able to afford him. They have to put him on layaway.
You know.
So when that's your dad, there are people, and we can kind of all imagine in our head the type of people that want that type of black man to fail.
There were others who.
Their negative emotions and their kind of hater qualities had nothing to do with his dad.
They had everything to do with him. You know.
Shadur very famously scores touchdowns and then shows off. What I've been told is I think a quarter million dollar watch to the fans and attendance, which rubbed some people the wrong way as well. But what we saw with him is unprecedented because he was, by some measures, is by some awards, the top quarterback in college football last year. There weren't very many people that had him rate it lower than the second best quarterback in college football last year.
And if you follow the draft at all, a quarterback is the most valuable position in football, and if you can get a good quarterback on a rookie deal, that kind of is the pathway toward monumental success for your team.
Quarterback is over value you against other positions. I say that as to say, the number one defensive player, the number one running back, the number one wide receiver might be better players overall at their position and on the rankings of players overall, but because the quarterback position is so much more important and so much more valuable, typically a lower ranked quarterback will get selected before at higher
ranked running back. So you know, one of the reasons why it was so strange that he went so long without being drafted is not only because he was ranked so high, but because other quarterbacks who were not as good as him were drafted before him. In a lot of cases, we don't like to call racism. We get tired of hearing ourselves say it. So there's cases where we make the devil's advocate argument just to not say it again. But there's really not very many other ways to justify that.
Can I ask you this, whether other quarters that were drafted that were also black.
Yes, the number one overall pick was black. But I wish I had the headline in front of me. There's a headline that reads this black quarterback doesn't have on flashy gold chains, you understand, So that that's underpinning of racism, right, be the be the do good or black guy.
That's what I was going. Okay, so that's what don't be.
The hippity hop, poppity hip, diamond chain, diamond watch, black guy, don't be like his dad, don't be like your dad, don't be like confident, don't be so confident, don't be so loud, don't be so ghetto. Right, all these things that they'll go without saying. And yes, there were other quarterbacks, actually two quarterbacks drafted before him that were black, But that's just like saying, what do you mean I'm racist?
I have a black friend. So what the lesson that they were trying to teach here was be humble, Sit down, be humble. To quote the great uh doctor, the great philosopher, philosopher for Counton, California, mister Kendrick Lamar Duckworth. So yeah, and I've seen some of our colleagues argue that, you know, he didn't get drafted high because he wasn't that good, And I'm asking what did you base that on? Right, there's a reason why people thought he would be drafted higher.
It wasn't just because he was famous. He won the award that college football gives to the best quarterback in the country.
Oh you told me about this, right, So.
It wasn't just our imagination that we thought he would go higher. And again, if you thought he wasn't that good, then the guys that were drafted before him, who didn't have as impressive numbers, who didn't have as much success, who were not ranked as high than how do you justify it selecting them before him?
Okay, so how about this, real quick? Is this the guy that had the girlfriend?
No, so that was Travis Hunter, his teammate, who was the number two overall pick in the draft. The Travis Hunter, just like you know, the quarterback got selected that got selected before him, cam Ward would be subscribed, would be described I'm sorry, the same way.
So real quick, our is the guy Travis Hunter and Should Sanders. They're from the same team.
Same team from HBCU to Colorado.
They went together. So that's that's something that says something about Dion Sanders' coaching abilities, right, Okay, all right, So that's first. The second thing is for should Sanders, because I don't know how drafts work. When we say one hundred and forty fourth overall pick, does that mean that the team that picked him, which is the Cleveland Browns, they picked other people before they got to him. Yes, so they ended did they end up stuck with him or did they really want him?
So that's the that's the trick, right. They're thirty two teams in the NFL. Every team picks in every in every round of the drafts. So the one hundred and forty fourth pick would have been thirty two, thirty two, thirty two, thirty two, fourth or fifth round. Okay, and we can we can verify that later. But yes, the Browns selected multiple players before they selected him.
Does that mean that he gets less money? Yes?
Where you're drafted as a rookie determines how much money you get paid.
And does that mean he's not going to be able to play as often as as some of the other people?
So what it what typically mean is you won't have as many opportunities as someone drafted higher. But he except he's Shador Sanders. So all it means is we can pay you less and we may have taught you a lesson.
All right, let me ask you this. Do you think that this was a concerted effort by the NFL or the NFL teams.
