Deion Sanders comes to the defense of CSU safety Henry Blackburn amid reports of death threats

Deion Sanders didn’t offer any criticism towards Colorado State’s Henry Blackburn during his Tuesday press conference.

The Rams defensive back hit Colorado star Travis Hunter late, which caused the latter’s injury and drew a penalty. Blackburn was heavily criticized for the move and later received death threats following the loss to the Buffaloes.

Sanders came to Blackburn’s defense and wanted everyone to pray for the defensive back.

“Henry Blackburn. I want you guys to record this and run with this,” Sanders said. “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 – but whatever it was, it does not constitute that he should be receiving death threats.”

Sanders continued his defense of Blackburn to the media in attendance.

“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,” 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 lost. Everybody continues their life the next day. Very unfortunate.

“I’m saddened if there is any of our fans 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.

Sanders added one more tidbit about the Blackburn situation.

“Let’s pray for that kid, man,” Sanders 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.”

Blackburn received a lot of flack, but it accelerated which led to the involvement of Colorado State police.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel had more after speaking with Parker.

“Spoke to Colorado State athletic director Joe Parker about the harassment of defensive back Henry Blackburn, who delivered a controversial late hit on Colorado’s Travis Hunter on Saturday,” Thamel wrote in a Twitter thread. “Parker said that Colorado State police has worked in concert with local authorities to look into the threats – which have included death threats – on social media against Blackburn and his family.

“By the time the game ended on Saturday, both Henry and his mother’s cell phone numbers had been published on the Internet. They’ve been inundated with threatening calls and text messages. Henry’s campus address and his family’s home address were also published.”

Parker released a statement to ESPN and Thamel.

“We’re very concerned about our player’s safety, as Henry and his family have continued to receive these threats,” Parker told ESPN. “Henry never intended to put anyone in harm’s way on the football field. It’s not what we teach or coach. We hope that the irrational vitriol directed at Henry stops immediately.”