Was It Cheap Or Was It "Football?"

Hopefully everyone’s emotions have settled down a little bit since the hit heard round the world. A single hit coming in the week three rivalry game where Colorado outlasted Colorado State in double-overtime by a score of 43-35 has overtaken the sports world and it is very much split, both by fans around the country, and current and former players of the sport. Injuries happen in football and some of them are severe, but here the question has been, was this on purpose?

I’ve watched football my entire life. I’ve studied football my entire adult life. I’ve covered everything from High School, College, and the NFL for many years now. From an opinion writer, to color analyst, to on-air play-by-play commentator. I can say without question and without thinking twice that the hit on Travis Hunter by Rams player Henry Blackburn was with intent to hurt. Not the kind of intent to hurt that you want to do as a football player to make them remember you’re there. It was an intent to put in the hospital and taken out of the game for good. His body language thereafter has shown he doesn’t care, meant to do it, and knows there isn’t any consequences for it. Head coach of CSU Jay Norvell has absolutely taught and signed off on attempting to end a kid’s career. The football program has now signed off on it, by not saying anything or doing anything. I think Norvell and Blackburn should be suspended for as long as Travis is out with this injury. If you didn’t hear yet, he has a lacerated liver.

Coach Norvell says they don’t want anyone to get hurt and they don’t teach that kind of ball, but I can say without a shadow of a doubt that he is lying and fully intended to have one of his players put one of the Buffaloes in the hospital. That was part of their game plan. That’s who is as a “human being,” and that is who Blackburn is as a person as well. Yes, there was a lot of dirty play in that game, but only one put a player in the hospital. Only one was so bad that NFL players known for tough play went public with a suspension was needed and that wasn’t football. I’ve watching it from every angle possible in every slow/fast motion available and I’ve watched angles of Blackburn before and after and how the coaching staff at Colorado State acted before and after. Their responses after shows me all I need to know. I’m not a fan of either team in anyway so I have no emotional attachment to it one way or the other. However, I know right from wrong and I know remorse. Not a single person with a functional brain can really say it was just a dirty hit with an unfortunate ending. It was 100% on purpose. It was in their gameplan to hospitalize a player at all cost and one of the star players for Colorado was the target. Jay Norvell isn’t teaching football. Henry Blackburn wasn’t playing football. They meant to hurt Travis and didn’t care about the kid after the deed was done. They even talked shit and flexed to the sideline after he couldn’t get back up. Mission accomplished because they did their research and knew nobody in-charge would do anything about it.