To do I think they colluded to do this absolutely. I don't think it's by chance that every team passed over the number two quarterback in the draft three or four times by chance.
And you said he's number two only on some list. On the other lists, he's probably number one. Yeah.
I mean he won the O'Brien Awards, given to the number one quarterback in college. But even if you think that's subjective, people voted on that and he won it. And there's a reason why him slipping was a story. If he wasn't that good, it would have made sense that he wasn't drafted high. He was very good, so people were very confused as to why teams kept passing on him.
And last question, please, do you think because you know a lot of people will see two black men talking about this and we were going to say, well, there's race played a factor, do you think that there's anything besides race or culture? Will say because you said chains and things like that might have factored into his making it to one hundred and forty four? Is there anything else that we might be.
Hard to argue anything else, right, because all the other things would be true for every other player every year. Right, It's not. It's the draft is a crapshoot. You don't know that the player that you pick is going to be good. We've seen number one overall picks bust. Right, But why the guy who was ranked so high went so low. It's hard to point to anything else and make it make sense.
Okay, well, we'll keep watching for now to move on to our segment two opinions Shannon Sharp. So he's an athlete to a football player too. Indeed, I know this, and I'm gonna be fair. I'm going to let everyone know. I got on Shannon Sharp, like I was not like on him, Q put me on him, and I like fell in love with this guy. I thought he was like he's so southern all right, in South Georgia. Yeah, he sounds like it. And I think this guy is the greatest. And so I'm kind of coming to the
Shannon Sharp table. Like in the past couple of years, right, I didn't watch him play football or anything like that. And obviously he's in some trouble, you know for those who follow the headline. So I'll share a bit bring everyone up to speed, all right, This is from CNN. Shannon Sharp has said he will temporarily take time away from his role on ESPN after being sued for assault,
sexual assault, battery, and sexual battery. He denies the allegations in the lawsuit filed Sunday by an anonymous woman and her attorneys. Sharp plays a prominent part on ESPN's morning sports debate show First Take. Quote. I will be devoting this time to my family and responding and dealing with these false and disruptive allegations set against me. I planned to return to ESPN at the start of the NFL preseason unquote, Sharp said in a statement issued on Thursday.
The Pro Football Hall of Famer concluded by thanking his family, fans, friends, and colleagues for their support. Following Sharp's announcement, ESPN said in a statement, quote, this is a serious situation, and we agree with Shannon's decision to step away. Quote. Sharp's legal representatives previously told CNN the lawsuit was an attempt to shake down the popular podcaster for millions of dollars, and said he categorically denies all allegations of coercion and misconduct.
So here's you know, what else I know about this. I know he released some text messages. I saw the video where he says, you know, he made a statement, you know, like kind of a piece to camera statement, you know, basically saying I'm innocent of these charges. The lawyer is an ambulance chaser type of lawyer, and he tries to shake down, you know, black men for money.
And so he made that statement, and he released some text messages that kind of gave you know, people some insight into the nature of his relationship with this this woman that's now accusing him of these things. I also know that there may and you can correct me if I'm wrong, if you know better, but maybe there was an attempt to settle or there was some talk or some conversation about settling with her for ten million dollars. Now it's a fifty million dollar lawsuit. So that kind
of throws a wrench in how things look. And most recently, you know, there was a story about Shannon refusing to watch a video that has him in it as and it's being used as a piece of evidence from sort of the people that are suing Shannon. So Shannon was like, I'm not going to watch that video, right, I don't need to see that video. So this is about more or less what we know about the story. So I guess your thoughts, your first Q.
This is a very interesting story because once accused of something like this, there is no actual right move. There's a bunch of wrong ones, but there's no actual right one.
You are forever accused of rape or sexual assault. And you and I have noticed this pattern of very very very loud accusations, and then when there is an acquittal or an outright discovery that there was a lie from the beginning, a very very quiet acknowledgment of that lie, and the Jane Doe gets to slide back into anonymity, and the accused celebrity gets to be an.
Accused whatever forever, forever.
