Getty Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes (left) and Philadelphia Eagles QB Jalen Hurts (right) celebrate conference titles.
Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes grew up about 3 hours and 22 minutes away from each other. They never matched up in high school — mainly because Mahomes is three years older than Hurts — but the awareness factor was there. Hurts used to watch highlights of Mahomes on a late-night football show that aired throughout the state of Texas.
Now the two quarterbacks are preparing to lead their teams into battle at Super Bowl LVII. Texas might be a big state, but it’s a small world. On Thursday, Hurts took a trip down memory lane during his first press conference since clinching the NFC, stopping to make a detour at Whitehouse High where Mahomes was a three-sport standout.
“Texas is so big,” Hurts told reporters. “I turn on the TV, he’s a little older than me, too, but turn on the TV and see you had the Texas High School Football Late Night Show, and it runs throughout the whole state and you see what he’s doing in East Texas. You have Houston, you have Dallas, San Antonio, you have so many areas, at Whitehouse, I think he went to Whitehouse, he always lighting it up over there. So, I always had a lot of respect for him and always was kind of watching him from afar.”
Crazy to think that two kids born and raised in Texas — Hurts in Channelview, Mahomes in Whitehouse — are about to become the first set of black quarterbacks to ever go head-to-head in the Super Bowl.
“I think it’s history, I think it’s something that’s worthy of being noted and it is history,” Hurts said. “It’s come a long way. I think there’s only been seven black quarterbacks to play in the Super Bowl, so to be the first for something is pretty cool. It’ll be a good one.”
Hurts Addresses Strained Right Throwing Shoulder
Hurts has now played three straight games on his injured right throwing shoulder, all of those starts resulted in wins. The MVP candidate hasn’t shown too many signs of being compromised since returning on January 8, but reporters still wanted to know how his arm felt prior to Thursday’s walk-through.
“I’m getting there,” Hurts said. “I’ve made it clear this whole time that it’s been something I’ve been dealing with, and, you know, getting there.”
When someone asked him to put a number on it, on a 1-10 scale, Hurts replied: “I can’t.”
A.J. Brown Came to Philadelphia to Win a Super Bowl
The viral FaceTime showing Jalen Hurts and A.J.Brown smiling and laughing on April 28, right after the Eagles made the blockbuster deal for Brown, has been going viral again this week. The two knew something on draft night. They were scheming for this moment the whole time.
On Thursday, Brown admitted that the call on draft night calmed him down and turned his Tennessee tears into Philly laughs. Then, the two high school friends started putting the work in. The goal was always to get to the Super Bowl. And here they are.
“This was always the expectation,” Brown said. “When I got here my first post-game speech I told him I didn’t want to put no pressure on him but this is the goal. This is why we play the game. I’m not playing for induvial awards, like I’m trying to play the game to be the best, to hold that trophy up at the end. Right now, we here. We’re at the door. We just gotta go take it.”
JALEN HURTS AND AJ BROWN ON FACETIME THE LEAGUE IS FINISHED.