Emmanuel Sanders recounts how he agreed to join the Broncos while in Chiefs’ facility
After four years with the Pittsburgh Steelers, wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders became a free agent in 2014 and the Chiefs were one of his suitors.
Sanders visited Kansas City in March of that year, and then-general manager John Dorsey and coach Andy Reid believed Sanders had agreed to sign with the Chiefs.
Instead, Sanders left KC and signed with the Broncos, and his agent denied ever having a deal with the Chiefs. After joining Denver, Sanders and his agent, Steve Weinberg, put out a news release to refute reports that a deal had ever been in place with the Chiefs.
“Sanders left the building, there was no deal — not in principle or otherwise,” that 2014 release said in part. “Second, this failure to seal the deal is what led other disclosed and undisclosed NFL teams to call Sanders and Weinberg directly, not the other way around.”
Turns out that wasn’t true.
Sanders on Wednesday retired from the NFL as a member of the Broncos, and he shared insights into what really happened that day in Kansas City. He in fact was ready to sign with the Chiefs when he got a call from John Elway, who was the Broncos’ general manager at the time.
“All of a sudden, I get to Kansas City, and I knew I wanted to come here, because of Peyton (Manning) and everything that they had. But I didn’t get a call from John Elway,” Sanders said Wednesday. “So, I’m sitting there, in the Kansas City Chiefs’ facility, and I get that call.”
Sanders wasn’t just visiting the Chiefs, he was working out details of a contract. But after Elway’s phone call, Sanders’ next move was figuring out how to leave the Chiefs’ facility.
“I don’t want to keep talking about this story, but Andy Reid had left. And I’m sitting there and we we’re trying to work out the logistics because I wanted to sign a three-year (contract), they wanted me to sign a four,” Sanders recalled. “And I told them, ‘No, I’m only signing a three.’ So Andy Reid, he thinks I’m signing with the Chiefs. All of a sudden ... I get the call in the facility that I can go to Denver. I tell him (Elway) I’m going to Denver, so I’m there in their facility. And I remember telling them (the Chiefs), ‘I kind of want to just go back to my hotel and figure out the situation. You know, like, I don’t know what I want to do. I might sign. I don’t know.’
“But I was just trying to get out of there so I can go really celebrate because I’m gonna go play with Peyton freaking Manning, the Sheriff, you know what I mean? So they wouldn’t let me out of the facility. So I remember trying to leave and I remember Andy Reid, I see his car just flying down. It was flying down. He hopped out and (said), ‘what is going on?’ And you know, I don’t care to go into too many crazy details, but that’s just how close it was. Because I was literally sitting in that room like, I’m about to sign. I remember calling all my family. I told them, I’m about to sign with the Chiefs, and it didn’t happen. I ended up coming here (Denver), which is the best thing ever.”
This story was originally published September 8, 2022 at 9:19 AM.
