For some absurd reason, Jalen Hurts has been an undeserving magnet for criticism and ridicule since he first entered the league as a second round pick of the Eagles in 2020.
Hurts, who finished second to Joe Burrow in the Heisman vote his senior year at Oklahoma, was rated below Burrow, Justin Herbert, Jordan Love, former Alabama teammate Tua Tagovailoa and even Jacob Eason despite having better numbers than all of those players except Burrow.
He had more passing yards, rushing yards, and total TDs than Justin Herbert, Jordan Love, and Jacob Eason, yet that wasn’t enough for scouts who were looking for a “type” (see Dan Orlovsky and his “why you’re a fan of Herbert is because that’s what it should look like,” comment).
When Hurts arrived in Philly, he was given the welcome many ignorant fans and the city’s talking sports media heads reserve solely for Philly’s Black QBs like Randall Cunningham and Donovan McNabb.
Granted, some of it was due to shock of drafting Hurts as the Eagles had Carson Wentz as the starter and had finished 2019 with over 4,000 yards passing and 27 TDs.
But that season, Wentz regressed and when Hurts was given his first start in Week 14, he led the team to a 24-21 win over the Saints, which was the highlight of his short rookie season.
In 2021, the team traded Wentz to the Colts and the job should have been Jalen’s.
Instead, he was bombarded by doubt and criticism, the latter from former ESPN NFL Draft analyst, Todd McShay.
“Jalen Hurts, are you getting an upgrade here? I mean he completed 52%,” said McShay. “In four games he started, he threw three interceptions. He threw four interceptions over the season. I know the stats are similar when you look at Wentz and Jalen Hurts over this past year. I just don’t know that you’re getting a huge upgrade with Hurts. And I just wonder if Philly is comfortable moving Wentz and not bringing in another quarterback for competition, or as a backup or something that kind of gives you a better sense of what’s going to be at that quarterback spot moving forward.
“Because I personally, if I was the general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles, I would not feel comfortable going into the season saying, ‘Hurts is the guy. He’s going to take us to the promised land. We believe in him 100%. We don’t even need to bring in another guy.’”
Then as the preseason approached, new Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni refused to name Hurts the starter.
“There’s no rush,” said Sirianni at the time. “We’re just not there yet.”
Apparently Sirianni felt backup Joe Flacco deserved more of a look.
After finally being named the starter, Hurts has led the Eagles to 5 straight playoff appearances, two Super Bowls and one Super Bowl victory.
He’s donated $30,000 to help a Pennsylvania family with a child battling cancer purchase a new home, donated almost $1 million to help schools across the city get air conditioning, bought a bus for one organization and provided kids in the city with books.
And despite all of that, the news about Hurts’ battle with blood clots had some jumping to outrageous conclusions.
On Sunday, the NFL Network’s Michael Robinson set things off with a ridiculous rant about Hurts’ health, spewing nonsense about the Eagles QB using the “superficial blood clot” diagnosis as an excuse to remove himself from blame over the team’s bad start to the season.
Robinson even said “I’m not a medical guy” but then continued digging the hole he was digging.
On Monday, it was revealed that Hurts would miss the remainder of the season due to additional blood clots being discovered and that the Eagles medical staff apparently botched the entire treatment before, during and after the team’s trip to England last week.
And while Robinson ultimately apologized on Monday evening, the insult and insinuation were already made.
His foolish take is just another example of the unfair and unwarranted criticism that follows Jalen despite not doing anything to deserve it.
Now he can’t even suffer a serious health condition without being accused of something negative.
Jalen Hurts deserves better, and some of that better includes apologies from those who continue to insult, disrespect and criticize him.
Last year, the highway leading into Philly had billboards showing love to Hurts for bringing a championship to the city.
After his latest diagnosis, those messages of love, complete with apologies, need to go back up.
