Eagles QB Jalen Hurts speaks in catchy, quirky, inspirational quotes. They aren’t for show

When Jalen Hurts was the quarterback at Oklahoma, author Damon West spoke to the football team. West’s speech revolved around a carrot, an egg and a coffee bean. He explained that when you put all three in boiling water, the carrot softens and the egg hardens, but the coffee bean spreads to the rest of the water, getting stronger and impacting what’s around it.

Though most of Hurts’ teammates thought it was a good speech, only Hurts continued to bring it up months later.

“It was just Jalen,” Caleb King-Kelly, Hurts’ teammate at Oklahoma, said. “Like, sure, it’s a good story, but Jalen? Dude was like, ‘I’m keeping that forever!’”

To speak Hurts’ language is to be fluent in catchy, inspirational, often quirky quotes. Even though he sprinkles them in during interviews as the quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles, including in 2020, when he told reporters he wanted to “be a coffee bean,” they’re not for show.

“These Jalen-isms,” Kelly said, “he’s always been this way.”

“It’s just the way he talks,” said Patrick Fields, another teammate at Oklahoma. “But even deeper than that, it’s more so the way he looks at life. I think it philosophically shapes the way he does everything.

“Every single day that you wake up — like, as soon as you wake up — life is trying to make all these excuses for you. Life is trying to tell you, ‘Oh, your body is sore, the critics are on you,’ and there’s all these burdens. And his sayings are how he goes about life.”

We picked our six favorite “Jalen-isms” and asked his former teammates and coaches to translate and provide context.

1. ‘I ain’t hungry. I’m starving for this s—.’

Before the Oklahoma-Texas game in 2019, also known as the Red River Rivalry, Oklahoma held its usual pregame meeting, during which coach Lincoln Riley called on people to address the team. There was a lot of nervous energy and a “different vibe,” according to King-Kelly, because of the weight of the rivalry.

During the meeting, Hurts spoke up.

“He talked about this long story, about growing up in Texas,” King-Kelly said. “He’s a real polished guy. Never cusses — a Christian dude. For the first time, he said, ‘Eff them. Eff them dudes from Texas. They’re gonna have to feel me. They’re gonna have to learn about me.’”

King-Kelly had never heard anything like that come out of Hurts’ mouth, so the team erupted when he said it.

“Like, going crazy,” King-Kelly said.

2. ‘I didn’t walk through all that fire just to smell the smoke’

Some of the fire dates back to his earlier college days in Alabama. Leading the team to consecutive national championship appearances, Hurts was benched for Tua Tagovailoa during halftime of the 2018 championship game.

It sparked rumors that he would transfer, so former teammate Mac Hereford said Hurts called a players-only meeting. He reassured everyone he was staying at Alabama for the next season and emphasized he would give everything he had, regardless of where he fell on the depth chart.

“Just having the courage and strength to do that — and not only say but do it,” Hereford said. “That’s the guy he is.”

Sure enough, the very next year, Hurts was called off the bench for an injured Tagovailoa to lead Alabama over Georgia in the SEC Championship Game.

3. ‘You take you a deuce, you don’t sit there and look at it. You flush it and move on.’

During Hurts’ junior season at Alabama, Dan Enos, his position coach, said Hurts would come into his office the day after a bad practice — even during the spring and on afternoons when the team was off — with a question:

“Coach, what do you think about yesterday?”

At first, Enos found ways to sugarcoat his thoughts. But he soon realized that’s not what Hurts was looking for.

“Nah, I didn’t practice very well,” Hurts would say.

“I didn’t want to say that, but you said it first,” Enos would reply.

“All right, what can we do? How do I correct this?”

4. ‘No man is an island. You got to draw your strength from others.’

During Hurts’ rookie year with the Eagles, he asked Enos for a favor.

“Coach, do you still have the weekly agenda?”

In 2018, Enos had handed out a daily list to his quarterbacks at Alabama, with suggestions of certain cut-ups to watch on certain days. Hurts wanted Enos to send it to him.

Enos believed Hurts was still thinking about that weekly plan years later, while playing in the NFL, for one reason.

“Jalen is never satisfied,” he said.

Hereford explained that Alabama’s football program was equipped with various top-notch tools and resources, like a seasoned staff of trainers. Though Hereford said some players didn’t utilize those resources, Hurts took advantage of them all.

“It’s in that preparation that he does that allows him to be so calm under pressure,” Hereford said. “One of the calmest people I’ve ever seen under pressure.”

5. ‘Always stay neutral’

Hurts chose not to dwell on his bad performances, Enos said, which allowed him to focus more on improving. He applied that mindset to the disappointing news of being named a backup at Alabama.

Granted, Hurts stayed honest.

“Every once in a while, I’d have to go, like, ‘Hey, Jalen, are we good? Do we need to have a talk?’” Enos said. “And he would vent to me and say, ‘Coach, this is hard.’”

But Enos said Hurts never focused too long on the disappointments and never was caught feeling sorry for himself. He believes it’s the reason Hurts was able to perform the way he did coming off the bench in the SEC Championship Game.

“If Jalen would have pouted the whole year, he might not have been ready or prepared for that moment,” Enos said.

6. ‘Rent is due every day’

At the start of Oklahoma’s 2019 season, it dominated most of its games. Sometimes the Sooners only needed Hurts, a senior who transferred from Alabama, to play in the first half.

But after each game, Hurts would still go work out, even if it was 3 a.m.

“Everybody would be like, ‘What is wrong with this dude?’” King-Kelly said, laughing. “‘Just go chill. Like, you won. You had a good game.’ He’d legitimately go do a full hour-and-a-half workout after every single one.”

Hurts had made it clear before the season even started that he was on a mission. The Oklahoma football team met during Hurts’ first week on campus. Wide receiver Mykel Jones said the meeting had nothing to do with football, but Hurts that day told his new teammates: “I’m here to win a championship.”

To quote another Jalen-ism: “Money is nice — championships are better.”

(Top photo: Lauren Leigh Bacho / Getty Images)