By Scott Salomon
Colorado State defensive back Henry Blackburn laid a vicious hit on Travis Hunter that landed the two-way star in the hospital Saturday night with a lacerated liver. The hit might have been a cheap shot, but it was not illegal according to Coach Prime and Hunter himself.
“Henry Blackburn is a good player, who played a phenomenal game,” Deion Sanders said at his weekly press conference. “He made a tremendous hit on Travis on the sideline – you could call it dirty, you could call it that he was just playing the game of football. But whatever it was, it does not constitute that he should be receiving death threats.”
Blackburn and his family have been receiving death threats and their home address and Blackburn’s campus address were posted online, according to Rams’ head coach Jay Norvell. Blackburn’s cellphone number and that of his mother were splattered on the internet, which lead to many unwanted and possibly illegal calls and texts.
“I reviewed the play,” Norvell said,” per Kevin Lytle of the Fort Collins-based coloradoan.com. “Its’ a play that happens sometimes.
“When you throw a deep ball and have a guy playing middle safety, he has to react on the boundary and he’s going full speed,” Norvell justified when discussing the aforementioned hit. “It was a bang-bang type of a play.”
However, Norvell did say that the hit was not something that he condones, despite what might be said around the country.
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“The officials looked at it and we looked at it,” Norvell added. “It’s certainly not something that we teach or coach. It happens in football sometimes. Seems to have been a lot of attention about that play, but it’s a play that happens.”
Former NFL quarterback Donovan McNabb said on the inaugural episode of his new podcast “The 5 Spot with Donovan McNabb” felt differently than Sanders and feels that Blackburn should be suspended.
“I think what it led to was the players now having animosity on the field, which led to that hit on Travis Hunter. Which I still think he should be suspended, the safety should be suspended for at least four games for that,” McNabb said. “Now, does that happen in college? No, but that’s unacceptable. That’s truly unacceptable.”
McNabb was not finished with his desecration of Norvell and said that Norvell’s off the field antics encouraged the players to look for blood.
“As far as the spat is concerned, Norvell went too far,” McNabb said of the incident where Norvell called out Sanders before the game for wearing his hat and sunglasses while doing interviews. “He went too far. And being a guy that his program has really struggled over the last four, five years, he brought some positivity to them. But then you didn’t have to call him out. And when you call Deion out, Deion is going to make entertainment out of it.”
Sanders went on to say that the play saddens him, but he has forgiven Blackburn and so has Hunter. It’s time to move on.
“I forgive [Blackburn], our team’s forgiven him, Travis has forgiven him, let’s move on,” Sanders said. “This is a young man trying to make it in life, a guy that’s trying to live his dream and hopefully graduate with honors or a degree, commit to excellence and go to the NFL. He does not deserve a death threat over a game……That kid was just playing to the best of his ability and he made a mistake.”
Hunter, from his hospital room, said that the hit was just part of the game.
“He did what he’s supposed to do,” Hunter said. “”It’s football. Something bad’s going to happen on the field sooner or later. You’ve just got to get up and fight again. That’s what I try to do, just get up and fight. Good thing the doctors stopped me. It’s football.”
Norvell discussed the death threats and was quite perturbed.
“Our university is supporting him (Blackburn). The police department is supporting him because of the seriousness of the threats that have come out of this,” Norvell said. “It’s just sad. It’s sad that that’s the state of the world we live in. It’s a football game. Let’s not make it more than that. We don’t want anybody to get hurt. We don’t coach that kind of football.”
Hunter will miss games versus Oregon, USC, and Arizona State at the very least. Sources say that it could take 5-6 months for a lacerated liver to completely heal.
In the first two games of the year, Hunter intercepted a pass on defense to go along with 14 receptions for 192 yards in wins over TCU and Nebraska.
