There’s a short video on Jalen Hurts’ Instagram. In the recording, dated six months ago, the Eagles quarterback walks by stadium stands where a group of kids are hanging over a railing, waving and yelling for his attention. Hurts leans down, unties his Jordan 11s, signs them with a red Sharpie, motions to one of the kids, and tosses up his cleats. The intended target is beyond blissful. And Hurts, so often described as “stoic,” “calm,” and “unfazed” (that last one is Coach Nick Siranni), looks down and breaks out into a brief, all-face-brightening, grin.
You can talk all day about the victories and the tush push and the power lifting and the dimes to A.J. Brown and Skinny Batman. You can throw back to the 2019 Heisman-worthy season or his favorite game of all time, when he and his coach dad beat his high school’s crosstown rivals with a game-winning Hail Mary. But it’s in simple, everyday moments like these when you see what really brings Jalen Hurts joy.
Jalen Hurts really loves providing for kids — especially Philly kids — through The Jalen Hurts Foundation, which he officially launched in the spring of 2024, and which helps fund programs like the KB Foundation, a local youth mentorship nonprofit.
Hurts more than hinted at where his heart was during his rookie year. Sensible beyond his years, he saved the vast majority of his first year salary. Of the money he did spend, he paid off the used car he bought in college, paid for renovations to his family home (where he stayed in the off-season) — and donated over $60,000 to charity, including to a Nottingham family with an 8-year-old with a rare cancer. He also put aside $70,000 for his younger sister’s college tuition, without mentioning it to her or their parents.
Here was a good guy, who didn’t want a lot of attention. He just wanted to play ball and do his share of good works. And he did. He does.
For his commitment to uplifting folks who are so often marginalized — be they Philadelphia students, women in sports, or kids overcoming health challenges — The Citizen is honored to name Hurts this year’s Citizen of the Year. We will be honoring him at our annual Citizen of the Year celebration on February 25 at Fitler Club Ballroom. (You can read about all of this year’s winners here, and find out about tickets and sponsorships for the star-studded event here.)
A role model on the field and off
Hurts is about giving chances, about showing up for people that others too often brush off. That looks, for example, like supporting women in sports. He joined up with fellow elite athletes Carli Lloyd, Laila Ali and Qiana “Star” Wright to distribute 30,000 sports bras at Northeast High a couple years ago. And, famously, he has surrounded himself with a majority women-led team, from his agent to his publicist to the executive director of his Foundation — something he believes should be the norm in sports by now.
Showing up means being there when, say, the Eagles ask him to appear at the annual Autism Challenge; there he is, completing the entire 30-mile bike ride with his fans, embracing the experience from start to finish. Showing up means painting murals with kids at Stephen Girard Elementary, or signing a jersey for a veteran’s son. Showing up means visiting countless public schools where he’s tossed more footballs with kids than any of us can count. And, yes, he added his voice to the original Philly Specials’ Christmas album.
His first year with the Birds, Hurts repped Alex’s Lemonade Stand on his cleats. This season, in the spirit of his Foundation’s “Serve, Mentor, Progress” motto, he met with young fans at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to create his “My Cause, My Cleats” design, and, with a personal flourish, added the children’s initials to his CHOP-themed kicks. In between, he brought attention to the small yet impactful, now-10-year-old, youth life skills nonprofit the KB Foundation with his cleats — and, later, with some serious follow-up.
“That’s what it’s all about: giving back, showing love, and helping others. That’s what it comes down to. That’s the rent we pay to live on this earth.” — Eagles Quarterback Jalen Hurts
How Hurts came to know KB is its own story. He was shooting a commercial at Phield House, a multi-purpose indoor sports center on Spring Garden, when a group of middle school boys on the basketball court caught his attention. “The boys were part of our after school program,” says KB Foundation founder and CEO Kirk Berry. “They approached him and had some words, like, Hey, you can’t beat us in basketball! He laughed and started to play. Before he left, he talked and took pictures with them.”
Over the years, Hurts has stayed involved with KB. He spent the bulk of his 2022 “Day of Care” mentoring a group of KB kids. Later, his Foundation, in partnership with Lincoln Financial Foundation, bought the program — which operates without a brick-and-mortar center and whose core mission is to take kids to new spaces to meet adults who serve as inspiring examples — their own 33-passenger bus. (KB also uses the bus for their summer camps.) He also invited 15 KB boys to the premiere of the Amazon documentary series, Evolution of the Black Quarterback.
Impressive, right? Hurts keeps it low-key. In other words, as he often says, he keeps “the main thing the main thing.”
“Jalen is really big on like, Hey, who is the moment for? Like, let’s have that moment,” says Berry. “He is always very intentional in his interaction with the young people. No matter what’s going on around them — how many cameras, no matter how many people — if he’s sitting across from a young man, that young man probably has no clue of what’s going on around them, because Jalen is having a conversation with just him and that young man.”
Berry adds, “Every time we have an opportunity to get our youth with him, he creates that magical moment for our young people.”
Hurts cools Philly schools
In the fall of 2023, Hurts saw School District spokesperson Monique Braxton on the news saying some Philadelphia schools had to close during a heat wave because their buildings didn’t have air conditioning. To the native Houstonian, this was shocking.
“Growing up in Texas, that’s not something he ever had experience with,” says Braxton, also the District’s deputy chief of communications. “He comes from a family of educators, and so he thought this is what he would like to do to help the students in the School District of Philadelphia.” At the time, more than a third of the District’s schools lacked proper HVAC — and had to close when the temperature neared 90 degrees.
Hurts approached the problem pragmatically. He didn’t want to overwhelm the system by throwing a bunch of dollars at the issue. Instead, he and his Foundation consulted with District operations folks, figured out what amount of money would start to get the job done and have the most impact. The next spring, Hurts donated $200,000 to purchase and have 314 air conditioners installed to cool 10 city schools. Today, they’re all up and running.
He went to Gideon Elementary School in Brewerytown to make the announcement. There, Hurts did yoga with kindergarteners (District Superintendent Tony Waltington joined in, wearing a suit), appeared in an auditorium presentation, and talked behind the scenes with a few older students about their goals.
“The impression I had is that he’s all in for our students. He wanted to give back where he saw a need,” says Braxton. Today, 58 A/C-less schools remain, and The Jalen Hurts Foundation promised more grant money — $5,000 per touchdown, “TDs for ACs” — for the same cause, the “Keep It Cool” initiative. As of this past weekend, he’d hit $170,000.
Remember back in 2020, when the then-rookie QB went viral for DIYing a backpack to honor a six-year-old fan’s homemade Jalen Hurts version, then meeting the child, his 8-year-old brother and mom live on SportsCenter?
Of the exchange, Hurts said, simply, “That’s what it’s all about: giving back, showing love, and helping others. That’s what it comes down to. That’s the rent we pay to live on this earth.”
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