Dodgers fans will be up in arms about top NFL Draft pick's Shohei Ohtani comments

Hitting a baseball off an MLB pitcher is pretty widely regarded as one of the hardest things — if not the absolute hardest thing — to do in professional sports.

But the people who disagree do so loudly, like Travis Hunter, for example. Hunter, the 2024 Heisman Trophy winner, is a two-way player, a cornerback and wide receiver, for the NCAA Division I Colorado Buffaloes. He hopes to continue as a two-way player when he eventually reaches the NFL, but he has plenty of doubters.

USA Today reports that Hunter was told in high school that there was no way he could make it as a two-way player at the college level. Clearly, whoever told him that was wrong, but Hunter is also utterly wrong for his comments about Shohei Ohtani, arguably the greatest two-way player — or greatest player, period — MLB has ever seen.

A combine reporter asked Hunter this week if he considers his job as a two-way player in football more difficult than Ohtani's in baseball. His answer shocked baseball fans everywhere.

"Probably me, what I do in football because it's a lot on your body," Hunter said. "Ohtani, he's a great player, but you gotta do a lot in football."

Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter (falsely) claims being a two-way football player is harder than being a two-way baseball player. Shohei Ohtani would like a word.

Football is definitely grueling on the body due to the amount of contact players take every game. As a two-way player, Hunter makes and takes double the tackles of an average footballer and is on the field for twice as long, if not more. His athletic ability is not in question here.

But even Hunter's coach, NFL Hall of Famer and nine-year MLB player Deion Sanders, agrees that hitting a baseball is the hardest task in sports. Even the best baseball players are successful at getting a hit around 30% of the time — the last MLB player to bat .400-plus was Red Sox legend Ted Williams in 1941. Josh Gibson batted a staggering .466 in 1943 for the Homestead Grays of the Negro Leagues, and is acknowledged as the true last player to break .400.

As pitchers' velocity has crept up in recent years, Ohtani has kept up on both sides of the ball. In 2023, Ohtani's four-seamer, his most-used pitch, averaged 96.8 miles per hour. The righty underwent UCL repair surgery before the 2024 season and recently touched 95 miles per hour on the radar gun, again.

The elbow surgery didn't slow Ohtani down at the plate, either. He posted the first ever 50-steal and 50-homer season in MLB and earned his second unanimous MVP award. Then, he became a World Series champion after he continued to hit with a torn labrum he sustained during an ugly slide into second base during Game 2. Football is far from the only sport that forces players to play through pain, and some players do it for 162 games or longer.

Ohtani is so good at baseball it's almost unfathomable. Not only is he one of the few two-way baseball players in decades, but he's an elite hitter and a 3.01 ERA pitcher in the five seasons he's pitched. Hunter is undeniably a great athlete, but with all the respect in the world, he should've checked the facts before he spoke.