Whitney Risner, wife of Denver Broncos offensive lineman Dalton Risner, recently eclipsed one million followers on TikTok — and she credits the haters with helping her reach the milestone.

Whitney began posting regular NFL game day content on TikTok in 2020, such as kissing Dalton over the wall from the stands to the field. The feedback she received was polarizing — but the engagement convinced the app to show users more of it.

“I remember getting so much hate in the beginning, but crazy enough that just sparked the algorithm and that’s kind of how it took off,” she laughed.

“People were either positive, saying that I had the dream life, or commenting, ‘You are so cringe. Your husband’s your personality.’

“It was one extreme to the next, and both pushed the algorithm to give me more engagement.”

Two years later, Dalton celebrated Whitney’s million follower milestone in part by providing balloons to commemorate the occasion, and she has become a full-fledged influencer. She’s worked with Snickers. She is traveling to the upcoming New York Fashion Week on behalf of the Revolve brand. She is also launching a jewelry business, with the vision of living through your younger self.

Engagement variance can be tricky for influencers to deal with. Whitney might send something out with little preparation and have it get millions of views, or she might spend a lot of time and energy planning a post only for it to flop.

“If you’re going to do social media, you have to have thick skin, and you have to not let that control you — or you’ll go insane,” she said. “Kind of having a balance of seeing what performs and playing off of that, but also knowing that you never know what people will like.”

Dalton played football at Kansas State and Whitney was on the basketball team at Fort Hays State in Kansas. While they became aware of each other in passing from their athletic endeavors, the Risners really got to meet each other at Lake of the Ozarks, where Dalton was vacationing and Whitney’s parents have a house and she had a summer job.

Like many modern day romances, this one kicked off with a DM slide.

The now-couple followed each other on Instagram. When Dalton first messaged his future wife on the platform, while the two were both college students, Whitney had a boyfriend at the time and, in Dalton’s words, put him in the “friend zone.”

About a year later, Dalton was in his senior year at K-State, and they reconnected — through Snapchat.

This time it was Whitney making the connection. She and her boyfriend had broken up. She saw that Dalton was in the area, and reached out about meeting up. He was returning the following weekend, and they went bar hopping around the lake.

Lake of the Ozarks is unique in the sense that the people there do much of their commuting by boat. What might be a two-hour drive between homes or bars and restaurants could take just a few minutes by water.

“It’s kind of crazy how things work out — him going to Colorado and me being from Missouri, if it didn’t happen then it might’ve never happened and this [marriage] would never be a thing,” Whitney said.

When they first started seeing each other, Dalton was 23 and Whitney was 20. Dalton was heading to the NFL and Whitney didn’t necessarily feel like either of them wanted to make a commitment.

“I was at the phase where I wanted to find a good woman — someone who loved me for me,” Dalton said. “I wasn’t looking for someone just to have fun. She felt the opposite. She thought I was ‘some football guy’ [looking for a quick hookup]. She was like, ‘What do you want to do with a 20-year-old girl who’s finishing college while you’re going down this path?”

With little foundation built, Dalton kept pursuing a long distance relationship for about a year.

“He was going to the NFL. I was a basketball player and nursing student,” Whitney said. “I was like, ‘What does this guy want?’ I was like ‘Go enjoy yourself. Why are you trying to make this work?’ He was very patient and I was immature. He kept being persistent and showing me who he was, and I’m glad it all worked out.”

Speaking of the NFL, Dalton has a new challenge on his hand this season. The Broncos acquired Russell Wilson — which means holding blocks for much longer with a mobile quarterback.

“Russell’s such an amazing quarterback and leader. I’ve loved every bit of having him here. I’ve never been around a player like him in four years in the league,” Dalton said. “When it comes to pass pro, I’m used to having certain rules — 2-3 seconds on a normal pass, six seconds at most on play action. With Russell back there, he’s so good with his feet, and he scrambles around so much. Now the rule is there is no rule on how long you block your guy. You block your guy until the whistle blows.

The offensive guard explained that holding blocks until the end of the play is imperative not only because Wilson could be scrambling around — but the quarterback could be right by the defender he’s assigned to block.

“You don’t know where he’s at. If our D-lineman is still working, we’re still working. It makes life harder for the offensive line, no question. But more important, we’ve got a guy who wants to win out there. A guy who wants to make that happen. I’m not complaining about that. I think it’s going to be really good for us.”

Returning to the couple, they spend a lot of their free time together helping each other shop for clothes, watching movies, going to church — Dalton talks about his faith in terms of feeling like he has a “higher purpose” and speaks about the worthiness of all people, and treating everyone the “right way.”

The couple also spends time working on Dalton’s foundation, RisnerUp, which works with the Special Olympics and also benefits people with serious illnesses or others in need.

“I feel like me and Whitney are just best friends. It’s not that I don’t have any other friends, but I’d rather hang our with her,” Dalton said. “If the boys are like, ‘Hey, let’s go get a beer at the bar,” I’d rather hang out with Whitney at home.”