Travis Hunter and fiancee Leanna Lenee. | Source: Leanna Lenee/Instagram
The salacious and unverified reports about this year’s top college football player and the alleged motivations of his recently revealed girlfriend build on the stereotype that star athletes attract love interests who enjoy the clout – and money – from such a status more than they do their significant others.
Football coach Deion Sanders, citing his own personal experiences, once notably tried to warn his players of such situations.
In case you missed it, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, Travis Hunter of the University of Colorado, has been going viral for the past couple of weeks after social media posts suggested his girlfriend and fiancée, Leanna Lenee, was only with him because of his future earning potential in the NFL.
The couple has reportedly been together for five years since high school.
While both parties have vehemently denied that being the case, an avalanche of allegations – a photo of her dancing suggestively with another man; an interview of her saying Hunter wasn’t her “type;” her reaction to Hunter winning the Heisman; and much more, with Hunter being prompted to defend them all – have been tough to ignore.
Hunter, 21, whose NIL valuation is nearly $6 million, even deleted his Instagram account amid the negative attention.
Suspicious social media users particularly honed in on Lenee having a money sign tattooed on her ring finger and claimed that was evidence of her being a golddigger – or, a person feigning love in order to secure a payday.
Hunter’s typically outspoken coach, Deion Sanders, has remained conspicuously quiet in public about the ordeal. That is true even though just three years ago, he invited notorious Instagram model and social media personality Brittany Renner to speak to his team about the pitfalls of such relationships.
Renner, the woman who literally wrote the book on getting in the pockets of celebrities and faced similar accusations as Lenee after having a child with NBA player PJ Washington from a short-lived romantic relationship, spoke to Sanders’ team when he was a coach at Jackson State University in 2021 – the year before Hunter joined the HBCU squad. Hunter transferred to Colorado last year after Sanders accepted the head coaching job there.
The world only knew that Renner gave a lecture to the Jackson State football team because Sanders posted footage of it to his Instagram account.
“You’re trying to make it to the NFL, you do understand there’s a lot that comes with that right?” Renner was shown asking the team in a lecture hall setting. “To be able to decipher who really loves you for you, I think that’s the billion-dollar question we’re all wanting to know. You are useful, and it’s better to be useful than useless. You just have to have that understanding that okay, I have something to offer, whether that’s financial, status-wise, or whatever, and people do see that as a bonus to be with you, there’s nothing wrong with that, but you just have to be aware that nobody is here for nothing.”
Renner continued: “A lot of times, men and women, they just want something,” she said. “Even if we both have our own thing going on, me being with you is a good look because you boost my stock.”
Sanders captioned the IG post: “It’s my responsibility as a Coach to prepare my young men for any and everything on the field and off. I brought in @bundleofbrittany to educate them on how the game is played between man & woman at their age & stage. The message may not be for everybody but trust me it’s for somebody.”
Sanders later invited Renner to his podcast and and recounted his own experiences while he was a star college football player.
“Let me tell you something,” Sanders told listeners. “If I had her in my ear—If I had been sitting in that room at Florida State and I had her come and lay it out like she laid it out. If I would have had that I would be at least $20 million richer.”
Sanders explained: “Because everything she elaborated on, I would have been more prepared for the game of life. I was prepared for the game of football, but not that other game. Because I was so locked in. And then I misconstrued what love and some women were. If I would have had that, I promise you, at least 20. At least $20 million richer because of the divorces, the lawyer fees, all the bull junk that I’ve gone through as a man.”
Sanders added later in the podcast: “I do not want my players, my sons, my coaches, everybody that was in there – equipment men, equipment women – I do not want them to go through that. That’s why. She told them the God’s honest truth. So helpful.”
Three years later, it’s unclear if Sanders is repeating the same message to Hunter, who is projected to be a top first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft and net a contract worth about $30 million.
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