Philadelphia Eagles starting quarterback Jalen Hurts is out for the season with deep vein thrombosis, which was discovered after arriving in London for a game between the Eagles and Jacksonville Jaguars.
A Philadelphia sports columnist said a few years ago that if San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy were the Eagles’ quarterback, he “would be a god in Philadelphia” because of his underdog story. Hurts is also a loser. The difference is that Hurts are black and Purdy is white. But like Michael Jordan’s flu game in the 1997 NBA Finals, him playing through an illness, playing football after being diagnosed with a blood clot and having little rest, seemed enough to negate this columnist’s point.
The problem, however, mainly centers on Hertz. There are questions about his leadership, abilities and attitude as quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles, and now questions about the severity of the blood clot and his commitment to the season amid roster challenges. The most shocking one came from NFL Network’s Michael Robinson, who said that regarding Hurts’ current injury, Hurts seemed to be saying, “If everybody’s hurt, then I’m hurt.”
But Hertz had a blood clot. Initially, it was diagnosed as a superficial vein thrombosis, now it’s a series of deep vein thromboses that have traveled to Hertz’s lungs. He will miss the remainder of the season while undergoing treatment, but is expected to make a full recovery, according to his agent, Nicole Lynn. The injury did not compensate for his condition. It’s not a cop-out for a season that seems to have gone down the drain. This is true. Sadly, Hurts was not given the benefit of the doubt.
Hurts is perhaps one of the most disrespected players in the NFL and is, in Commissioner Roger Goodell’s words, “the face of the league.” National media pundits, Philly media pundits, and even some Philadelphia Eagles fans disrespect him. Of course, Hertz has its cheering parts, but their voices are often drowned out by the echoes of chorus and criticism. The narrative is that the 2026 season is a make-or-break season for Hurts, and after this season some are eager to provide “evidence” of the struggles Hurts faces on offense.
However, the same standards of success and failure did not apply to many of Hurt’s peers, even those who were less accomplished than Hurt. While some Eagles fans want Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni fired, this has not been a make-or-break season for him. Even after hiring his friend as offensive coordinator, he was clearly incompetent, or after showing his own incompetence on offense.
So why does Hurts draw so much criticism and make him such a polarizing figure? Last month, ESPN commentator Dan Orlovsky said Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert (compared to Hurts) “is exactly what he should be.” What if Hurts doesn’t look like a quarterback? I think a quarterback should look like a Super Bowl MVP? The better question is: How does any former backup quarterback, hired to define what a good, great or elite quarterback looks like, know what that quarterback actually looks like? I think it’s because they’re familiar with what it doesn’t look like, but I digress.
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It can’t be because he’s not a pocket passer, doesn’t compete, and isn’t stoic and mysterious. This may be because women find him attractive, making even the most macho of men very insecure. Maybe it’s because some people believe any nonsense AJ Brown has to say. But I suspect it goes deeper than that. You may not like the answer I’m about to give, but you know what’s coming next: racism.
Racism has long been part of the NFL’s history: long before Colin Kaepernick and Brian Flores; long before the league’s history of creating racial norms to prevent black retirees from receiving concussion settlement claims. Racism dates back to 1933, when the league implemented a ban on black players. After the league was reauthorized in 1946, a classification procedure called racial stacking was instituted due to the widespread belief that black athletes were not smart enough to play quarterback.
Philadelphia doesn’t shrug off its racist history just because the Eagles have started more black quarterbacks than white quarterbacks over the past 40 years. Randall Cunningham, Donovan McNabb and Michael Vick have all faced racism disguised as criticism at the position. I imagine it’s now Hertz’s turn to be subject to the same criticism, but the reasons for it are particularly damning.
“They play games, but they’re not here to play games.”
Hurts is not an Allen Iverson-like figure, and his tattoos, cornrows, and “gang” make him easily labeled a “thug.” He’s not a figure like Joel Embiid, whose struggles on the court and history of missing games make him easily labeled “lazy.” He’s not a womanizer, he’s not violent, and he’s not stupid. He is not an easily identifiable trope for black people.
The hurt, however, is unapologetically black.
Unapologetically black people wear their black identity every day, no matter who is offended or made uncomfortable. They will not be phased by narratives designed to belittle their honor and intelligence. They embrace themselves and their culture. They speak, behave, interact, and respond in ways that are unfamiliar to the mainstream, soliciting criticism through a white-filtered lens that labels anyone but white as failing to meet standards of posture and etiquette. In short, they are not here to make white people feel comfortable.
Hurts is proud to be black. He does crawfish, listens to Frankie Beverley and the Maze, and doesn’t curry favor with the sports media machine, a predominantly white institutional space. He doesn’t yell at officials like Tom Brady but gets treated like Dez Bryant. He didn’t answer media questions, as some reporters thought; he wouldn’t “get anywhere” [he doesn’t] Laugh when you feel itchy [he wasn’t] tickle. “He was not happy to be in front of the media, as many of the more ‘discerning’ athletes claimed to be. As Hertz himself said, he had a purpose before anyone had an opinion. This applies to talking heads in both white and black sports media, whether it’s Emmanuel Acho, Doug Gottlieb, Linda Cohen or Stephen A. Smith.
Unapologetic blackness may be the most threatening entity to the current social order in the sports industry. They are threatening because they are not consumed by traditional efforts to position themselves as “respectable” in an industry that is predicated on black athletes “knowing their place.” They don’t want to appear grateful for the privilege of making money through sports. They play games, but they are not there to play games.
Yet we live in a culture of pop artists who want instant fame rather than establishing records of credibility and significance. Those who speak up are all too willing to criticize Hurts and others like Kyrie Irving and Angel Reese, but eat crow every time they achieve something on or off the court. Angel Reese, for example, freaked out her critics when she became just the third player in WNBA history to score 30 points and grab at least 15 rebounds in the WNBA Finals. Reese had 30 points and 16 rebounds.
Still, racist comments masquerading as silly snippets will continue to exist, as these snippets continue to fuel the careers of previously respected reporters while building new ones for former athletes whose trajectories mirror the trajectory of their careers, which is useful at best but likely to fall short of the mark. Comments directed at harm are the only reason some of these are relevant. But when it comes to Hurts, the only thing that’s relevant is that he played a football game in a life-threatening situation, and the only criticism worth raising and entertaining is that they were negligent in handling Hurts’ health against the Philadelphia Eagles. As for Hurt haters, knowing what we know now, he will be praised for his performance against the Jaguars in London. It has already started.
I think this is all going to die…godlike behavior. But black people working hard to gain acceptance from white people is a rite of passage imposed on black people. This is the American way.