Entertainment

Jalen Hurts: 5 Things To Know About Eagles’ Quarterback Ahead Of Super Bowl LVII

Jalen Hurts is the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback headed to the Super Bowl
He grew up in Houston, Texas in a football-focused family
Jalen Hurts is making history in Super Bowl LVII, as it will be the first championship game with two Black quarterbacks

The Philadelphia Eagles were led by quarterback Jalen Hurts in the 2022-2023 season to clinch the NFC East Championship, and now they’re preparing to play against the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII. Jalen has stayed fairly quiet heading into the big game, but told reporters on Feb. 8 that he is simply focused on “coming out here and being consistent, and playing at a high level, and playing together. Seemingly superstitious, he wouldn’t even say the word “Super Bowl champions” as he spoke.

“I feel like there’s a ton of value and repetition in getting experience and learning, and being able to learn from those mistakes so I think we’ve grown in a ton of different areas, and we have an opportunity to be…” he continued, stopping himself before saying “Super Bowl champions”. However, with Jalen’s impressive record, he has seemingly little to be superstitious about. He finished the regular season with a 14-3 record (although he missed two games due to a shoulder injury) and has impressively completed 66.5 percent of his throws and helped score 22 touchdowns, according to his ESPN profile.

So, who is the 24-year-old NFL star hoping to lead the Eagles to victory? Read on to learn more about Jalen Hurts.

Jalen Hurts celebrates after the Eagles become conference champions

1. Jalen Hurts Was Coached By His Dad For Most Of His Life

Jalen Hurts grew up in a football-loving family in Houston, Texas. His family was so involved with football that his father, Averion Hurts Sr., coached both him and his older brother, Averion Jr., beginning in middle school and into their careers at Channelview High School, just outside of Houston. They weren’t just around football when they were playing; The New York Times described their father’s football practices “as day care” for Jalen and Averion when they were young, as they “pent their summers and autumns at the school stadium and field house, first as ball boys then as quarterbacks.”

Jalen blossomed in high school, making the second-team all-district as a sophomore, according to ABC News. During his junior year, he was honored with the title of Overall MVP.

The NFL star thrived when he played football at the University of Alabama, becoming the first freshman quarterback since Vince Sutton in 1984. However, during the 2018 season, he was benched in favor of Tua Tagovailoa, who led the team to a 26-23 victory over Georgia. The game changed Jalen’s entire trajectory, as Tua became the starting quarterback after the game. Although Jalen had a redemptive moment later on in the season, he made the critical decision of transferring to Oklahoma in 2019 for his senior year. He was picked up by the Eagles during the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft.

2. Jalen Hurts Knew He Had To Prove Skeptics Wrong

Jalen Hurts signed with the Eagles in 2020 after graduating from Oklahoma (Photo: -Matt Rourke/AP/Shutterstock)

Following the Eagles’ 31-7 win over the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC title game in January, Jalen admitted to reporters that although he is a popular guy in Philly now, he knew that was not always the case. “My first year here [people] probably didn’t even want [me drafted] here. It was probably one of those things. But it always handles itself,” he said, per ESPN. He then noted the Bible verse that kept him going. “John 13:7: ‘You may not know now but later you’ll understand.’ Hopefully, people understand,” he said.

Even before the 2022-2023 NFL season, fans and players alike knew Jalen was a force to be reckoned with. In fact, receiver A.J. Brown said he did not study the Philadelphia Eagles’ roster before agreeing to leave the Tennessee Titans for the Eagles and a four-year, $100 million extension. “All I needed to know was who was going to be my quarterback. That told me everything I needed to know,” he noted.

3. Jalen Hurts Can Squat 600 Lbs.

Jalen Hurts is known as a quarterback with quick, strong legs — and there’s a reason for that: He can squat a whopping 600 Lbs. Fans can see him at work in the below Twitter video, which was shared by Oklahoma Football his senior year.

Never forget Jalen Hurts squatting nearly 600 lbs in college 🤯

(via @OU_Football) pic.twitter.com/PNLFwSHV4h

— ESPN (@espn) December 8, 2020

Of course, his not-so-secret weapon is dangerous: No team wants their quarterback hit, but that comes with running the ball. “We got to run him; I don’t ever want him to get hit,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said one day after the team won 38-25 against the Detroit Lions during their season opener, per Fan Nation.

4. Jalen Hurts Is Making Super Bowl History With Patrick Mahomes

Jalen and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes are making history at the 2023 Super Bowl as the first two African American quarterbacks to face off in the hunt for the famed Vince Lombardi trophy. “It is history. It’s come a long way. I think there has only been (eight) African American quarterbacks to play in a Super Bowl,” Jalen told reporters on Feb. 2, 2023, per USA TODAY. “To be the first for something is pretty cool. I know it’ll be a good one. It’s history.”

