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Despite a blowout loss to Big 12 Conference rivals BYU in the Alamo Bowl, the Colorado Buffaloes can look back on their 2024 season and feel proud of what they achieved. Only two years ago, Colorado finished 1-11 amidst a long, slow decline from the peak of its national relevance in the 1990s, but Deion Sanders' arrival had a transformative effect on the team. After an improvement to 4-8 in 2023, Colorado went 9-4 in 2024 and will send two highly-touted players to the 2025 NFL Draft.
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Those players, of course, are quarterback Shedeur Sanders and cornerback/wide receiver Travis Hunter, who this month became only the second Colorado player ever to win the Heisman Trophy. Hunter and Sanders could even go 1-2 in April's draft -- which could bring Hunter into conflict with none other than the NFL's greatest quarterback, Tom Brady.
Hunter reveals his NFL jersey number
Hunter is surely aware that the New England Patriots are on course to hold the #1 overall pick the 2025 draft, which the franchise likely will use to take Hunter and jumpstart its rebuild. But if Hunter were to go to New England, he would have to change his jersey number -- his #12 jersey at Colorado is retired in New England, in honor of its six-time Super Bowl champion Brady.
Luckily, Hunter has already thought of this possibility, and he thinks he has found a solution.
"I'm not gonna wear Tom Brady's number," Hunter said on his podcast. "That's too much legacy in that jersey. I respect Tom Brady too much."
Instead, Hunter said he would take the vacant #40 jersey if he were to end up with the Patriots -- for whom he would be akin to a franchise savior. Hunter's star power and name recognition is just what the Patriots need; after dominating the NFL throughout the 2000s and the 2010s, New England has fallen on hard times in the 2020s, with just one playoff appearance since Brady departed for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and then to the broadcast booth at FOX Sports.
Under first-year head coach Jerod Mayo, the Patriots have stumbled to a 3-13 record in 2024, most of it with rookie quarterback Drake Maye at the helm. In order to return to the "glory days" under Brady and head coach Bill Belichick, the Pats will need star power, and plenty of it. Hunter and Maye would be a good place to start.