Coach Prime condemns death threats against Colorado State player
That kid does not deserve that,” Colorado coach Deion Sanders said at his weekly press conference Tuesday in Boulder.
BOULDER, Colo. — Before the Colorado Buffaloes face their biggest test of the 2023 football season so far, head coach Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders addressed the death threats against Colorado State safety Henry Blackburn.
Colorado State head coach Jay Norvell said on Monday that Blackburn has been receiving death threats since his late hit that hospitalized Colorado two-way star Travis Hunter. According to media reports, Hunter suffered a lacerated liver and will be out for a few weeks.
Blackburn drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty Saturday night for the blow he delivered to Hunter’s midsection on a deep pass in the first quarter of the Rocky Mountain Showdown.
“Henry Blackburn is a good player who played a phenomenal game. He made a tremendous hit on Travis on the sideline. You can call it dirty, you can call it he was just playing the game of football,” Sanders said Tuesday. “But whatever it was it does not constitute that he should be receiving death threats.
“This is still a young man that’s trying to make it in life, a guy that’s trying to live his dream and hopefully graduate with honors or a degree, committed to excellence and go to the NFL,” Sanders said. “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. Everyone continues their life the next day.
“Very unfortunate, I’m saddened if any of our fans are on the other side of those threats. I would hope and pray not,” Sanders said. “That kid was just playing the best of his ability, and he made a mistake. I forgive him, our team forgives him, Travis has forgiven him, let’s move on. But that kid does not deserve that.
“Let’s pray for that kid. That’s absurd people to be threatening him,” Sanders said. “I don’t mind getting death threats, I get them every week, but a kid, that’s not good.”
