JEFFREY LURIE: I feel like we just got together. We're doing it again, third time in eight weeks?
Welcome. Thank you all for taking the time today to be here and thank you to everybody who's watching online. It's a special moment.
I think that franchises go through special moments, and this is one for the Philadelphia Eagles. It's crucial, no matter what, that you can find your quarterback for the present and the future, and to have that person be as sterling a character and as passionate about his craft and as dedicated as this young 24-year-old is is remarkable.
It takes a lot to get to that. I don't ever underestimate the personal qualities or the talent qualities of somebody who has what Jalen has. It's rare, and it's not easy.
At the league meetings just a few weeks ago when we got together, I told you I was sure we were going to be working with Jalen for a long, long time. I want to thank Howie and his staff, Nicole and her staff. These kind of things get done because of so many people in the building. It's not just Howie, it's not just Nicole, but it's a whole range of people.
The success of us and any franchise, any business, is the people in the building. I never lose sight of that. This is a great example. It's a team that comes together here.
It's also, you've heard me say this over and over as the owner of the team, that you look at the head coach, the general manager and the quarterback as your cornerstones. If you can find the right combination for all three, your present and your future is just incredibly exciting.
I think we certainly have all that now and going forward in the future.
I can only imagine what an exciting day for Jalen and his family. It's unbelievable. But it's also an incredibly exciting day for the Philadelphia Eagles and our culture and our fans and with what we have to look forward to.
It's remarkable that somebody can combine the talent that Jalen has, the personal qualities, and the ability at such a young age to be a culture setter. We've been fortunate with the Eagles to have our best players and our leaders be culture setters. We have several on the team right now.
It's why we've been to two Super Bowls recently. When you have your best players be the culture setters, it's a great formula for success. There's no question in my mind or anyone's mind in this building that Jalen is a culture setter. When you have your quarterback be a culture setter at that age, it's remarkable.
I think that we've always looked -- we have the draft coming up this week. You always look at talent. You look at what's in the body. You look at what's able to be the ceiling, the floor and all that. But sometimes people don't concentrate on when you have the talent, what's the odds of that person really maximizing every ounce of their talent today and in the future. That was really an evaluation of Jalen that superceded a lot of probably general consensus at the time, and we were awfully lucky to be able to work with Jalen for the last three years.
It was three years today when we selected him in the second round.
I just want to say that, owning the team for all these years, it's very special to have a young player have the qualities of Jalen. Today is his day, but I could tell you this anyway. If you've talked to me about this, I could have told you the last few years. To be able to have the dynamic play-making ability and the maturity and the passion for his craft at age 24, pretty remarkable. That's why we're sitting here today.
I just want to be able to say that I personally, as he knows, we FaceTimed the other day, very proud of this young man. He's going to lead the way for many, many years to come in Philadelphia and for the Eagles, and I couldn't be happier. None of us could be any happier.
With that being said, I think Howie said it the other day: This is the beginning. This is not towards the end. This is the beginning of the career arc for a remarkable person and a remarkable player.
The future we don't even know. The ceiling, there is no ceiling. It's all there. If we continue to surround Jalen, the culture is set, he sets the culture, as well, great coaching, superb general manager. It's all there for the taking.
With a little bit of luck, we'll have a lot of these get-togethers and talk about how exciting it all is.
With that, I'd like to welcome Jalen Hurts and congratulate him, as well.
(Applause.)
JALEN HURTS: Good afternoon. Good morning. First and foremost, I want to thank God for everything, His grace, His faithfulness, His favor in my life. He is deserving of every ounce of glory.
I want to thank the Eagles organization and really thank them for this opportunity, not only to lead this team but to lead this city. Philadelphia is a very special place and a place that I want to be for a very long time.
I want to thank Mr. Lurie, Howie and Julie, three years ago today, shocking the world and taking a kid from Oklahoma. I know a lot of people didn't understand at the time, but it happens.
My coaches, Brian, Alex, Tanney, Coach Nick Sirianni, Coach Shane Steichen, my teammates for the support, the commitment and what we do every day, the grind we put in every day, the belief not only in myself, not only in me, but in themselves.
We dedicate so much to this, and we all invest so much into just trying to be the best that we can be at this craft, in this craft. I want to thank everybody for that and thank everybody for buying into the culture that we've set here and the enthusiasm we have here right now.
I want to thank my family, my mother for always supporting me, always loving me, always telling me her opinion and always having my back; my brother for -- having an older brother, you have a great example in front of you, and I think for me in my situation, he's a guy that I've always looked up to, and I know he enjoys these moments through me, as we've always dreamed of being the best that we can be at whatever it is that we've aspired to do. Without him, I wouldn't be where I am today. Just having their example, having their support. I thank him dearly.
My little sister, who's about to graduate high school in a couple weeks, going to prom in a couple weeks, too. I thank her for just being her. Thank her for sacrificing her birthdays to make the trips to Alabama and Oklahoma and support me. I thank her for showing the love that she's shown and being who she is.