Patrick, 27, shared a similar message of excitement. “To be on the world stage and have two Black quarterbacks starting in the Super Bowl, I think it’s special,” he said. “I’m glad we can set the stage for kids that are coming up now.”

5. Jalen And A.J. Brown Are Best Buds

Jalen and A.J. Brown have chemistry both on the field and off the field. It turns out that they’ve known each other since they started their collegiate careers and that Jalen even tried convincing his pal to transfer to Alabama to play with him. “I always reflect on how cool it is to play with guys you’ve known for a very long time,” Hurts told the press ahead of Super Bowl LVII, per NBC Sports. “Talking with A.J. specifically, our whole back story and background, with me trying to get him to come to Alabama, it didn’t work out the first time but it worked out this time and we’ve been enjoying it. We’ve hit the ground running and it was something we wanted to do for a long time.”

Reflecting on their dynamic further, Jalen said he and A.J. were “always having these conversations [about football] and building our football IQ, I think it’s always been something that’s been building,” per A to Z Sports.

“When the rubber hit the road, it went smooth,” he continued. “[A.J.] coming to Philly, us having the opportunity to play together, I think it all happened naturally, it was all organic. We hit the ground rolling and hopefully we can do that for years to come. He’s a big time player and same goes for [DeVonta Smith]. When we had our time at Alabama, we had a little connection there. Getting him to come to Philly, that was icing on the cake.”

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Jalen Hurts has made it to the Super Bowl LVII with Philadelphia Eagles in just two seasons since he was picked out of college. Find out more information about him here.

Entertainment

‘Jawan’ to mint Rs 70 crore on opening day

With a 5 am show in Kolkata, a 6 am one in Jaipur and tickets flying off the proverbial shelf, Bollywood theatrical releases — most recent being “Gadar 2” and “OMG 2″ — are raking it in.Mumbai-based trade expert Komal Nahta agreed with Biji’s estimate.”The situation is crazy across single-screen theatres and multiplexes both. It is difficult to predict the business. It will at least do Rs 70 crore on day one (in India),” Nahta told PTI.In Delhi, the film releases ahead of the G20 Summit on September 9-10 with several heads of state, including US President Joe Biden, set to attend the event. While the city will remain open during the weekend, restrictions will be imposed on a small part of the NDMC area.Bijli said he is not worried about the theatrical business taking a hit in central Delhi because of G20 restrictions. It would mean four PVR theatres — PVR Plaza, Rivoli, Odeon and ECX Chanakyapuri — shut during the summit.”They are single screen theatres with a total capacity of about 2,000 seats so that really wouldn’t have much of an impact because the loss for that will be compensated by the fact that Delhi has a four-day weekend,” he said.About 30-35 per cent of the film’s business will come from the South, which again is bigger than the numbers made by “Pathaan”, added Bijli.The buzz around “Jawan” is also high in south India as a majority of the cast and crew hail from the region, said Chennai-based trade analyst Ramesh Bala.”The advance booking is looking good all over India, certainly so in the South as well. There are early morning shows in the south. It is a big release here for all the states combined because the cast and crew are from the South.”So the buzz is more. Looking at the advance booking response for the film, I think on day one, the film should do Rs 20 to 25 crore from the South market, and overall, it should do Rs 70 to 75 crore across India. If the movie is reasonably good, then the lifetime business of the movie will be Rs 800 to Rs 1,000 crore,” Bala told PTI.It’s not just in the South.Theatre chain Miraj Cinema, which has 182 plus screens across India, said it has already sold 28,000 tickets.”Due to overwhelming public demand, we’ve broken new ground by adding a 5 am show for a Hindi film in Kolkata, a first in our cinema’s history. Jaipur will experience the earliest screening at 6.05 am in Hindi, setting a record for the city,” Amit Sharma, MD of Miraj Entertainment Ltd, said in a statement.Senior distributor and exhibitor Raj Bansal, said many theatres in Rajasthan will also hold early morning shows of “Jawan” due to the unprecedented response.”After almost 30 years in Rajasthan, we are having 6 am shows for ‘Jawan’. In the past, this happened with Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘Hum’,” Bansal, director of Jaipur’s three-screen multiplex Entertainment Paradise, told PTI.In Mumbai, Gaiety-Galaxy, a prominent single-screen theatre, about 90 per cent of its seats are sold out.”Almost 80 to 90 per cent booking is done so far; by Thursday it will be houseful. We are happy with the golden run of movies in theatres, especially in single-screen theatres. I think because of ‘Pathaan’ and ‘Gadar 2’, the business in single screen has revived. The industry has bounced back in a big way. With ‘Jawan’ things are looking positive,” Manoj Desai, executive director of Gaiety, Galaxy and Maratha Mandir Cinema, told PTI.As screens open up for advance bookings in various cities, the Tamil and Telugu versions of the film are also seeing enthusiastic support although the Hindi version is naturally taking the lead, Ashish Saksena, COO – Cinemas, BookMyShow, said in a statement.”What is interesting to note is that the Hindi language version of the film has seen maximum interest from markets in South and East India such as Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Chennai amongst others,” he added.According to Bijli, 2023, particularly the months of July-August, have been great for the exhibition sector with the back-to-back successes of both Hollywood and Hindi movies such as “Mission Impossible 7”, “Oppenheimer”, “Gadar 2”, “OMG 2” and “Dream Girl 2″.”Movie going (experience) has come back. ‘Jawan’ has a lot going for itself. The film has Shah Rukh Khan, who has delivered ‘Pathaan’, a Rs 525 crore movie,” he said.That film releases on Janmashtami, when many people celebrate the birth of Lord Krishna, and a weekend follows one day later is expected to boost sales.Rajkot-based distributor Ajay Bagdai said the advance booking for “Jawan” looks promising as Gujarat will have a holiday weekend due to Janmashtami.”At my theatre in Rajkot, we have 1,100 seats and so far we have sold about 750 tickets, only for September 7. On the first day, the pan-India business should be at least around Rs 50 to 60 crore,” Bagdai added.

