Shilo Sanders looking to improve his draft stock in shadow of brother Shedeur at Colorado's showcase

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Shilo Sanders is trying to boost his draft stock. He’s also looking for a fresh start.

The hard-hitting, run-stuffing Colorado Buffaloes safety — son of coach Deion Sanders and quarterback Shedeur Sanders' bigger brother — is taking part in the school’s showcase Friday, where potential draftees go through a series of evaluations (bench press, 40-yard dash, position drills) in front of NFL scouts.

While Shedeur Sanders is a projected top-3 pick on April 24, Shilo is expected to be a late-round pick two days later, if he's selected at all, in which case he's hoping to sign with a team as an undrafted free agent.

Away from the field, Shilo Sanders remains in litigation over a lawsuit stemming from an incident with a security guard when he was in high school. The guard filed a lawsuit against Sanders and was issued a default judgment when Sanders didn’t show for his court date.

It's led Sanders to file for bankruptcy. This week, there was a report the 25-year-old hasn’t kept up on the car payments for his Mercedes-Benz.

Victor Vital, one of Sanders’ attorneys, said in a statement to The Associated Press the Mercedes-Benz issue arose, “due to disruptions in the payment process following the termination of Mr. Sanders’ online account access, a common occurrence in bankruptcy cases.”

He added: “Mr. Sanders is current on all payments and continues to fulfill his financial obligations.”

Deion Sanders weighed in, too.

“I know some other bull junk came out,” his father/coach said. “But he fulfilled all his financial obligations.”

His father said the negativity that sometimes surrounds his sons has made the draft process “wonderful, expectant, but somewhat ignorant.”

“When they put Sanders on their back, they get attacked by some of you in here right now,” Sanders said. "Once upon a time we had a wall around (college players) and we couldn’t say nothing about them. Now the more popular they are, the more money they are compensated, you guys shoot at them like they’re an adult. You keep forgetting sometimes they’re young men.

“But I’m thankful that we prepared for this from childhood on. They’re built for this and they’re ready for this.”

Shilo Sanders didn't participate in the bench press at the showcase, but did run the 40-yard dash, where his best time was 4.52 seconds. After his performance, he walked over to his father, who was conducting a television interview, and gave him a hug.

He also supported his brother, Shedeur, as the Big 12 offensive player of the year threw passes in front of scouts to wideouts such as Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, Will Sheppard, LaJohntay Wester and Jimmy Horn Jr. After each completion, especially the deep ones, Shilo applauded — and urged the crowd in the bleachers to do the same.

“I’ve been watching guys' pro days and then I see Shedeur in real life and I'm like, ‘Dang, he actually is good,’” Shilo Sanders joked.

Just being a team supporter.

“Shilo has been consistency, a pillar of consistency,” Deion Sanders said. "Shilo is an old-school player playing under these new-school guidelines. Shilo is a dawg.

“I’m so darn proud of him. He does not take a back seat to his brother. He does not take a back seat to anybody. He’s a worker.”

Sanders finished third on the Buffaloes with 67 total tackles in a season where the team went to the Alamo bowl and finished 9-4. He also recovered two fumbles, including one he returned for a touchdown at Texas Tech.

He started his college career at South Carolina, before transferring to Jackson State to join his dad and brother. He then followed his family to Colorado, where he wound up his career in Boulder with 111 total tackles. Shilo Sanders took part in the East-West Shrine Bowl earlier this year.

As for why a team should draft him, his selling point was simple.

"If you want a safety that’s going to play like a safety, that’s going to be physical, bring that hat, be a leader in the secondary, take coaching, be an extension of the defensive coordinator, do my job, everything I’m supposed to do, then I’m the guy,” Shilo Sanders said.

AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

Colorado safety Shilo Sanders takes part in the 40-yard dash during Colorado's NFL football pro day Friday, April 4, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Colorado safety Shilo Sanders gets ready to take part in the 40-yard dash during Colorado's NFL football pro day Friday, April 4, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Colorado safety Shilo Sanders runs the 40-yard dash during Colorado's NFL football pro day Friday, April 4, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to use an 18th century wartime law to deport Venezuelan migrants, but said they must get a court hearing before they are taken from the United States.

In a bitterly divided decision, the court said the administration must give Venezuelans who it claims are gang members “reasonable time” to go to court.

But the conservative majority said the legal challenges must take place in Texas, instead of a Washington courtroom.

The court’s action appears to bar the administration from immediately resuming the flights that last month carried hundreds of migrants to a notorious prison in El Salvador. The flights came soon after President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act for the first time since World War II to justify the deportations under a presidential proclamation calling the Tren de Aragua gang an invading force.

The majority said nothing about those flights, which took off without providing the hearing the justices now say is necessary.

In dissent, the three liberal justices said the administration has sought to avoid judicial review in this case and the court “now rewards the government for its behavior.” Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined portions of the dissent.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said it would be harder for people to challenge deportations individually, wherever they are being held, and noted that the administration has also said in another case before the court that it’s unable to return people who have been deported to the El Salvador prison by mistake.

“We, as a Nation and a court of law, should be better than this,” she wrote.

The justices acted on the administration’s emergency appeal after the federal appeals court in Washington left in place an order temporarily prohibiting deportations of the migrants accused of being gang members under the rarely used Alien Enemies Act.

“For all the rhetoric of the dissents,” the court wrote in an unsigned opinion, the high court order confirms “that the detainees subject to removal orders under the AEA are entitled to notice and an opportunity to challenge their removal."

The case has become a flashpoint amid escalating tension between the White House and the federal courts. It's the second time in less than a week that a majority of conservative justices has handed Trump at least a partial victory in an emergency appeal after lower courts had blocked parts of his agenda.

Several other cases are pending, including over Trump's plan to deny citizenship to U.S.-born children of parents who are in the country illegally.

Trump praised the court for its action Monday.

"The Supreme Court has upheld the Rule of Law in our Nation by allowing a President, whoever that may be, to be able to secure our Borders, and protect our families and our Country, itself. A GREAT DAY FOR JUSTICE IN AMERICA!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site.

The original order blocking the deportations to El Salvador was issued by U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg, the chief judge at the federal courthouse in Washington.

Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of five Venezuelan noncitizens who were being held in Texas, hours after the proclamation was made public and as immigration authorities were shepherding hundreds of migrants to waiting airplanes.

ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said the “critical point" of the high court’s ruling was that people must be allowed due process to challenge their removal. "That is an important victory,” he said.

Boasberg imposed a temporary halt on deportations and also ordered planeloads of Venezuelan immigrants to return to the U.S. That did not happen. The judge held a hearing last week over whether the government defied his order to turn the planes around. The administration has invoked a “ state secrets privilege ” and refused to give Boasberg any additional information about the deportations.

Trump and his allies have called for impeaching Boasberg. In a rare statement, Chief Justice John Roberts said “impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.”

Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this report.

Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States peer through windows of an Eastern Airlines plane upon arriving at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, Venezuela, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)