3 married men weigh in on Travis Hunter’s relationship drama following Heisman ceremony

Over the weekend, Colorado Buffaloes wide receiver and cornerback Travis Hunter won the Heisman Trophy over Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty.

While football is clearly going well for the soon-to-be drafted athlete, fiancée Leanna Lenee’s behavior at the ceremony drew the scrutiny of millions, casting a dark cloud over what should have been pure merriment.

Lenee came under fire when she didn’t stand up when Hunter was announced as the Heisman winner. According to online reports, Deion Sanders had to urge her to stand up and congratulate her man.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the controversies surrounding Lenee. Fans also attacked her for an old statement she made about Hunter not being her type. Two viral videos also fueled the nasty rumors surrounding Lenee — one of which appears to show her getting upset with Hunter for taking pictures with female fans at an Adidas store and another showing her visibly upset after the Buffaloes victory over the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

The narrative seems to be that she’s a bad egg who can’t handle not being the center of attention.

Hunter has made multiple statements defending Lenee and telling fans and news outlets to back off. Lenee also addressed the scandals in a TikTok video, during which she claimed that all the verbal abuse launched against her is the result of the misinterpretations of “birdbrained” people.

Jason Whitlock is of the opinion that Hunter needs a little marital advice before he ties the knot with Lenee.

“There’s no way you can have social media in the middle of that relationship,” he says, adding that as an unmarried man, he doesn’t have much experience to draw from.

Guest Pastor Anthony Walker, who is married, says, “It's you, your spouse, and God — like that's the core [of a marriage],” but “when we bring into the marriage all of the other eyes that are looking and all of the other voices that are contributing, you get further and further away from that.”

Christian commentator and writer Virgil Walker commends Hunter not only for defying the status quo and seeking marriage at such a young age but also for defending Lenee.

However, “He had better develop a very thick skin very quickly if he's going to allow a handful of people on a stream to upset him to the point where, you know, on arguably one of the best nights of his life — winning the Heisman Trophy — he's going to go back and bemoan the fact that someone had something to say about it,” says Walker. “There’s a lot of growing up that needs to be done on his part.”

TJ Moe echoes Walker's sentiment — “I love his instincts to protect his fiancée.”

But Hunter was clearly unprepared for the “social media blitz and the criticism,” and for that, Moe blames Deion Sanders.

“Deion should have said, ‘Ignore all the noise; don't respond to any of it. Your wife is going to get hit, your kids are going to get hit, your parents — everybody around you. And your job is to go back to them and say, I got your back no matter what, don't worry about anybody else,”’ he explains.

To hear more of the conversation, watch the clip above.

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