NO GREATER JOY THAN A DUAL THREAT AS TRAVIS HUNTER AWAITS HIS BLAZE IN THE NFL
The Heisman Trophy is a confirmation for his Colorado coach, Deion Sanders, but the team that lands Hunter should turn him loose on offense and defense and give the league a potent two-way presence
Our football memories begin in the backyard. We catch passes, then defend them, until we pick one side of the field or become absolute freaks. Travis Hunter was told by Deion Sanders that he would continue as a dual threat in college, and on Saturday evening, he won the Heisman Trophy after compiling 1,222 yards and 15 touchdowns on offense and collecting four interceptions in Velcro lockdowns on his defensive island.
He is the NFL’s next deft cornerback, in the realm of Sanders. He will contribute his explosions as a wide receiver. He is not tired after 713 defensive snaps and 709 offensive snaps. Nothing thrills a sports fan more than a player with multiple threats. If Hunter is not Shohei Ohtani, he disrupts a game with his 120-play swirl that transcends even the almighty quarterbacks, who didn’t hold the award for only the third time in 15 years.
“I'm motivated when people tell me I can't do something — that I can't dominate on both sides of the ball,” Hunter said. “I want to be an example for others that anything is possible. Keep pursuing your dreams.
“I think I laid the ground for more people to come in and go two way. It starts with your mindset. If you believe you can do it, then you’ll be able to do it. I do a lot of treatment. I keep up with my body. I get a lot of recovery.”
And on the next level, where Richard Sherman has doubted him as a “bland” receiver, Hunter says he should be drafted No. 1 overall over his Colorado teammate, quarterback Shedeur Sanders, who threw a ball in the New York streets Friday with Giants receiver Malik Nabers. “I’m super confident, and I believe that I can do it at the next level,” Hunter said. “I’m not going to let anyone tell me that I can't do something that I already done. They said I couldn't do it in college, and I ended up doing it in college. A lot of people tell me I can't do it in the NFL, but I'm going to still do it in the NFL. You know, a lot of people just let other people get in their ear, so they don't let them do it, and some people don't have the body type to be able to go both ways full time.”
The confirmation means more than verifying Hunter as an extraordinary talent. It finally gives Sanders a hit of credibility as a coach. After a wild storm of national hype last year, he took media burns as a bum before reemerging with a 9-3 season fueled by Hunter and his son, Shedeur. His buddy on insurance commercials, Nick Saban, coached four Heisman winners with Frank Leahy. But he has one and sat proudly in the audience at Lincoln Center.
“Travis Hunter has proved every week that he is the best player in college football. You've got to give me another definition of the award,” Sanders said. “The award is to go to who? The best quarterback? He's up for best offensive player, best defensive player, a plethora of things. Who else has done that? Ever? Travis is him, man, Travis is that dude. Ain't nobody can deal with him on either side of the ball.”
At one point, Deion asked voters to ignore any dislike of him. “Don’t allow their hatred for me to interfere with kids’ success. They got to stop that,” he said. “Y’all got to stop. Some of y’all like that. Y’all got to stop that, man. Get the kids what they deserve, man.”
Hunter was celebrated after an upbringing when he was raised in a small hotel room in Lawrenceville, Ga., where he lived with his mother, his stepfather and three siblings. His family moved to the distant Atlanta suburb, where all he knew about college ball came on video games. Sanders recruited him from Florida State to Jackson State, with the help of his son, who noted Hunter was TikToking him. “Bro, if I make the TikTok, you got to commit, man,” Shedeur said.
The rest is lore. Hunter won’t be the only two-timer in the NFL. Scott Matlock plays for the Los Angeles Chargers on both sides of the ball as a defensive lineman and fullback. Baltimore’s Patrick Ricard went 342 plays on offense and 140 on defense in 2019. J.J. Watt once set aside his Hall of Fame defensive career to catch passes. Look it up: Mike Vrabel caught passes, and Julian Edelman played on defense. But here we have someone who insists on bigger magic, deciding to play in Colorado’s Dec. 28 bowl game against BYU when others in his spot — a possible No. 1 in the draft — would have moved on.
“It's definitely important because, you know, I started this thing with Coach Prime and Shedeur and most of the coaches on the coaching staff, so I want to finish it off right,” Hunter said. “I'm going to go ahead and end this thing off right. It's going to be our last game together, so I'm going to go out there and dominate and show the loyalty that I have for him. I'm just excited to go out there and play football.’’
He plays more football — hundreds of snaps from center each season — than the usual Heisman winner. Travis Hunter is 21. He lives in a country where some people his age bag the meaning of work. His interest is to work at a larger rate in the NFL. “I can’t stop moving when I’m not on the field,” he said before he held the bronze trophy. “I’ve go to sty on the field to make plays.”
Wherever he goes — Jacksonville, New England, Carolina — tap him at both positions. Let us watch.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.