Travis Hunter, Colorado’s two-way sensation, will miss the Buffaloes’ highly-anticipated game against USC on Saturday.
Hunter suffered a lacerated liver on Sept. 16 against Colorado State after he was the subject of a late and unnecessarily violent hit by the Rams defensive back Henry Blackburn. He also missed last week’s big game against Oregon (his teammates struggled without him) and is expected to be out next week against Arizona State as well.
Hunter could be bitter. He could be angry. He could sit quietly as fans harass Blackburn online, or he could even jump into the fray as well.
After all, the game he loves and the chance to compete at the highest level was unfairly taken from him for a few weeks. Besides, “lacerated liver” doesn’t sound like a pleasant thing to deal with.
Hunter is, unequivocally, a victim and in 2023 society is overrun with people actively playing that card whether it’s merited or not.
Instead, Travis Hunter not only made comments excusing Blackburn, this week he invited Blackburn on his YouTube channel. It was an effort to prove all wasn’t just forgiven, but by taking the time to get to know each other, they had actually formed a friendship from an unlikely place.
In a day and age when too many actively search for a slight, Hunter instead went looking for a solution. Where many retreat to their corners, he went looking for a connection.
“For the people that love to see the negativity, this ain’t a negative video, man,” Hunter said. “It’s straight positive. There’s nothing but positivity this way.”
Straight positive.
How rare is that?
Coaches scream at each other on national television over minor comments. Senators troll each other on social media. Seemingly everyone tries to villainize the “other side” in an effort to secure sympathy or clout or power or ego.
Yet here is this 20-year-old out in Boulder going the opposite direction.
The right direction.
“It’s football,” Hunter said. “It’s a game… Stop being negative. We don’t like negativity … This is what the game does for you. It can bring you together. It’s football at the end of the day. We are all brothers.”
The show consisted of Hunter and Blackburn sitting on a park bench talking about life, football and asking each other questions so they could get to know each other on a personal level. Later, they went bowling and raised money for Realities for Children, a Colorado charity which aids abused, neglected and at-risk youth.
The two originally connected after Blackburn knocked Hunter out of the game with a late shot to Hunter’s chest. Blackburn, a senior who grew up in Boulder, was flagged on the play and was later on the receiving end of online vitriol, including threats against him.
Both Hunter and his coach, Deion Sanders, immediately pleaded with fans to leave Blackburn alone, calling the hit part of an emotional sport. Soon Hunter and Blackburn were communicating online and then via a phone call.
On Thursday, they were on Hunter’s popular YouTube channel, which is now allowable due to college players being granted rights over the name, image and likeness. Hunter wanted to control the message.
Hopefully that message spreads.
“This video is something good,” Hunter said. “Us coming together is something good that came out of that injury and that football game.”
“I appreciate how you handled it,” Blackburn said. “A lot of people would [feel] hatred. You just handled it in a mature way.”
Hunter is a sophomore from outsider Atlanta and arguably the most interesting person in college football. He was the No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2022, but turned down offers from every major program to sign with Sanders and Jackson State, an HBCU that played a lower level of football. Not since the sport fully integrated had such a recruit made such a decision.
Hunter’s connection with Sanders is deep. He cried on Sanders’ shoulders before his first college game and then starred at both wide receiver and cornerback. He continued the two-way act when he followed Coach Prime to Colorado this year, logging almost unheard of 120-plus plays in each of Buffs’ first two games.
Around the team, he’s known as an intense competitor but a quiet soul. He calls himself “goofy” and said one reason he wasn’t mad at Blackburn was because it’s almost impossible to make him “angry.” While he certainly aspires to play in the NFL, he said he also dreams of being on the Pro Bass Fishing Tour.
If nothing else, though, he should serve as an example to all. A little grace. A little kindness. A little perspective can go a long way to improving a world too often bent on crushing or canceling opposition.
Sanders likes to signal out his top players as either “dawgs” or “leaders” and notes that not every dog is a leader and not every leader is a dog.
Travis Hunter is both, and only his leadership extends far beyond the football field and hopefully into the thinking of everyone, everywhere.
