Kai Cenat celebration, explained: How Travis Hunter, Amon-Ra St. Brown paid tribute to streamer after scores

Teddy Ricketson

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Kai Cenat celebration, explained: How Travis Hunter, Amon-Ra St. Brown paid tribute to streamer after scores image

Celebrations in football are ways for players to show off their personalities. They can be fun, like when players mimic being in a potato sack race or bobsledding. Celebrations can also be pop culture references, either displaying the latest dance trend or paying tribute to a celebrity. 

Travis Hunter and Amon-Ra St. Brown went with the latter. Hunter and the Colorado Buffaloes beat the Baylor Bears in overtime Saturday. After the victory, the students were flooding the field and Hunter got on all fours before performing an animalistic crawl. 

St. Brown did the same thing while facing the Cardinals in Week 3 of the 2024 NFL Season. The Lions star scored a touchdown, and similarly dropped to all fours, crawled on the ground and then hit the ball with his helmet. 

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Kai Cenet touchdown celebration, explained

Without the context, both actions look strange. The origin of the celebration can be traced to a popular Twitch streamer Kai Cenat. He has exploded on the platform and now often streams with big name celebrities. Famously, Kevin Hart was recently on one of Cenet's streams. 

Cenat was streaming one night and Hunter joined. During the conversation, Cenat said that he had a touchdown dance that Hunter needed to do. He slammed the ball on the floor, got on all fours and then crawled really fast. Hunter laughed, replicated it on stream, and then did it for real after Colorado's win. 

Cenat streamed after the game, and even reacted to seeing Hunter doing his celebration that he gave him.

St. Brown wasn't included in the steam, but was clearly keyed into some aspect of it. It's unclear if he saw the clip, or if he is friends with Cenat, but the celebration probably wasn't a coincidence.

Who is Kai Cenat?

The 22-year-old Cenat is a streamer on Twitch and YouTube. While the numbers fluctuate, Cenat is currently estimated to have the fifth-most followers on Twitch with over 13 million.  He first uploaded to YouTube in 2018, and has found his niche. Cenat moved to Twitch in 2021 and has continued growing. 

Some would argue that he has gotten too big. In August 2023, Cenat announced an impromptu giveaway of PlayStation 5s and gift cards in Union Square in New York. Thousands of people stormed the area, which was then labeled a riot. Cenat was eventually arrested for "inciting civil unrest," but the charges were dropped after he paid a hefty fine. 

Cenat has won various Streamer of the Year Awards and likely will keep growing. His content now is mainly reactionary to other content, hosting guests and getting to know them, or sometimes playing video games. 

Kai Cenat net worth

It's hard to nail down exactly how much Cenat is worth with how much subscriptions on Twitch can fluctuate. The latest best guess by CelebrityNetWorth.com is that he is worth around $14 million. 

Teddy Ricketson

Teddy Ricketson Photo

Teddy Ricketson is a Digital Content Producer at The Sporting News. He joined the team in 2024 after spending the last three years writing for Vox Media as part of its DK Nation/Network team. Teddy does his best to support the South Carolina Gamecocks and Carolina Panthers, but tends to have more fun cheering on the Atlanta Braves. In his free time, he loves spending time with his wife, Brooke, and their two dogs, Bo and Hootie.