It seems like the custom that an NFL player getting his first career something -- a touchdown, interception, and so on -- receives the ball that he accomplished it with.
That was not the case with Travis Hunter's first career interception for the Jacksonville Jaguars, and what happened right after that was bizarre. A camera from Spectrum News 13 in Florida captured Hunter's teammate Josh Hines-Allen in front of a ball boy trying to get the ball that Hunter caught. You can hear the ball boy yell what sounded like, "“You can’t touch me! Hey! He pushed me!” as he refuses to give up the ball.
My POV of Travis Hunter’s 1st career interception Weird interaction at the end between #Jaguars Josh Hines-Allen and the ball-guy when he tried to get the ball pic.twitter.com/7ByHNjK4D8
— Brandon Green🍀 (@BGreenReports) September 27, 2026
What did the ball boy refuse to give up the Travis Hunter ball?
There's no official word on why -- there could be a policy for ball boys from the league that we don't know about. Bleacher Report speculated that it could be because of technology in footballs now -- the site posted video from 2025 in which Tony Romo discusses the use of chips in footballs as the reason behind a ball being returned.
Tony Romo explains the fan football exchange pic.twitter.com/cst8lZlzsh
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) October 19, 2025
Will Josh Hines-Allen be fined for his actions with the ball boy?
It's certainly possible.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Jaguars defender confronts NFL ball boy in bizarre Travis Hunter post-INT moment