Shah Rukh Khan’s next movie “Jawan” is expected to outperform the opening day grossing of “Pathaan” from earlier in the year. It is projected that Jawan should reach nearly 70 crore in earnings on its premiere day at the theaters.

Entertainment

Salman Khan warns against fake casting agents

Shah Rukh Khanfor an action packed spy drama, titled ‘Tiger vsPathaan’.

In a recent post on social media, Salman Khan cautioned his followers to beware of phony individuals, vowing to give innocent persons roles in his movies. The actor released a declaration on behalf of his studio as well. Soon, audiences will be able to witness Salman Khan’s performance in ‘Tiger 3’, the movie also featuring Katrina Kaif and Emraan Hashmi.

Entertainment

Aamir enjoys Wimbledon 2023 finals with kids

Aamir Khan was spotted at the Wimbledon 2023 finals in London with his children, Junaid, Azad and Ira, where they enjoyed the match together. Popular Bollywood celebrities such as Sonam Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, and Nick Jonas also attended the event.

Aamir Khan and his kids, Junaid, Azad, and Ira, could be seen at the 2023 Wimbledon finals in London together, savoring the match. Celebrities like Sonam Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, and Nick Jonas who are superstars in Bollywood were at the occasion.

Entertainment

With Katrina, it is always a ‘Merry Christmas’

CELEB LOOKS

Nature’s girl

Katrina is known to be a huge nature lover and here she is seen sitting pretty amidst flora and fauna

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Mornings like these

We think the diva looks flawless even when she wakes up in the morning. Don’t you agree?

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Festive fervour

The actor, who looks as gorgeous in Indian wear as Western, strikes a pose in this pastel salwar kameez

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Girl next door

Sultry diva or girl next door? Katrina, who recently turned 40, aces many avatars with elan

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Click happy

The actor posted this pic thanking her insta family that now boasts of 74 million people!

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Glam girl

Katrina, who carries off the glamorous look with panache, looks stunning in this shimmering golden dress

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Floral fantasy

Katrina shows you why a good floral pant suit is a must in your wardrobe

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Rock and roll

This zig zag chic dress with thigh high slits on either side is perfect for the summers

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Cozy corner

Katrina looks so radiant and fresh in this pic as her eyes do all the talking. Don’t miss her luscious locks!

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Green brigade

The actor poses in a green swimsuit atop a yacht and does she not look mesmerising?

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Next: Bollywood star kids making their debut in 2023

Entertainment

Prasoon Joshi to watch ‘OMG 2’ today

AfterCBFCwas slammed recently for passing Om Raut’s ‘Adipurush’ with zero cuts, Amit Rai’s ‘OMG 2’ was referred to the Revisting Committee by the Examining Committee, ahead of its release.Prasoon Joshi, Chairperson of CBFC will reportedly be watching the film today. According to reports, usually the Chief Executive Officer of the CBFC, Ravinder Bhakar, awards the certificate.His signature is seen on almost all the censor certificates. However, in the case of ‘OMG 2’,Prasoon Joshihimself will go through the film and make a decision accordingly, the report inBollywoodHungama stated.

The report added that he has decided to spearhead the Revisting Committee as the CBFC wants to be fully sure that ‘OMG 2’ doesn’t have any scene or dialogue that can cause a problem.

Prabhas, Kriti Sanon and Saif Ali Khan starrer received a huge backlash from the audience for its dialogues and scenes. The film received mixed reviews from the audience and the critics alike.

Meanwhile, ‘OMG 2’ stars <a href=”https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/akshay-kumar” class=”” data-ga=”Click-Hyperlink