Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is among Time’s 100 Most Influential People for 2025.
The former Alabama standout is listed among the 14 “icons” on the list, which was released on Wednesday.
Baseball Hall of Fame member Derek Jeter, a five-time World Series champion and 14-time All-Star, wrote the essay on Hurts.
“I admire how great athletes deal with both success and failure,” Jeter wrote. “What Jalen Hurts went through in being benched during the 2018 national-championship game would break a lot of people down. But not Jalen; he focused on what he could control and found a new path to success. In the NFL, Jalen didn’t let a Super Bowl defeat in 2023 shake his confidence. He used that loss as motivation and kept a picture of himself walking off the field after losing as his phone lock screen.
“This past February, Jalen found himself on the Super Bowl stage again. This time he led Philadelphia to a convincing victory in its rematch with Kansas City. We connected shortly after, and the only thing he asked about was insight on going back and winning again. Sometimes people win, then exhale. Jalen is not exhaling. He’s embracing the next challenge. Win or lose, Jalen’s resilience and determination offer all of us something to admire.”
Hurts won the SEC Offensive Player of the Year Award as a freshman quarterback at Alabama in 2016, when he paced the Crimson Tide to the SEC championship and a spot in the CFP national-championship game.
Alabama returned to the CFP title contest the next season. But with the Tide trailing 13-0 at halftime, Hurts was replaced by Tua Tagovailoa, who rallied Alabama to a 26-23 overtime victory against Georgia.
In 2018, the Tide quarterbacks reversed roles, with Tagovailoa as the starter and Hurts as the backup.
In 2019, Hurts transferred to Oklahoma and finished as the runner-up in the balloting for the Heisman Trophy.
The NFL’s 2022 season ended with the Kansas City Chiefs defeating Philadelphia 38-35 in Super Bowl LVII even though Hurts became the only player to have at least 300 passing yards, 70 rushing yards and three touchdown runs in the same game in NFL history. Hurts also threw a touchdown pass in Super Bowl LVII.
The Eagles and Chiefs squared off again in Super Bowl LIX to cap the NFL’s 2024 campaign, and this time, Philadelphia scored a 40-22 victory with Hurts winning the game’s Most Valuable Player Award.
A second-round selection by the Eagles in the 2020 NFL Draft, Hurts backed up Carson Wentz and appeared as a gadget player until starting the final four games of the season. After the 2020 campaign, Philadelphia traded Wentz to the Indianapolis Colts, and Hurts has led the Eagles into the playoffs each season since.
