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Colorado LB Addison Gillam spending spring hiking Appalachian Trail

Sam Cooper
College football writer
Colorado linebacker Addison Gillam (L) has 270 tackles in his career. (AP)
Colorado linebacker Addison Gillam (L) has 270 tackles in his career. (AP)

Addison Gillam is not with the Colorado football team this spring. In fact, the linebacker is currently quite far from Boulder.

Buffs coach Mike MacIntyre said last week that Gillam is taking a “sabbatical.” He’s still listed on the Buffs’ spring roster, but Gillam is currently hiking the Appalachian Trail. He started a “GoFundMe” campaign over the weekend in an effort to “take away some of the stress and worries” during his trip, which he hopes will be quite a lengthy one. The money, he wrote, “will mainly be used for food resupply and equipment,” if he needs it.

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When posting his initial update on Saturday, Gillam wrote he is already “about 170 miles” into his hike:

“Hello, my name is Addison Gillam and it is my goal to try and hike the entirety of the Appalachian Trail, the 2,180 mile footpath from Georgia to Maine. I want to hike the Appalachian Trail because I have been playing football since I was 6 years old, now 23, and living a specific schedule for such a long time that I wanted to experience something new and something that fits well into my interests.”

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In his most recent update, Gillam wrote on Sunday he was “heading into the Smoky Mountain National Park” and hopes to make it to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, by Friday.

Gillam, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology last May, has been a very productive player for the Buffs, but he has also dealt with multiple serious injuries. As a true freshman in 2013, he totaled a team-leading 119 tackles along with 10 tackles for loss and three sacks to earn FWAA Freshman All-American honors. He finished with 79 tackles during an injury-plagued 2014 campaign and then missed the majority of the 2015 season due to a knee injury.

He returned to the field for Colorado’s Pac-12 South-winning season in 2016 and finished with 66 tackles, six tackles for loss and four sacks despite not starting a single game.

The 2017 season would have been his final year of eligibility (he received a medical redshirt for missing the 2015 season), but it doesn’t look like he’s planning to return. Gillam wrote that he plans to get a job as a firefighter when he returns from his hike.

For more Colorado news, visit BuffStampede.com.

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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!