The adults in the room could learn a heck of a lot from the kids, couldn’t they? If Travis Hunter and Henry Blackburn found common ground, surely there’s hope for Colorado’s most star-crossed football lovers, Deion Sanders and Jay Norvell.

(Opens Amazon Prime app)

OK, sooo … maybe not.

I mean, did you catch the audio of the exchange that followed the 2023 Rocky Mountain Showdown a few months back?

“Congratulations,” Norvell, CSU’s second-year football coach said to Sanders at Folsom Field, per the “Coach Prime” Amazon television series. “And I was never talking about your family.”

Sanders: “Oh, you was talking about my momma.”

Norvell: “No, I was not.”

Sanders: “Yes you were, yes you were.”

Now Norvell, to be fair, fired the first metaphorical shot, having poked that curiously quiet bear a few days earlier.

“When I sat down with ESPN (to talk about the CU-CSU game), and I don’t care if they hear it in Boulder,” the Rams coach said during his weekly coaches’ radio show. “I told (ESPN) — I took my hat off and I took my glasses off, and I said, ‘When I talk to grown-ups, I take my hat and my glasses off. That’s what my mother taught me.’”

Sanders, who never misses a chance to twist a dagger or hawk some merch, pounced. The next thing we knew, The Rock was wearing brand new, just-released Deion-branded shades. Coach Prime landed Blenders a reported $1.2 million in pre-orders within the first 24 hours of their collaborative product launch.

Norvell’s message did the trick in his camp, too. The Rams, three-touchdown ‘dogs, played one of their best games of the season … for about 53 minutes. CU QB Shedeur Sanders had the last laugh, rallying the hosts to a 43-35 victory in double overtime.

The narrative that stuck, though, was a blindside shot that Blackburn, CSU’s safety, laid on Hunter, the Buffs’ two-way star. The blow sent the CU receiver to the hospital and sent social media into nuclear meltdown.

But the most impressive part of the Showdown wasn’t the hit at all. It was the hug that followed.

While Hunter was recovering, he agreed to meet with Blackburn, a Boulder native. The two talked on-camera for the young Buff’s YouTube channel. The pair hugged it out, made peace and agreed to settle their differences by bowling for charity, with each throwing $1,000 into the pot.

Hunter’s team reportedly won. But he let Blackburn pick the recipient of the cash — Realities For Children, an organization that helps abused and at-risk children. A messy, ugly narrative found a very classy coda.

How cool would it be if the grown-ups followed their players’ leads?

Sanders and Norvell could get together under one umbrella and talk about burying the hatchet for a good cause. Heck, they could even challenge their respective fan bases to try and out-raise the other before the 2024 Rocky Mountain Showdown in Fort Collins next September.

Coach Prime and Norvell are very different dudes, up close. But they’re both football junkies, both competitive and driven as holy heck.

They’re also both dog guys.

And, funny enough, there’s something everybody can agree on, BoCo and FoCo alike. You know who could use some Buffs love? and Rams love? Animal Rescue of the Rockies.

ARR, out of Aurora, has helped to rescue and rehab the cats at Coors Field, including the most famous feline, Smokey. Karen Martiny, ARR’s president and executive director, told me recently that Smokey’s adapting well to the warmth of being an inside kitty, now — especially as the winter months loom.

“We continue to rescue dozens of kittens and adult cats from dangerous outdoor areas, many of which are sick with upper respiratory infections or injuries,” Martiny wrote. “Their treatment is costly, and we spend an average of $15,000 or more a month on vet bills, including emergency vet visits.”

One of those emergency visits involved little Mary Gold, whom Martiny said was “found stumbling on a street with a fractured leg, likely from being thrown from a car or hit by a bicycle.

“She is healing nicely after surgery and recovering in a foster home. The plight of outdoor cats is truly heartbreaking, and our volunteers literally work day and night to help rescue and treat as many as we can.”

Love is priceless. Vet services aren’t. If Sanders and Norvell are too stubborn to help out, maybe Hunter and Blackburn can lend a paw and light the way. Again.

If you’d like to donate to ARR or join their “Lifesaver’s League,” visit arrcolorado.org/monthlygiving.