“If I can’t scuba, I’m not sure I want to live.” iconic meltdown from The Office? Sure. But swap “scuba” for “play both ways,” and you’ve basically got Travis Hunter’s NFL ultimatum. The Colorado phenom—Heisman winner, NIL kingpin ($5.7M valuation), and Deion Sanders‘ Swiss Army knife—is threatening to quit football if teams won’t let him moonlight as both WR and CB. Cue NFL execs sweating like rookies in a blitz drill.
Let’s cut through the noise. Hunter’s demand isn’t just bold—it’s unprecedented. NFL Network’s Mike Florio and Chris Simms recently clashed over whether teams will call his bluff. Simms took the straight route: “If you take him, you better let him play both sides,” while Florio scoffed at the idea he’d walk away from “five, six, maybe tens of millions” just to play one position. “You’re really going to do that?” he questioned. But even Florio admitted, “It shows you he’s serious about doing both.”
Hunter’s quote to CBS Sports was raw: if forced to pick between one position or playing football at all? “Never playing again. Period.” Simms doesn’t buy the retirement threat per se, but he believes Hunter’s “very strong in his sentiments.” This isn’t performative posturing—it’s a power play.
Still, the NFL is a league built on specialization and cold pragmatism. As Simms warned, “Physically, it’s too much. Mentally, it’s too much.” Two playbooks, double the film study, and a full-speed chess match against the best athletes in the world. Not to mention injury risk. “We’re trying to protect our investment—even though we play on turf that doesn’t,” Simms quipped. And then there’s ego. In college, Hunter often wasn’t tasked with shadowing elite WRs. As Florio dryly noted: “Ja’Marr Chase is in the slot. Go man him up.” And oh yeah—Chase is fresh off a five-minute breather while you were running deep posts.
But Hunter isn’t a regular draft prospect. At Colorado, he pulled off Heisman poses mid-game, took naps between pick-sixes, and made Saturdays look like Sundays. A highlight reel with cleats. His tape shows 1,044 receiving yards, 3 INTs, and enough swagger to make Sanders blush. So yeah, when he says he wants both, maybe you listen.
Giants’ gamble: Let Hunter cook (both sides)
Enter Giants GM Joe Schoen, holding the No. 3 pick and a brass pair. “He’s fun to watch,” Schoen grinned, sounding like a kid eyeing a double-scoop cone. “You just don’t see that very often. A lot of times, if these guys can’t catch or they can’t play receiver, then they get moved to DB.” Translation: New York needs a spark, and Hunter’s a human fireworks stand.
Schoen did hedge: “If he gets hurt doing something he’s not doing full-time, you’ll kick yourself.” But with their cap space wide open and a city starving for electricity, letting Hunter try both might not just be a gamble—it might be the only card worth playing.
As Simms put it, “Don’t take him if you’re not going to let him do what he wants. He’s clearly good enough to do it.” But the key, both analysts noted, is graceful management. Let him feel like he’s doing everything—while slowly figuring out what sticks. Florio believes teams will do just that: “They’ll let him try… until they figure out what he’s best at.” The smart teams? They’ll plan for both the revolution and the reality.
No doubt Hunter’s pulled off a Heisman Houdini Act. His college legacy? Historic. His NIL empire? Global—with Messi, Adidas, and Sanders in his corner. His NFL future? Balancing on a high wire with no net. But Simms offered the sobering truth: in the Big 12, Hunter could out-athlete opponents weekly. “In the NFL, that’s every week. You’re not the best athlete anymore.” And mentally? Florio warned, “The quarterback won’t care if you just played DB. It’s ‘What’s the check? What’s the personnel?’—and you better know.”
Still, Hunter’s rise feels inevitable. Even if his ultimatum was dramatic—“Never playing again. Period”—the message has now been sent, loud and clear. As Simms said, “He may not know what he’s walking into—but he’s good enough that teams are going to let him walk through the door.”
So will he bend the NFL to his will? Or will the grind break him down into just another name on a depth chart? Either way, Hunter’s journey is a brave ‘no’ to ‘can’t.’ Because in a league obsessed with labels, Travis Hunter isn’t just a player—he’s a revolution. And revolutions? They don’t come with safety nets.
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