Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders jersey number retirements comes as a surprise to some former Colorado Buffaloes
The Colorado Buffaloes announced this week they will retire the jersey numbers of both Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders. As soon as the announcement was made controversy started brewing over the football team's move.
The numbers will be retired this Saturday at CU's spring game. It means no future Buff will ever wear No. 12, which was worn by Hunter, or No. 2, which was worn by Sanders.
Hunter won the Heisman Trophy and is coming off one of the greatest seasons in college football history. He played both wide receiver and defensive back for the Buffaloes and had 96 receptions and 15 touchdowns last year. The person throwing the football to him, Shedeur Sanders, was the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award winner as the nation's top quarterback and was also the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year.
It's worth noting that CU only has four other jersey numbers that have been retired. The last player to have a jersey retired was Rashaan Salaam (No. 19). Salaam won the Heisman Trophy back in 1994, but his jersey wasn't retired until his death in 2017.
No one is arguing that Hunter and Sanders had great college careers, and retiring Hunter's number especially because he won the Heisman Trophy is a no-brainer. However, a lot of people, including a lot of former Buffs players, think it's too soon to retire those numbers, and that maybe there should have been a longer waiting period.
One of the strongest rebukes came from Michael Jones, who was a captain of the 1989 team. He said retiring these numbers is "the most flagrant disrespect to the true legends who built CU football from the ground up." He went on to call it "INJUSTICE masquerading as celebration."
Other players who have weighed include Chad Brown and Darrin Chiaverini -- who believe former players from CU's teams in the late 80s and early 90s, like Darian Hagan and Kordell Stewart, haven't properly been recognized.
