After becoming only the second player from the University of Colorado to win college football’s top honor, wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter had plenty of people to thank.
Hunter received the Heisman Trophy in New York City on Saturday – beating out Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty to be named the best player in the sport for 2024.
In the audience was Hunter’s family, fiancee, and his coach – Deion Sanders. But the internet particularly clung to one moment in his speech.
After hugging his fiancee – Leanna Lenee – and then his mother – Ferrante Edmonds – as well as both Deion and Shedeur Sanders, Hunter began his speech.
‘First off, I want to thank God. I never thought I’d be in this position,’ Hunter said. ‘It’s crazy. Your belief will take you a long way. It’s actually crazy, man. Thank you, thank you, thank you. First, I want to thank my fiancée and my mother.’
And it was that last sentence that set social media alight – as users complained that Hunter thanked Lenee before his mother.
Social media blew up when Travis Hunter thanked his fiancee before his mother after winning the Heisman Trophy on Saturday evening
Hunter became the second Heisman winner in Colorado’s history when he beat Ashton Jeanty
‘Congrats to Travis Hunter. But… to thank your girlfriend before your own mother is wild..,’ wrote one user on X, formerly Twitter.
Another posted, ‘Travis Hunter really thanked his fiancée before his mom.’
‘Travis Hunter thanked his Fiance [sic] before his Mom?!,’ wrote another user – leading to a number of replies: ‘Why you surprised?? At that age that’s the only love in his eyes.’
‘Travis Hunter thanked his girl before his mom, take that trophy back,’ read another post.
However, others didn’t see an issue with the order.
‘What’s the problem here,’ one questioned in response to another user’s incensed criticism.
Meanwhile another suggested the order should be ‘God and your woman before anyone else.’
Lenee attracted plenty of headlines in the past few weeks of the college football season. After a game against Oklahoma State, the couple appeared to get into some sort of argument – with Lenee rebuffing Hunter’s attempt to plant a kiss on her cheek.
Earlier this season, Lenee and Hunter appeared to get into an argument after a game
Lenee (L) seemed upset when Hunter took photos with female fans of his over the weekend
Hunter and Lenee are set to be married next year and have been dating for some time
It led Hunter to set the record straight: ‘There’s a lot of stuff that could be happening in the stands, people don’t understand that,’ Hunter said on ‘The Pivot Podcast’.
‘She might look irritated towards me, but at the same time, there’s a lot of stuff she deal with during the game. There’s a lot of stuff people don’t see off the camera.’
‘I just let people talk,’ Hunter continued. ‘Me, I’m a big troller so I just troll the internet. I really don’t care what they think or what they say about us so, I just go on there and troll. They talk about her, I post her to make them even more mad than they already are so they try to find something to hate, try to find something to break up on our relationship but ain’t nothing there, ain’t nothing you can find cause I love my woman.’
‘She’s my closest to everything, she helped me with everything. It’s kind of hard sometimes but she’s always there.’
During the run up to the Heisman ceremony, Lenee appeared angry at Hunter as he took pictures with female fans at a planned event.
Hunter and Lenee have been together for a number of years and their wedding is planned for next year.
Hunter won the Heisman Trophy by the narrowest margin since 2009 – just barely beating out Jeanty for the honor. He became the second Colorado player to take home the award, joining the late Rashaan Salaam – who won it in 1994.
He is also the first Heisman winner who played some defense to take home the award since Hall of Famer Charles Woodson in 1997. Woodson was a safety at Michigan that also returned punts and played wide receiver.
No purely defensive player has ever won the award. The closest a defense-only player has ever come to winning the Heisman was Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o in 2012, who finished runner-up to Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manzeil.