Reaction to Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter’s two-sentence response to a question about two-way players has been decidedly one-sided. Few agree with him.
Even fellow football players ridiculed Hunter’s assertion that playing offense and defense in the NFL would be more difficult than hitting and pitching a baseball at Shohei Ohtani’s level.
“I got to get Travis Hunter in the batting cage,” former All-Pro wide receiver Chad Johnson said on “The Stephen A. Smith Show.” “As athletically gifted as you are, I want to see you hit a 95 mph fastball, in the cage. The comparison is not even close.
“The two most difficult things in life are hitting a baseball and keeping a woman happy, long-term.”
Hunter aspires to play full time in the NFL at an offensive position, wide receiver, and a defensive position, cornerback, the way he did at the University of Colorado.
The question, put to him a few days ago at the NFL Combine, was whether he regarded doing so as more difficult than what Ohtani has achieved in major league baseball, batting every day as a designated hitter while also pitching every sixth day as a starter.
Months from now, after Hunter has gone through the obligatory NFL rookie training on how to avoid giving reporters provocative quotes, he’d likely respond with a reminder that he yet hasn’t accomplished anything in professional football along with a deferential bow to the prowess of Ohtani.
But posed with the simple question of what did he think was harder — what he does in football or what Ohtani does in baseball — his response was candid and, to many, short-sighted: “Probably me, what I do in football, because it’s a lot on your body. You know, Ohtani, he’s a great player but you got to do a lot in football.”
Hunter’s opinion prompted widespread derision on social media and incredulity among talking heads.
Sure, he led all FBS players with 1,400 snaps last season, totaling 96 catches for 1,258 yards on offense and four interceptions, 11 pass deflections and 35 tackles on defense. And yes, he is projected to be taken third in the NFL Draft by The Times’ Sam Farmer.
But saying playing both sides of the ball in football is more of a chore than batting and pitching in baseball? C’mon!
Ohtani, of course, has succeeded beyond expectations, winning a National League MVP award last season after becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases while helping the Dodgers to a World Series title, and being named American League MVP twice and Rookie of the Year in six seasons with the Angels.
In the last four years alone, Ohtani has crushed 178 home runs, driven in 420 runs, scored 419 and stolen 116 bases. He couldn’t pitch in 2024 while recovering from elbow surgery, but in his last three seasons with the Angels he was 34-16 with a 2.84 earned-run average and 542 strikeouts in 428 innings.
“I think what Shohei is doing is more difficult because we can only chronicle maybe two players that did it at this level, Babe Ruth and Shohei Ohtani,” Hall of Fame tight end Shannon Sharpe said on the same Stephen A. Smith show.
Different era, obviously, but in five seasons as a full-time starting pitcher from 1915-1919, Ruth went 87-45 with a 2.28 ERA and 480 strikeouts in 1,168 innings. He played outfield and hit for 22 seasons, belting 714 home runs and batting .342.
No one else in baseball history has pitched and hit at the same time nearly as well as Ruth and Ohtani. Sharpe pointed out that the same isn’t true in the NFL, mentioning that Troy Brown did it for the Patriots, starring at wide receiver while playing defensive back in nickel packages.
Champ Bailey (Georgia) and Charles Woodson (Michigan) were two-way players in college but focused on defense in the NFL and became Hall of Fame cornerbacks.
The majority opinion seems to be that Hunter will become primarily a defensive back who could also play wide receiver in certain packages. The sentiment, however, is not unanimous.
Hunter told reporters at the combine that he’s met with teams that view him as a receiver and others that prefer him at cornerback. Doing both? Let’s just say he probably didn’t take Humility 101 at Colorado.
“They say, ‘Nobody has ever done it, for real, the way I do it,’” he added. “I tell them I’m just different.”
Ohtani didn’t need to send that message to MLB teams because he’d already established his two-way bonafides in Japan.
But if pundits assume Hunter couldn’t pitch a single inning, let alone hit a single, it’s only fair to picture Ohtani in pads, trying to master NFL football.
Imagine him playing defensive back, trying to keep up with accomplished wideouts such as Justin Jefferson or Tyreek Hill. Would Ohtani’s disarming childlike demeanor cut it in the NFL? He might respond to the requisite trash talk with giggles.
Could Ohtani catch a pass over the middle knowing he’d be flattened by a safety? Maybe so, but he’d likely swear it off after doing it once.
Point being, the combination of skills, training and mental toughness necessary to reach the pinnacle in baseball and football are vastly different, especially for someone mastering positions on both sides of the ball. Maybe just appreciate Ohtani and root for Hunter to achieve his dreams.
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