"That name is also going to be used as ammunition": Cam Newton snaps Travis Hunter's brother back to reality after his "worst game"

Living in Travis Hunter's shadow can be tough. Just ask his younger brother, Trayvis, who is trying to follow in his footsteps as a high-level gridiron standout. Trayvis has multiple Division I offers while being a sophomore at Effingham County High School in Springfield, Ga. He also plays for Cam Newton's 7-on-7 team.

With that crew, Trayvis has been playing at OT7 in Dallas. According to what Newton said on his "4th&1" podcast on Thursday, Trayvis didn't perform particularly well this past weekend.

"Obviously, being the brother of somebody else, that bloodline is rich (in) talent, right?" Newton said (11:51). "I think Trayvis ran the wrong route, effort wasn't necessarily there on another route, didn't catch the ball on another. It was just the worst game that I've ever seen him play. ... You're gonna have games like that, bro, get over it.

"I think what hurt him was his stardom caught up, and you gotta understand when you have a name, that name is also gonna be used as ammunition. When kids are envious of you, they're gonna bring up, 'Bro, you ain't your brother!' ... You could tell that it started to get to him mentally and took him away from the game."

Trayvis admitted to Newton that the pressure of being a Heisman Trophy winner's younger brother weighed on him. Newton offered a word of advice to try to comfort him, while also letting him know that it's up to him if he succeeds like Travis Hunter has.

"We went to eat after one of our losses and he just vented and he was like, 'Man, that was the first time it really, like, got to me,'" Newton said. "I said, 'I know, I saw it, but now what you gonna do?' ... Nobody cares about who your brother is. You think they do, but they don't. Nobody cares about, hey, you got an Adidas (deal). They don't. If anything, they hate on that. They envy that about you.

"But, what you have to do is stay focused and understand what you have to do, every time."

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What did Travis Hunter accomplish in college?

With the help of Deion Sanders, Travis Hunter has done things his way in college. Hunter was to college football what Shohei Ohtani is to baseball. At Jackson State and then Colorado, Hunter played on both sides of the football, dazzling as both a cornerback and a receiver.

His efforts have the professional ranks excited, and he will almost certainly be taken within the top five picks of this month's 2025 NFL Draft. The New England Patriots have been a spot he has been mocked to repeatedly. The Cleveland Browns and New York Giants will also be options for Travis Hunter.