Richard Sherman Suggests There Was a Bounty Out on Travis Hunter

The Colorado-Colorado State slugfest this weekend was an incredible college football game but Deion Sanders' squad suffered a big blow in their victory. Two-way superstar Travis Hunter got drilled on a cheap, late hit by a Colorado State safety and was hospitalized afterwards. Sanders said he'd miss a few weeks and Skip Bayless reported on Undisputed today that Hunter had a lacerated liver. A brutal blow for a Heisman hopeful and a disappointment to all who appreciated the rarity of what Hunter was doing out there for the Buffaloes.

Piggybacking off Bayless' report this morning, Richard Sherman expressed his outrage at the hit that knocked Hunter out before suggesting there was a bounty out on him and that's why he got hurt.

An extremely irresponsible and baseless thing to say on TV, some would argue. I certainly would. The quote Sherman cited from the anonymous defensive coordinator is the most cookie-cutter quote in football. Saying his team is going to "take a guy out" is very common footballspeak for shutting him down. For Sherman to twist that into a bounty narrative as a former player comes across as an intentionally disingenuous decision made in order to fit the point he's making.

The player who hit Hunter should have been ejected, to be sure, but Sherman seems to suggest the fact that he wasn't means there was a bounty. Implying... that the NCAA had the refs going along with a bounty on a college student? Does that not seem off to anybody on the Undisputed set? Evidently not, because Bayless says at the very end of the clip that he agrees.

It was a late hit. It was a dirty hit. None of that means there was a freaking bounty. Sherman is being reckless by pushing such a preposterous claim on television.