Travis Hunter speaks out after late hit landed him in hospital
Colorado two-way football star Travis Hunter will miss up to three games after taking a hard hit in last weekend's double-overtime win against Colorado State that landed him in the hospital, and now he's speaking out about the controversial play.
“It’s football at the end of the day,” Hunter said on a live stream.
“Stuff like that is going to happen, so I just stay humble. He [Colorado State safety Hunter Blackburn] did what he was supposed to do. It’s football. Something bad is going to happen on the field sooner or later.
“You’ve just gotta get up and fight again. That’s what I try to do, get up and fight. Good thing the doctors stopped me, because if there was no doctors there, I would have still been out there playing. But I’m thankful for everybody that helped me.”
Hunter absorbed a hard, late hit from Blackburn in the first quarter of Saturday's game and received attention from medical trainers on the field.
He returned to the game and recorded a tackle, but was ultimately pulled from the field and transported to a local hospital for further evaluation.
Blackburn was called for unnecessary roughness on the tackle, finishing the game with five total tackles and an interception.
But in the days afterwards, Blackburn and his family were the subject of hate and even death threats over the play. Colorado State Police opened an investigation into comments made against them after his and mother's cell phone numbers were published online, as was his campus address and family's home address.
Hunter's absence comes during arguably the toughest part of Colorado's schedule, depriving the team of one of its most important players, who played around 85 percent of the Buffaloes' total snaps before his injury.
Colorado's next three games are at No. 10 Oregon, at home against No. 5 USC, and on the road against unranked Arizona State, all matchups that Hunter could miss before his projected return in time for the Buffaloes' home game against Stanford on Oct. 13.
More college football from SI: Top 25 Rankings | Schedule | Teams
Follow College Football HQ: Bookmark | Rankings | Picks