Travis Hunter is a rare breed of football player.
The Heisman Trophy winner and former Colorado Buffaloes standout is elite at playing both wide receiver and cornerback.
At the University of Colorado, Hunter excelled on both sides of the ball, doing things that no one had seen before in terms of snaps played and impact he had on both offense and defense.
He caught 96 passes for 1,258 yards and 15 touchdowns last season.
The 6ft 1in top prospect also recorded 35 tackles, snagged four interceptions and broke up 11 passes.
There has been speculation on what position the two-way phenom would play in the NFL and if it would be possible to play both sides of the ball.
The Tennessee Titans, Cleveland Browns and New York Giants are all eyeing Hunter at the top of the upcoming 2025 NFL Draft which gets underway on April 24.
A player thriving on both sides of the ball is a rarity at the pro level.
It’s rarely been done in recent history, although players in the early eras did it more often.
One of the first icons of the modern era to play both sides of the ball was William Perry, aka ‘The Refrigerator’.
The 335-pound Perry was nearly double Hunter’s weight (185 lbs), and played college football for the Clemson Tigers.
Perry won ACC Player of the Year at Clemson and was a member of their 1981 national championship team.
It was also where he earned his ‘Refrigerator’ nickname, coined when a fellow player could barely squeeze into an elevator with Perry and their laundry which they were taking to be washed.
The player, Ray Brown, said “Man, you’re about as big as a refrigerator.”
Perry was eventually selected by the Chicago Bears in the first round of the 1985 NFL Draft.
He was mainly used as a defensive tackle, but during his rookie campaign for the legendary ’85 Bears he occasionally lined up at fullback in goal line situations.
Perry was often deployed there when the team was near the opponents’ goal line or in fourth and short situations, either as a ball carrier or a lead blocker for star running back Walter Payton.
During his rookie season he rushed for two touchdowns and caught a pass for one.
The most iconic play of his career came in Super Bowl XX against the New England Patriots.
Perry scored a rushing touchdown in the 1985 big game, running over Patriots linebacker Larry McGrew in a 46-10 Chicago victory.
‘The Refrigerator’ is still the heaviest player to score a touchdown in the Super Bowl. His Super Bowl ring size, 25, is also the largest of any professional football player in the history of the NFL showpiece.
Perry eventually shifted away from fullback duties, focusing on his role as a defensive lineman.
Over his 10-year career, Perry had 29.5 sacks and more than 500 total tackles. On offense, he had just eight regular-season carries for five yards and two touchdowns.
It remains to be seen if Hunter has a play — or career — as memorable as Perry does.
What is clear is that he, and former head coach Deion Sanders, believe he has the abilities to be a two-way star in the pro.
“Why not?” Sanders recently told Dan Patrick after being asked if Hunter could play offense and defense in the National Football League.
“You playing the NFL game, and it’s much slower than the college game. The college game is no-huddle. It’s tempo. We have plays after plays after plays after plays,” the Dallas Cowboys legend went on.
“The pro game is so darn slow. You go into the huddle, you take your time, you call another play.
“Not only that, you can’t touch them, you can’t hit them in the secondary, so the risk of being injured is not as such as the college football game, the pro game protects you even more.
“I think what he does should transcend to the next level. He’s already shown what he’s capable of doing.
“The reason they’re saying he can’t do both is because they never fathom to do both.”
While only time will tell if Hunter does indeed become a two-way star in the NFL, he is certainly continuing to talk a big game ahead of the draft.
“I want to play both,’’ he said.
“That’s not my job to figure it out. I like to play both sides of the ball. If they give me the opportunity to play both sides of the ball, I’ll play both sides.
“They say nobody has ever done it for real the way I do it, but I tell ’em I’m just different, I’m a different person.”
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