Analyst slams reaction to CSU DB’s dirty hit on now-injured Colorado star: ‘Get a grip’

The dirty hit Colorado State DB Henry Blackburn laid on two-way Colorado football star Travis Hunter on an incomplete pass from Shedeur Sanders in the first quarter of a double-overtime 43-35 Buffs victory in the 2023 Rocky Mountain Showdown has been one of the most talked-about plays of Week 3. CBS Sports’ Shehan Jeyarajah has not been a fan of the reaction, slamming those believing Blackburn should be blackballed from college football and have his scholarship taken away and commending them to “get a grip.”

“It was a late hit,” Jeyarajah prefaced before saying, “It was to send a message. It was dirty. He should have been penalized for it. He was. It is not the most egregious thing to ever happen in college football. He doesn’t need to be ‘banned from the sport.’ His mom doesn’t deserve threats. Get a grip.”

Jeyarajah is right. Anyone wanting Blackburn to be removed from the sport is overreacting. Those going further than that are embarrassing themselves. A several-game suspension should be considered due to the extent of Hunter’s injury.

Colorado football star Travis Hunter to miss several weeks with a lacerated liver

Blackburn’s hit on Hunter was so damaging that it caused a lacerated liver for the two-way Colorado football star; a devastating blow for a Buffs squad that needs all the help it can get against Oregon in Week 4 and USC in Week 5.

“We’re going to do what we got to do to take care of him,” Sanders said after CU’s September 16 win. “I know Travis like a book. He’s probably going to want to be out for two weeks, but his health is more important than this game.”

It’s going to take a team effort to overcome the massive loss of college football’s Shohei Ohtani. We won’t see the two-way MLB star for the rest of September, and unfortunately, that’ll be the case for Hunter too.

But if there’s one position group on the Buffs roster you can consider deep, it’s the secondary.