Former Buffs’ star cornerback Travis Hunter has never been shy about his abilities—sometimes to the point of overconfidence. His latest statement perhaps falls in that category. Comparing himself to another generational athlete, Shohei Ohtani, Hunter claimed that playing two positions in football is more challenging than excelling at two positions in baseball.
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Ohtani proved that he can do it in the pros and on the biggest stage. He is the only player ever to hit more than 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season. On the other hand, Travis Hunter is yet to perform in the NFL playing both positions.
Unsurprisingly, many sports fans—especially baseball enthusiasts—disagreed. Among them were Chad Johnson and Shannon Sharpe, who called Hunter out on the latest episode of Nightcap. Their reaction? Complete disbelief.
The two former NFL stars dismissed the comparison outright, with Ocho confidently asserting that hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports. Ocho tore into Hunter and challenged him to step into a batting cage just once.
“Until you get in that cage, just a batting cage, I don’t even want a real pitcher, just a machine, tell them to turn it up to 90-95 mph, let me see you hit it. Just the fastball. The most difficult thing to do in this world is hit a baseball coming at you. It’s not even comparable,” Johnson said.
Shannon Sharpe pointed out that excelling as both a pitcher and a hitter is an incredibly rare feat—one that only Ohtani and Babe Ruth have achieved in baseball history. Meanwhile, playing both offense and defense in football, while difficult, has been done by multiple players.
Sharpe argued that comparing Hunter to Ohtani simply doesn’t hold up. Ohtani isn’t just playing two positions—he’s the best in baseball as both a pitcher and a hitter.
“Shohei Ohtani is the best player in baseball. He could be a number-one starter for your pitching staff and he’s the best hitter at baseball. Trav, I love you bro, but the hardest thing to do and I’ve talked to a lot of guys that did both, I talked to Bo and Time and both of those guys told me that hitting the baseball is the hardest thing to do.”
Sharpe and Ocho weren’t the only ones who found Travis’ bold claim irksome and devoid of sense and reality. Stephen A Smith too chimed in on this conversation to tear the Heisman winner a new one.
“It is harder physically, what Travis Hunter is talking about. When you are talking about skill-wise, what’s more difficult is hitting the pitch. My only conflict with what Shannon had to say is when he talked about nobody hitting the baseball better than Shohei Ohtani. Freddy Freeman and Mookie Betts blasted my Yankees in the World Series better than Ohtani did.”
Ohtani’s exceptional prowess as both a pitcher and hitter has transformed the landscape of baseball. In a sport dominated by specialization, Ohtani’s remarkable ability to excel both on the mound and at the plate disrupts conventional norms. By the end of the 2023 season, he achieved a 3.14 ERA over 132 innings pitched and hit 44 home runs. Ohtani has already cemented himself in history as one of the greatest ever.
Meanwhile, Hunter still has a long way to go. While it is no secret that he is a talented young man, with a confidence that is backed by performance, he is yet to play in the professional leagues. Before he has gotten a taste of what it actually means to play two positions in the big leagues, he should perhaps hold off on any comparisons with athletes who’ve already proven their mettle.
