When you break a 30-year old Cleveland Browns record, there has to be some recognition right? After all, Shedeur Sanders snapped a three decade streak of losses when rookie quarterbacks had their first start.

But when Kevin Stefanski handed the game ball to Myles Garrett quickly turned into a massive controversy that now sees a Pro-Bowler join the debate.

Former Pro Bowl cornerback Adam 'Pacman' Jones watched the clip of Kevin Stefanski not giving Shedeur Sanders the game ball and immediately went off.

He said, “The President is talking about Shedeur Sanders. And for some reason, we can’t even get the head coach to say, 'Here is the game ball. You won your first NFL game...' First of all, he's not a player coach. He does not have the locker room."

What Jones referred to was when President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social, "Shedeur Sanders was GREAT. Wins first game, career start, as a pro (for Cleveland). Great Genes. I TOLD YOU SO!" Even all those months ago when the Browns drafted Sanders in the fifth round, he wrote, "He should be 'picked' IMMEDIATELY by a team that wants to WIN." However, what fans and Jones are angry about is Sanders getting a "Nice job, Shedeur" instead of the game ball. But what did Stefanski have to say about Sanders?

Right after the game, Sanders received praise from Stefanski, despite not having clarity on him being a starter. "I'm not going to get into that. Obviously, proud of him and proud of this offense and there are a ton of things to learn from, but I'm just going to worry about today."

It’s clear that Shedeur Sanders has already become one of the most talked-about players in Cleveland, and sometimes it’s not even his fault. In his first NFL start, he helped the Browns beat the Raiders 24–10. He threw for 209 yards on 11-of-20 passing, with one touchdown and one interception.

Sanders, however, has full confidence. "I’m who they’ve been looking for. A lot of people want to see me fail and it ain’t going to happen." And that confidence might just be right, since amidst this outrage and the Browns being 1-5 on the road, Stefanski may have a way of turning things around.

Shedeur Sanders Gets the Week 13 Start From Kevin Stefanski

Despite Dillon Gabriel clearing concussion protocol, Stefanski retained Sanders as his starting quarterback.

His reasoning? Let's hear it from the head coach. "I thought communication was really good throughout the day with him. And the big plays down the field, obviously that first one to (Isaiah Bond) was a very high degree of difficulty on that play. Are there things that he can do better? Absolutely, and we've already talked about that with him. He has the mentality that he will make the adjustments to the speed of the game, make the adjustments to what people are giving us to make those improvements."

And this time, the challenge is huge: the San Francisco 49ers. If Sanders pulls off another strong performance, maybe just maybe he’ll finally get that game ball everyone keeps arguing about.

Was Stefanski being unfair, or is everyone making way too big a deal out of a football that didn’t get handed out?

Written by

Mohd Mudabbir Ansari

Edited by

Siddharth Shirwadkar