It’s been a discussion-filled week in the world of sports. The Colorado Buffalo’s Travis Hunter sits atop those conversations. The star player won the Heisman trophy last weekend amid controversy that had nothing to do with football. His now fiancée is Leanna Lenee. She has made front page news by coming off as being disingenuous with Hunter. Throughout this week I’ve read a lot of different commentary. Some of which question why the public is so invested in these young people’s love life? It’s a fair question. Generally speaking, we do tend to worry about the wrong things. But this is different.
It’s seemingly a tale as old as time, an affluent young Black athlete partners with the wrong woman, and she then gains access to his wealth for decades to come. As general of a statement as that is, it’s a movie plot that we’ve seen play out time and time again. The public’s response to Lee is in response to how we’ve seen her comport herself with Hunter. She has been criticized for not standing up quickly enough and greeting Hunter once he was greeting his family at the Heisman ceremony. She also was recorded looking annoyed when Hunter was taking photos with fans.
It seems as if Lenee isn’t grasping what her role should be in this relationship. She isn’t exuding being a genuinely supportive partner. To the Black public at large, we simply want Hunter to conceptualize the life he is ascending to. Far too many times we witness young Black men literally, and figuratively get in bed with racially ambiguous women only to be used for financial gain. As Lee stated, Hunter at one time wasn’t her “type.” Her fondness of him in recent years would give anyone cause to pause. But for a youngster like Hunter, that might not be the case.
So, yes, we’re trying to protect him. And there’s a possibility that our words won’t get through. But as a community, we’re just looking out. Time and time again we see these athletes have kids with women they never intended to build a family with. It makes a lot of those relationships seem hollow. When you’re of college age, you may not have the wealth of perspective. In this moment, we’re hoping to impart that.
I once wrote about why so many athletes find themselves in potentially compromising positions similar to this. Somewhere along the way parents haven’t been giving the real game to their kids. I don’t think every single athlete would heed their counsel, but I think more would than wouldn’t. So, when this attention does come along as a young athlete, you get caught up. I and the rest of the viewing Black public just don’t want more athletes making these types of mistakes. These stakes are as high as they get.
This attention we’re giving, as far as I can see it are well founded. It comes from a pure place, and we understand that he just may not see it as yet. But this young lady to us certainly isn’t good news for his career. And he deserves someone that is going to be in his orbit for more genuine reasons. Now this attention shouldn’t necessarily linger. He should focus on conditioning and getting ready for the NFL Draft. But I’m so so glad that he knows that there’s multitudes of people out here, with his best interest at heart. These young athletes deserve it.
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