Ex-‘SportsCenter’ Host Rips ESPN for ‘Embarrassing’ Shedeur Sanders Coverage

Shedeur Sanders has been a primary focus of media coverage for almost all of 2025. The quarterback was heavily scrutinized as an NFL draft prospect after starring in his final year at Colorado, then shockingly fell all the way to the fifth round, where he was drafted by the Browns. This launched an entire summer of coverage surrounding Sanders’s chances of earning the starting job in Cleveland; discussion only heightened after the young QB wound up last on the depth chart.

Once the season started Sanders was still a talking point. Even now, entering Week 10, there are weekly questions about when coach Kevin Stefanski will give him a shot in a regular season game given the struggles of current starter Dillon Gabriel and the terrible record the Browns boast. It is undoubtedly a disproportionate amount of attention being directed at a backup quarterback but the Sanders family has been dominating headlines in the sports world for a few years now.

In any case, former ESPN employee Trey Wingo was not a fan of all the Sanders coverage coming out of Bristol last summer. In a Cleveland radio interview this week the ex-SportsCenter host ripped ESPN for the “embarrassing” amount of attention the network paid Sanders.

“I said all summer long Joe Flacco should be your starting quarterback, but if you start losing, then you have to turn things over to see what you have in Dillon Gabriel,” Wingo began during a discussion about the Browns’ quarterback situation this season. “And eventually, the toxic turning point in every sports conversation, Shedeur Sanders. Because no matter what you say about Shedeur Sanders, someone’s going to say you are bat-bleep crazy for thinking that. It is remarkable to me how much of a lightning rod this kid has become without taking a snap in the NFL. “

Wingo was then asked directly by hosts Ken Carman and Anthony Lima what his thoughts were on ESPN’s daily coverage of Sanders at its peak.

“It was embarrassing,” Wingo said. “It was embarrassing. They do it becuase they knew his name would resonate and his name would create some sort of rabid frothing at the mouth when it was based on nothing. When it was really based on nothing. There’s nothing to suggest that A) he’s going to be terrible or B) he’s going to be great. We don’t have any data. It’s all just opinions. It’s all just guesswork.”

Wingo worked for ESPN from 1997-2020 as a host in a variety of roles and hasn’t hesitated to offer his thoughts on the network since his departure. Most recently Wingo made headlines for describing his tenure there as “pretty f---ing stupid” at times.

Clealry he doesn’t think highly of how ESPN approached the Sanders situation. But it isn’t likely to change anytime soon. As long as Sanders continues to draw attention from the fans, networks like ESPN will continue to cover him at length regardless of his playing time (or lack thereof) for the Browns.