Colorado's Travis Hunter Out For At Least 3 Weeks, and The Colorado State Player Who Hit Him Is Getting Killed By The Internet
I'm sure by now you've seen this hit, considering it's your patriotic duty to be fully invested in Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes this year. I've been following the situation closely since the hit happened. As someone who is very caught up in the whole Colorado football thing, I was genuinely upset sitting in my bed at 11:30 PM EST when #11 Henry Blackburn of Colorado State hit the best player in the history of ball based sports, Travis Hunter, late along the sideline. I thought Blackburn should have been kicked out. I was surprised he wasn't. I thought it was bullshit.
And I got a little more upset when I learned that Travis Hunter was legitimately in the hospital while Blackburn continued to play very mediocre safety for the Colorado State Rams.
And because I've been on the internet for a while, and I know how things typically go, I couldn't help but go straight to Henry Blackburns' Twitter. I apologize for not taking screen shots, because he's fully gone private by now, but it's probably better I didn't. I'm not sure I could have posted the replies either way. It was nothing but death threats mixed with KKK and Hitler memes. People were fucking pissed. And what makes it scarier is that the pissed off people feel 100% justified. It's one thing when fans are mad at a player for sucking. That's more or less just people caught up in the moment who are angry at a loss. Not that it's excusable, but usually after a day or two they realize how insane they're being. But when angry fans truly believe in their heart of hearts that the person who's life they're threatening deserves every bit of it... that's a scary combination for a college kid.
After the game, I went back to Blackburn's Twitter profile, which was still not private at the time. The ONLY saving grace for Blackburn is that he was the safety who got burnt on Colorado's game tying touchdown at the end of the 4th quarter.
So for a minute there, the threats of death and accusations of racism were curbed by videos of him getting torched by Jimmy Horn Jr., which resulted in Colorado winning the football game. For just a minute, I mistakenly thought Blackburn might end up ok. I thought getting burnt to lose the game would be enough retribution for the livid Colorado faithful (who have never watched a game until this season) to go on about their lives. But that was short lived. This morning, the news dropped that Travis Hunter will be out for 3-4 weeks, and all over ESPN and networks across America, football analysts are calling for Blackburn to be suspended.
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Just a whole mess of accusations. All fueling the fire. People calling for Blackburn to be suspended for the duration of Hunter's injury, if not for the entire season. Speculation on whether or not Colorado State put a bounty on Travis Hunter's head is out there via Richard Sherman. It almost seems like the general consensus is that Colorado State's Head Coach Jay Norvell condones the hit. I'm not going to take a stance on whether or not I think that's true. It wouldn't surprise me if there was some direction to hit Colorado players has hard as they possibly could. But I wasn't there, so I can't definitively say either way. All I can say is that Colorado State was hitting the shit out of Colorado all game long.
Jay Norvell didn't give much post game either. He definitely didn't do anything to take the heat off of Blackburn, or imply that the situation is being dealt with internally. Which in my opinion would only help his case. If Colorado fans felt like there was at least some sort of punishment or action being taken within, then maybe that would cool things a bit. But instead, Norvell basically said nothing.
Denver Sports - Meanwhile, Rams head coach Jay Norvell had little to offer about the play which has caused outrage even from LeBron James.
“I mean, I don’t know. He hit him on the sideline,” Norvell said about the hit after the double-overtime loss. “It was hard for me to see over there. I can’t answer that.”
So now it seems like the general consensus is that the Colorado State football team is fully behind Henry Blackburn. Which is fine. They should be behind him to some degree. He's their player. But I truly think they could help this kid out A LOT by giving him some sort of punishment. Or somehow letting the world know that they don't condone dirty play, and the situation is being dealt with internally. It's not going to put an end to the criticism entirely, but it's going to help him out in the long run.
I don't know what the right move is. I don't know how this situation should be handled. But if I had to give Henry Blackburn a definitive punishment, I would fall back on the old Stephen A. Smith rule that he should have to sit out for as long as Travis Hunter is injured. That seems fair to me. If Colorado State came out right now and said that Henry Blackburn would not play until Travis Hunter is back on the field, I sincerely think that would be best for all parties. In today's world, when you fuck with "America's Sweetheart", there's going to be a scary amount of blow back on the internet. Scary as hell.
Colorado State, I promise your season is not that important. Help the kid out and at least make him sit out a week or two. Because people online are fucking scary.