Writeup courtesy of Sam Briggs
Just about every college football fan is keeping an eye on the Colorado Buffaloes. It’s hard not to with Publicity King, Deion Sanders, leading the team in his first year and started the season exceeding expectations. However, this isn’t about what happened on the field, but the result of it.
It started with an unfortunate play early in the Colorado vs Colorado State game. Offensive and defensive star Travis Hunter sustained an injury on a late hit that many believed to be dirty. A hard, blindside shot to the ribs by Colorado State DB Henry Blackburn sent Hunter out of the game and kept him sidelined for several weeks. The Buffaloes hung on in 2OT to scrape out the win against Colorado State and moved on to 3-0 on the season, but the Colorado faithful knew they had more to worry about.
Later, while everyone was anxiously awaiting his return and worried for the health of their star player, Hunter took to making a YouTube video. In his video, he sits down with Colorado State defender Henry Blackburn (the culprit of the late hit) to learn more about him and develop a relationship off the field. Travis starts the video by welcoming Blackburn and saying he made this happen “for the people that love to see negativity.” From talking about their childhoods to their motivations and hobbies, they sat on the bench outside a local Colorado bowling alley becoming brothers. Travis then had a few more inspiring words that really showed how upstanding he is, saying, “I feel like if that didn’t happen, we won’t be here right now, so it’s a blessing that it happened.” For a young man who was off to an incredibly hot start at Colorado before his injury, we should all admire this positivity and look to be more like Travis.
Of course, these were just introductions as they then headed inside to bowl it out for charity. Each player put up $1,000 and the winner would donate the $2,000 to their choice of charity. Hunter came out on top but allowed Blackburn to choose the organization. Henry chose Realities for Children, a local program that “provides for the emergency and ongoing support needs of children in Northern Colorado who have been abused, neglected, abandoned, or are at-risk,” according to their website. The new friends hugged it out and told us to stay tuned for more similar content coming soon.
It should also be noted that Deion Sanders had no knowledge of this before it happened, and he reassured us that the idea came 100% from Travis Hunter, saying, “I had nothing to do with it and I loved it because, honestly, that’s who he is. You talk about the kindest, nicest kid. No smoking. No drinking. All he wants to do is spend time with his girlfriend and fish and put on that onesie.”
On Oct 14 Hunter returned for Colorado's matchup with Stanford and went off for 140 receiving yards and 2 TDs on the day. Unfortunately for Colorado, this 2OT game went the way of Stanford, and after a tough stretch playing Top-10 Oregon and USC without Hunter, the Buffaloes stand at 4-3 with Top-25 UCLA and Oregon State on the upcoming schedule.
You can watch Travis Hunter's video below: