© Mark J. Rebilas/Imagn
Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter are undeniably two iconic figures in the history of Colorado Buffaloes football. Hunter, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, and Sanders, a likely top-10 pick in the upcoming 2025 NFL Draft, helped drag the Buffs program out of the doldrums of college football and back to relevance. For their hard work, the Colorado program has decided to honor the pair by retiring each of their numbers, and Buffaloes fans are not very happy about it.
“The Colorado Buffaloes will retire uniform numbers 2 and 12 to honor Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter at the annual Spring Game as part of Black & Gold Day Saturday,” the program announced on Monday evening.
No. 2 & No. 12 — Officially Untouchable. 🦬
Witness Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter have their jersey numbers retired during the Spring Game on April 19th.
🎟️: https://t.co/H4xwlMeXQF pic.twitter.com/xRPe9kazzj
— Colorado Buffaloes Football (@CUBuffsFootball) April 14, 2025
Hunter joined Rashaan Salaam has the only Colorado players to ever win the Heisman Trophy. So it’s not a huge surprise to see the program retire his number. Although few people imagined that it would happen this quickly. Sanders, meanwhile, won the Johnny Unitas Award as the top upperclassman quarterback in the nation. But he was not named an All-American and Colorado went just 13-12 in his two years as the starting quarterback.
While you’d expect Colorado fans to be excited about the news, it turns out their reactions were largely the opposite.
“This was a bad idea and I’m surprised (Athletic Director) Rick (George) doesn’t how bad the optics are,” one fan wrote on the BuffStampede message board.
“Lol this is dumb. Travis for sure down the line. But Shedeur? Yikes.”
Most fans seemed to agree that Hunter was a lock for the honor. The controversy surrounds Sanders, who is, of course, the son of current head coach Deion Sanders.
Colorado currently has four players with retired numbers: Salaam, College Football Hall of Fame member Byron White (c/o 1937), former captain Joe Romig (1961) and consensus All-American Bobby Anderson (1969). Hunter and Sanders are set to become the fifth and six members of the illustrious club.