Kittle noted how Burrow, after being announced as the Heisman winner, went over to hug two of his former coaches from Ohio State, who had two of their own players as finalists.

“If you think about it, nothing was about him,” Kittle added. “The speech itself had this flow to it and a cadence — the way it was delivered was so powerful, and then what he had to say was very simple and very elegant. It was really written in a style that reflects how people think here. He wasn’t trying to have an impact on the food bank, but the humility spoke for itself and it tore at people’s heartstrings.”

When school let out on Thursday, Athens High looked like any other campus — students scrambled down to the parking lot, eager to jump in their cars and get to wherever they were going. It was easy to imagine young Joey Burrow being among them — and how on some days he might take note of the trailers at the bottom of the hill.

In one of them now lives one of his old classmates, home with her three children. A block away, Amanda Cochran lives with her young child in a trailer, trying to make ends meet as a home health care worker. She would sit in the stands at the football games when Burrow was in high school, cheering for the team. It was nice, she said, that he remained just as she remembered him, down to earth.

“You know, we’re a pretty poor county,” she said. “For him to come from this community and to show it, you can really tell where his heart is.”