It is the most unfair thing ever, and it puts you in a position where, especially in cases like this where Tony Buzby is the attorney, to almost pause before believing an accuser, an accuser or a victim. Here, I feel bad for Shannon because I think the decisions that he's making help people frame him in a negative light, even if he's done nothing illegal. I intentionally didn't say
done nothing wrong, because there's there's several missteps. Right, Stepping away from your job without being forced to as a mistake because you think you look bad. You look worse when you voluntarily quit your job because of the accusations right right, and now since you stepped away, we don't have to pay you, you know, make them people fire you and they owe you some money. Typically you step
away and okay, good job, thank you. Yeah, we agree with Shannon that he should step away right because it is negative attention. Also, a nineteen year old OnlyFans model when you're pushing sixty is a bad idea, or even if you're just fifty.
But it's illegal.
Like I said, he didn't do anything illegal, but I didn't say he didn't do anything wrong. There's in the text that he shared. She's she's making it very clear this is a money thing for her, twenty five thousand dollars per such and such, and just their normal conversations and several several messages about him impregnating her. You know, the type of things that should give you some pause if you're this very famous, very wealthy man with this
very young woman. So there's the level of careful that I've seen Shannon Sharp to be people know himself throughout his whole career. Like he very famously says he won't write on elevators alone with women, not because he has any desire to do anything wrong, but if someone says he did this very very large, big black man on an elevator with a woman who could feel threatened, or feel intimidated, or or just decide to shake him down.
What can I do?
So, I'd rather not put myself in that position. So to be a person who I heard famously say that on television multiple times, it's strange that he'd find himself in a situation like this. As far as him not wanting to watch the video, I'm guessing he was there when it was filmed and he might know how that story played out.
Yeah.
I didn't love that headline, but his lawyers watched it, and you don't get that from the headline. The headline makes it seem like him and his team are running away from this. No, the evidence was submitted through discovery. His legal team watched the video.
He's in it.
Yeah, I was in that movie. I don't need to see it, so I don't know. There's some presumed guilt in the words used in headlines, but that's intentional. I feel bad for him, though, because there's no way to prove a negative. You're saying I didn't do something. It's kind of hard to prove the thing that didn't happen. There's no evidence of the thing that didn't happen. All he has is what's being presented to things that did happen.
And I think what he was doing and kind of clumbs by releasing those text messages was like, hey, everybody, look, this thing was consensual, not I didn't do it right, which again, he didn't do anything illegal. But this relationship that she's talking about in this tape, this video exists, whatever is on it. Even though you're saying there's thirty seconds edited to make him look bad, that means there's thirty seconds worth of footage that makes you look bad.
So it's just all these things coming together, and it's tough, you know, and once you're under this spotlight and under this microscope, it's very, very hard to remove yourself from it.
Well, So the thing about this is, and I know we're supposed to like have an opinion, but it's hard to have an opinion because I think you end up in a tough spot just as an observer, because you know, the culture has moved in such a way that we are supposed to be supporting women right and believing victims, and believing victims exactly and we should be. And we also see that, you know, we need to like support
black people, black men, you know what I mean. And we're supposed to, you know, celebrate wins like you know, Shannon Sharp getting to the level that he's at, and we recognize, you know, we especially as black men, we recognize that there might be some factors and some forces behind the scenes that or you know, pitfalls along the way that are particularly that he might be particularly vulnerable to.
And so I think that what we have to do is kind of balance our support for women in general, because now that she's kind of stepped into this role, it's not let's believe her specifically, it's do we believe women when they come forward with their stories, or do we believe you know, Shannon Sharp. And you know, based on what we know of him, does he seem like the sort of person that would do this sort of thing, And of course we can't know beyond what he shows us.
But the truth is that both sides kind of have some holes. And you know, her getting the lawyer Tony Busby is that's not really the strongest move in my opinion, because that's the guy that he kind of is an ambulance chaser. He kind of does shake down, you know, people for money. He did. He tried to get money out of jay Z. Shake down jay Z, Yeah, Shannon said in his statement, Yeah exactly, And so that's not
the strongest look. But then you know, obviously trying to give her ten million dollars, that's a lot of money to give to somebody to just keep them quiet, you know, you know, for whatever reason. And so nothing looks good.
But I you know, think about it this way, he has an upcoming negotiation. If that negotiation might be in the world of one hundred million dollars, to give you ten million to just go away so that you don't prevent me from getting a hundred million dollars.
