Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Travis Hunter, second from right, does drills during a joint NFL football practice against the Miami Dolphins, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Earlier this month, I drove to Jacksonville to watch the Steelers play the Jaguars in each team’s first preseason game.

I have only attended a couple of preseason games over the years, but surprisingly, the first NFL game, of the roughly nearly 400 I have attended, was a preseason game.

I was super excited to see this one because I wanted to see the intersection of the NFL future and NFL history — Travis Hunter, 22 years old, No. 12 and Aaron Rodgers (sweatshirt and shorts), 41 years old.

Today, let’s discuss Travis.

This was going to be Hunter’s first NFL game. As crazy as it may seem, considering Travis won the Heisman Trophy and was the second pick in the NFL draft, the 24/7 drama around Deion Sanders and Shedeur Sanders, pushed Travis’ college career under the radar.

Travis was the No. 1 high school recruit in the country and was supposed to go to Florida State, but he became the first top recruit, ever, to choose a HBCU over a Power 5 program when he signed with Deion at Jackson State.

Shedeur signing with his father was not a surprise (Shedeur was a top recruit but nowhere near Travis), but when Travis made the decision to attend Jackson State, most felt his chance to win any college awards and be a top draft pick went out the window.

The fact that he was a two-way player at Jackson State, playing wide receiver and defensive back, went mostly unnoticed.

When Deion took the Colorado head coaching job after Shedeur and Travis finished their freshman year, many members of the Jackson State team followed Deion to Boulder.

Everyone said Travis could never be a true two-way player at a Power 5 school. But immediately, Travis proved the doubters wrong, playing an astounding 147 snaps on offense and defense in Colorado’s upset of TCU.

In 2023, Travis totaled 1,036 snaps — including 437 on offense, 568 on defense and 31 on special teams, averaging 115.1 per game, and excelled at each position, winning the Paul Hornung Award as the most versatile player in college football.

His junior year was arguably the greatest season in the history of modern college football.

Besides winning the Heisman, he won both the Bednarik Award, as the nation’s top defensive player, and the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s best wide receiver.

His physical conditioning is completely off the charts.

I watched every single Colorado game, and I was blown away by his greatness. I felt he was so good that Shedeur’s lofty stats were a result of playing with Hunter.

And off the field, he is a role model for every athlete.

While Shedeur was driving around in a Rolls Royce and posting about wild parties on social media, Travis got a 4.0 and was an Academic All-American.

In 2023, Colorado State defensive back Henry Blackburn delivered a cheap shot on Travis that lacerated Travis’ kidney. The Colorado fans, in the weeks after the game, bashed Blackburn, and instead of inflaming tensions, Travis invited Henry to go bowling to raise money for charity.

At the NFL Draft this year, all the noise was again on Shedeur, but I feel the biggest story was that Jacksonville traded a boatload of draft picks to Cleveland to move up and pick Travis.

Again, almost every expert is saying that Travis cannot play on both sides of the ball in the NFL. The last true two-way player was Chuck Bednarik, and he retired in 1962 — 63 years ago.

I never saw Travis play in person, and during the entire four-hour drive from West Palm to Jacksonville, I was thinking about watching him play his first pro game.

I was not disappointed as his speed is amazing to watch.

On this night, Travis played 18 plays, 10 plays on offense and eight on defense, and I zeroed on him for each play.

He is by far the fastest/quickest player I have ever seen.

Jacksonville ran a very simple offense last night, and Travis caught two balls, but I can easily envision Travis getting behind any NFL defense or catching short crossing routes and turning them into TDs. On defense, he could blanket the fastest wide receivers in the NFL.

It was so humid in the stadium, but Travis would run down the field on a long pass route and be the first player back in the huddle — same on defense.

I know it was a small sample size, but he is in clearly better shape than any player in the NFL.

Barring injury, I have no doubt that in the next two decades Travis Hunter will go into the NFL Hall of Fame and be considered one of the greatest NFL players of all time.

Ira Kaufman, an Altoona native and traveling sports fan, hosts IRA on Sports on trueoldiesfla.com on Monday night from 7-8 p.m. It is available on Soundcloud & iTUNES, search Ira On Sports. His column appears occasionally in the Mirror.