CU Buffs’ Coach Prime condemns threats made to CSU’s Henry Blackburn
Brian HowellSeptember 19, 2023 at 3:37 p.m.
BOULDER,CO SEPTEMBER 16: Colorado’s Deion Sanders talks to his players during the game against Colorado State in Boulder on September 16, 2023.(Cliff Grassmick/Staff Photographer)
Like the rest of Buff Nation, Colorado head football coach Deion Sanders didn’t like seeing his star player get knocked out of a game on Saturday.
He also managed to put the play in perspective on Tuesday at his weekly press conference, condemning death threats levied at Colorado State safety Henry Blackburn.
In the first quarter of CU’s 43-35 double-overtime victory on Saturday at Folsom Field, Blackburn delivered an illegal hit on Buffs receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter. Blackburn was flagged 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct, while Hunter eventually left the game and went to the hospital with a lacerated liver.
Hunter is expected to miss the next three to four weeks. On Monday, CSU head coach Jay Norvell revealed that Blackburn, a graduate of Fairview High School in Boulder, and his family had received death threats since that game.
Sanders made it a point Tuesday to tell fans to stop those threats.
“Henry Blackburn is a good player who played a phenomenal game,” Sanders said. “He made a tremendous hit on Travis on the sideline. You could call it dirty, you could call it he was just playing the game of football. But whatever it was, it does not constitute that he should be receiving death threats. This is still a young man 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.
“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. Everybody continues their life the next day. Very unfortunate. I’m saddened if there’s any of our fans that’s on the other side of those threats. I would hope and pray not, but that kid was just playing the best of his ability and he made a mistake. So I forgive him. CU, our team forgives him. Travis, he’s forgiven him. Let’s move on. But that kid does not deserve that.”
On the play, CU quarterback Shedeur Sanders tried to connect with Hunter on a deep pass down the left sideline. CSU’s Ayden Hector was flagged for pass interference and the ball was incomplete. Blackburn was about five yards away from Hunter when the ball hit the ground, but he continued pursuit, lowered his shoulder and hit Hunter in the mid-section.
Buffs’ safety Shilo Sanders said he thought it was a dirty play by Blackburn and had a different tone than his father.
“I really wanted to whup that dude that did that to him, for real, like after the game or something,” Shilo Sanders said. “If I see him just around here somewhere he gotta watch out, but that really made me mad, you know, just seeing him trying to play dirty like that. That was crazy. I thought something would happen, like punishment wise. If one of us did something like that, if I did that, I think it’d be like way crazier than that. They would have kicked me out for sure. So I didn’t really like that.”
While emotions of seeing his friend and teammate get taken out came over Shilo, his dad said he hopes coaches are not intentionally trying to take shots at the Buffs’ star players.
“That’s not having character,” Coach Prime. “I don’t know how you’re going to have success and longevity in his game coaching in that aspect. I don’t condone that. I don’t teach that. I didn’t condone it when I played the game from any of my teammates, as well. You want to be dominant, but you want to play clean because at the end of the day, you want your opponents’ respect. You do. I’m not saying that’s what transpired (with CSU), but it’s unfortunate if it did.
“This is a game. I mean, we want to win but we don’t want to step outside the lines to win. Character is everything with us.”
As he got up to leave at the end of his press conference, Coach Prime offered one last show of support for Blackburn.
“Let’s pray for that kid, man,” he said. “That’s absurd for people to be threatening him. I don’t mind getting death threats; I get them every week. But a kid, that’s not good.”