There, it feels like a small ticket. Okay, So you know, there's obviously more to this story, but like always, we'll keep watching and see what develops. All right, Right now it is time for our segment Better do Better, And then this segment we try to encourage people who are out there slipping messing up, make us look bad, to do better. All right, So you better do better. First up,
this is from the Black Information Network. Philadelphia Eagles running back help me with this nameuon Barkley, I knew I got it wrong the first time. Okay. Spent one on one time with President Donald Trump ahead of the team scheduled Super Bowl celebration at the White House on April twenty eighth. Trump was set to host the Eagles at the White House after the team super Bowl win against
the Kansas City Chiefs back in February. Barkley and Trump were spotted hanging out together on April twenty seventh, just a day before the Eagles visit. The two appeared to get off Marine one in New Jersey together, chatting as they exited the plane. On Monday, Barkley took to social media to address the backlash over his appearance with Trump quote, Lol, some people are really upset because I played often flew to the White House with the President. That's in all caps.
Maybe I just respect the office. Not a hard concept to understand. Just golf with Obama too, not long ago, and look forward to finishing my round with Trump. Now you get out of my mentions with all this politics and have an amazing day, Barkley tweeted with a laughing face emoji. So why should this guy do better? I think I'll go first. Well, so we obviously are familiar
with this story. We work closely with the Black Information Network, And I think that for a person that it tries to smooth this over, tries to equate golfing with Obama to golfing with Trump, they are not really heating the gravity of the moment. They must be disconnected from politics. Now, I don't know this guy. I don't know what sport
he plays. I'm assuming's football or something. I'm a music guy, so I know it seems like I'm clueless, but I just I know more about music than I do about sports. Although I played sports in high school. I played football. Anyway, golfing with Donald Trump what it does is it gives Donald Trump cover. And at a time when a lot of black people, a lot of marginalized people in this country, a lot of brown people, a lot of lgbtq I A plus people, a lot of people are feeling fearful
of what their future could look like. If you're from one of these communities and you associate with Donald Trump, you get to become his cover, his shield. See. I'm not racist, I'm not sexist, I'm not anti lgbt Q, I A plus, I'm not this because I have my friend here. He's a great guy. Look at him, he
golfs with me. Right, you give him cover. And that all the people that are questioning whether or not they voted for a person who is racist, whether they or not they voted for a person who is is legitimately an evil person, they get to see the headline of him golfing with a black man and say, oh, okay, I feel better about myself. Right. But the truth is that, you know, Donald Trump is we don't even have to talk about Donald Trump for people that voted for Donald Trump.
You know, I've said this on another show, and I think it bears repeating. Right now, let's think of the worst people in our society. Let's think of the Nazis and the klu Klux Klan and those type of people. Typically we associate them with like kind of the worst of our society. Right. The world that they wanted to see, the world that they voted for is the world that is being shaped by Donald Trump. Okay, and if you voted for that world two, then it stands to reason
that his agenda is aligned with their agenda. Now you might say, look, I don't want that part. I don't want the racist part. I wanted the good part. I'm a fiscal conservative. You could say that, and that's okay, all right, but you have to bear some responsibility that the world that is being created reflects the interests and the motivations of those the worst of our society, and the people that are subjected to those forces are the
marginalized people, the people that have been historically disenfranchised. And when this guy, Barkley guy goes and plays golf with him again, it provides some cover. And so you know, for this guy, we you know, we say you better do better. Man, you got anything to add to.
This disconnected from politics? But I respect the office and I just golf with Obama? Like which one is it? Like you're you're anti political, you're a political But you're justifying this because you respect the office of the president. I think you are a little bit more engaged and you'd like us to believe. And we've done a way as a society with shame. No one's a shamed of yourselves anymore. So there's just full justification. Get out of
my mentions with this politics stuff. You're an adult man in America. You cannot be removed from politics. You play a professional sport and a league that was once segregated, and you're a multi multi millionaire because politics and civil rights and people who laid their life on the line to get a more progressive society for you to be able to do what you do for a living paved
the way for you. And you spit in their face when you stand next to this man and you put your arm around him and you make him seem normal and kind, decent. He's an awful human and you've aligned yourself with him. And yes, people are going to be disappointed in you for that, and you should feel ashamed of yourself.
I like that. Well, yeah, so as the segment is titled you know you better do better? You know what I mean? At some point you got to come home and we we got long memories, all right,