Growing up Without a Father, Deion Sanders Pleads New Dad Travis Hunter to Not Make Certain Mistakes

Travis Hunter can barely take a breath before his world flips again. Just days ahead of his NFL debut with the Jacksonville Jaguars, the two-way phenom and his high-school sweetheart, Leanna, dropped a YouTube vlog titled “Dear Son…” announcing the birth of their first child. The 15-minute diary rolls from the moment they flash a positive pregnancy test to ultrasound photos and draft-night nerves, when the couple wonders, “We’re going to find out where Daddy’s going to be … and where you’re going to grow up.” By the final frame, newborn cries echoing through the hospital room, Hunter looks more awestruck than he ever did after snagging a pick-six in college.

That video is Hunter’s first on-camera pledge of fatherly ambition. At one point, he leans toward the lens and tells his tiny son, “Gotta be better than me,” a line that lands like a gentle dare to top Dad’s Heisman Trophy and No. 2 draft slot. Leanna jumps in, recalling a February dream of “lots and lots of curly hair” and beaming, “I knew it was going to be a boy.” Their banter captures the couple’s mix of nerves and joy, but it also reveals a blueprint: turn every milestone, draft prep, ultrasound, and long night into lessons for a child who’s barely stepping into this world.

And came Deion Sanders with a playbook for life outside the hash marks. Asked what advice he gave his protege on fatherhood, Deion Sanders began, “No matter what happens in life, make sure that we’re the best darn fathers that ever walked,” he told reporters, taking an audible pause to gather himself. In two short lines, Sanders reframed Hunter’s new role as a championship pursuit: titles and touchdowns mean little if the dad game doesn’t match.

Sanders then finished the thought with the reflective side of his pep talk: “Let’s correct all the things that we purposely think we didn’t receive as a child … and let’s correct that in our fatherhood. … I’m proud of him and I love him to life.” The sentiment exposes why their bond feels more paternal than professional. Sanders recruited the five-star kid no one thought he could land, rode with him from Jackson State to Colorado, and cheered as Hunter became the first defensive-skill player in decades to lift the Heisman. Now he’s beaming at wedding photos and baby footprints, marveling, “It’s funny when your son is now a father.”

So as Hunter tapes his wrists for Week 1, he does so with two mentors on call. One knows every route combo and coverage shell in the NFL. The other has already navigated the far trickier corridors of parenthood. If Travis Hunter can translate Coach Prime’s on-field guidance into his dad life, playing fearless, correcting mistakes on the fly, loving “to life,” then his newest role might just become his greatest triumph yet.

“Dear Son…”: A 2-minute love letter

The YouTube vlog that Travis Hunter and his wife, Leanna, titled “Dear Son…” feels less like slick content and more like a time capsule they cracked open for the rest of us to see. It opens with shaky-handed excitement as the couple flips a positive pregnancy test toward the camera, then cuts to grainy ultrasound clips and the two exchanging wide-eyed looks over the rhythmic swoosh of a heartbeat. Midway through, Leanna recounts a dream she jotted down on February 28, “baby was a boy with lots and lots of curly hair.” and laughs, “I knew it was going to be a boy,” showing how certain she was of the little life already shaping their world.

Draft season turns the video into a dual narrative: Hunter prepping for NFL glory while planning midnight feedings. In one snippet shot hours before the Jaguars made him the No. 2 overall pick, the couple muses, “We’re going to find out where Daddy’s going to be … and where you’re going to grow up.” Moments later, with green room chaos behind him, Hunter looks straight into the lens and pledges, “You got to be better than me,” drawing a bright line between his career arc and the future he wants for his son. The montage then rockets through baby-bump selfies and hospital wristbands before ending on the raw audio of first cries, overlaid with a simple caption: “Dear Son, we love you. Love, Mom and Dad.”

That intimate reel stitches seamlessly into Hunter’s unfolding Jaguars chapter. The same ambition that pushed him to master corner routes and coverage shells is now steering midnight diaper changes. And because Deion Sanders challenged him to “be the best darn father that ever walked” while correcting the gaps they felt as children, every frame of “Dear Son…” doubles as a mission statement. Hunter’s next highlight might be a toe-tap touchdown, but the real scoreboard he’s checking now is the bright digital clock on a nursery wall, proof that football’s newest two-way marvel is embracing his most meaningful role yet.