You might have heard the unprecedented news that the Colorado Buffaloes are retiring the jerseys of two star players from the 2024 season, Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter. Both players helped turn a 1-11 football team into a 9-4 team two years later and are expected to be first-round picks in the 2025 NFL Draft. But this announcement gives a former Pittsburgh Steelers something to gripe about.
Retiring Hunter's jersey makes sense. The transcendent player transformed college football in a way that we haven't quite seen before, as he was able to be a superstar wide receiver and a ball-hawking cornerback—playing roughly twice the snaps of a normal starter in the NCAA.
But retiring Sanders' jersey should leave a sour taste in the mouth of former Steelers quarterback Kordell Stewart.
When the Colorado Buffaloes made the announcement that Sanders' No. 2 jersey would be retired just days ahead of the 2025 NFL Draft, enraged fans took to social media to question why Stewart's jersey hadn't been retired. And they've got a legitimate point.
Former Pittsburgh Steelers QB Kordell Stewart should have had his Colorado Buffaloes jersey retired ahead of Shedeur Sanders.
Shedeur Sanders put up outstanding numbers for the Colorado Buffaloes; there's no denying that fact. Since becoming a starter for his father's team in 2023, Sanders raked in 7,364 passing yards to go with 64 touchdowns and 13 interceptions over two seasons. Sanders also led the Big 12 in completion percentage in 2024—connecting on 74.0 percent of his attempts.
While Kordell Stewart can't compete with Sanders' gaudy passing numbers, it was a different era of football when he played at Colorado from 1991 to 1994. Still, over his college career, Stewart chipped in 48 total touchdowns and 19 interceptions while rushing for 1,289 yards.
But in the win column, these two quarterbacks weren't close.
In two seasons, Sanders led his team to a 13-12 record that included a loss in the Alama Bowl in 2024. On the other hand, Stewart led his Colorado Buffalos team in the 90s to a 28-6-2 record, including two Bowl wins (the Aloha Bowl in 1993 and the Fiesta Bowl in 1994).
Despite his college success that led to him being a second-round pick and having an 11-year NFL career, Stewart never saw his number retired by the Colorado Buffaloes. The former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback was once a remarkable college football player who carried the team on his shoulders with downfield play-making ability and lethal legs to move the chains and punch the ball in the endzone.
Shedeur Sanders was one of the most popular figures in college football over the past two seasons, but retiring his jersey so quickly is a blatant slap in the face to Kordell Stewart.