During his weekly press conference on Tuesday, Colorado football head coach Deion Sanders said all has been forgiven between him and Colorado State defensive back Henry Blackburn, who on Saturday delivered a late hit on Travis Hunter that sent him to the hospital.
“Henry Blackburn is a good player who played a phenomenal game,” Sanders said. “He made a tremendous hit on Travis on the sidelines. You can call it dirty, you can call it (anything), he was just playing the game of football. But whatever it was, it does not constitute that he should be receiving death threats. This is still a young man trying to make it in life, a guy who is trying to live his dream and hopefully graduate with honors or a degree, committed to excellence and go to the NFL. He does not deserve a death threat over a game. At the end of the day, this is a game. Someone must win; someone must lose. Everybody continues their life the next day. It’s very unfortunate. I’m saddened and if there’s any of our fans that’s on the other side of those threats — I would hope and pray not — but that kid was just playing to the best of his ability and he made a mistake. I forgive him, our team forgives him. Travis, he’s forgiven him. Let’s move on.”
Sanders’ comments were spot on. Football is just a game. And while Blackburn’s late hit didn’t exactly align with how football should be played, let’s hope he learns from his mistake.
Colorado safety Shilo Sanders spoke to the media after Coach Prime and shared the following thoughts on the situation:
“I really wanted to whoop that dude.”
Shilo Sanders talks about losing Travis. pic.twitter.com/fPqgAftpem
— Nikki Edwards (@nikkiedwardsss) September 19, 2023
We learned on Monday that Hunter suffered a lacerated liver and will miss at least three weeks.
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