Do we like them?

Do we like Jalen Hurts?

Our score: 8 out of 10. Nothing harmful turned up, and real good works for kids and for women in his team, but the record on LGBTQ+ issues is silent.

Hurts grew up in Channelview, an eastern suburb of Houston, where his dad was his high school football coach. He led Alabama to the 2017 national championship game, was benched there for Tua Tagovailoa, then stayed on to finish his degree and transferred to Oklahoma for 2019. The Eagles took him with the 53rd pick in 2020.

The arc since is the redemption kind. After losing Super Bowl LVII to the Chiefs, he came back and beat them in the rematch, taking Super Bowl MVP. Straight afterwards he said “He's greater than all the highs and the lows.”, so the faith is front and centre, and faith alone is never a mark against anyone here.

Now the scandal check, and it's a short one. We found no court cases with him as defendant, no misconduct allegations, only the odd NFL fine for on-field and uniform stuff. The closest thing to drama is anonymous locker-room chatter: an April ESPN report said he had recommended the final play of a playoff loss and resisted scheme changes. Hurts denied it at minicamp, saying he's always open to growth.

On the harm test, we found nothing nasty in his own words, and nothing in the company he keeps. One story did get picked at: in 2025 he skipped the Eagles' White House visit. Reports cited scheduling conflicts and he didn't elaborate, and earlier he'd said of Trump attending the Super Bowl: “He's welcome to do what he wants.” Where you land depends on whether you read that as politics or as a shrug.

The gap is worth saying out loud: we found no statement from him on LGBTQ+ rights, trans people or climate. That makes him a quiet pass rather than a loud ally. On women, though, he's put his money where his mouth is, building his business team around women and saying “I've put a lot of trust and faith in a female-driven team.”

The good stuff is real. His foundation gave $200,000 for air-conditioning in Philadelphia schools and pledged $5,000 per touchdown in 2024-25, and he paid funeral costs for the family of a North Shore High player from a rival school after a shooting. That's kindness without a camera angle.