To my father, I know I wouldn't be here without him. The path that -- just the whole thing, being a coach's kid, him being hard on me and pushing me, being who he was. I'm thankful for the man that I have, and I'm thankful to call him my father and my coach.
To Bry, thank you for your support throughout the years. I love and appreciate that and appreciate you.
I think about these moments, and I think about these times, and we say it's an exciting moment. It's an exciting moment, this moment right here, but I think I've set the precedent for what it is that I desire, and I think for me, it's so hard because my mind is everywhere, and I just really can't help but keep the main thing the main thing and what I set out to do and what this organization has set out to do.
The only thing that I've ever wanted to do is be the best version of myself. That hasn't changed. That won't change.
I am fortunate to have a great opportunity, a great opportunity to do it in a special place, and in the future I just strive to continue to grow, strive to continue to lead, strive to continue to be the best version of myself I can be and learn along the way.
I play this game because I love the game, not for any reason, not for any other reason than that. I truly love the game, and I hate to lose. This being a team sport, you get a certain type of thrill and gratification from doing that with someone else, from putting that work in with someone else, from everybody committing to one common goal and trying to achieve that goal. In the end, I think that's what's made us so special, and I think that's what's kind of evolved in my three years of being here, and I think that's the precedent that we want to set for the future in terms of what we want to achieve.
This isn't a -- it's not a moment where I can reflect because the journey is not over. It's really hard for me to do that. But I know I've walked through the fire time and time again, and in the end, it's always made me stronger.
The only thing that I've wanted to do, I've just been on this constant quest of trying to be the best player I can be, with no limits, just trying to be the best version of myself, the best player, leader, man I can be. That will never change.
I think the hard work continues, and the fire continues to burn.
Q. You mentioned that you have to lead not just the franchise but the city. Getting here three years ago and the relationship you've built with this city, how much does that mean to you?
JALEN HURTS: It means a lot. It means everything.
I think three years ago today, Mr. Lurie and Howie had the courage to draft me when no one really understood why. No one knew why.
I think just to have the opportunity to grow into a man, grow into the young man that I am today, I couldn't do it in another place, and I couldn't imagine this being another way. It's a hell of an opportunity for us all.
Q. Signing this contract and be solidified as kind of the centerpiece of the franchise, coming off a Super Bowl berth, there are going to be opportunities off the field for you now that may not have been there before. How do you balance picking those and deciding what you want to do, if anything, against what you just described as wanting to be the best player and best version of yourself?
JALEN HURTS: Keep the main thing the main thing. I think the main thing for me has always been, since I was in high school, was to be the best player I can be.
I love the game. I love the grind. I love the hustle that it takes. The hard work continues. The hard work continues. Everything continues.
I wouldn't be where I am today and have these opportunities to lead this city without this game. I'm going to put everything into it, as I've always done, and just stay on that quest to lead and be the best that I can be with it.
Q. We've seen other quarterbacks take guaranteed contracts of shorter lengths. Why were you willing to take a longer contract that wasn't fully guaranteed?
JALEN HURTS: Well, obviously I think you look at all the great teams around there, and I don't want to get too much into detail, but you look at all the great teams, the great players, it takes a village. It takes a village, and I know that last year -- in my first three years, but just playing around different guys that I've been able to play around, we've got something special going on. We all want to do it for a long time.
That was important to me to take that approach with it.
Q. You've talked in the past about empowering women in sports and you hired Nicole. What does it mean for you to get this deal done with her in such an historic fashion?
JALEN HURTS: It means the world. It means the world. Not only to set a precedent for what could be done, but to acknowledge that women can do it, too. She's pretty lit for doing it. That's the word these days, "lit."
She did a great job with it. I'm appreciative of her. Hopefully she's setting a precedent and she's empowering people to do it in the future.
I don't put a sex on that, I don't put a race on that, I don't put anything. If you're a grinder, let's grind, let's work. Let's do it.
Q. You set at the Super Bowl you had a purpose before anybody had an opinion. Now you're the highest paid player in the league. How satisfying is that for you?
JALEN HURTS: Yeah, I think money is nice; championships are better.
Q. That contract includes the only no-trade clause in the franchise's history. Why was that important to have in there for you?
JALEN HURTS: Yeah, that's a Nicole question. That's a Nicole question. I think the beautiful thing about the process was I think the organization knows how I am, my character of it, and I did what I love most throughout the whole entire process, and that was work. I was working. That's what's most important to me.
I had good faith that everything would get done in time, and I never worried about anything. Just kind of let them do their job.
Q. In the hours leading into the contract being finalized last week, can you walk us through, what were you doing when you got the call? How aware were you that the deal was close to getting done?
JALEN HURTS: Yeah, I was out west working out. They let me know, I had my FaceTime calls with my coaches and Mr. Lurie, Howie, then I went back to work. Yeah, I didn't really have anything crazy going on. Just doing what I always do.
Q. I know you said it's hard to reflect for you, but I imagine when it happened you heard from a bunch of teammates and former teammates. Does that reach you at all, and is there anybody you heard from who was surprising, I guess?
JALEN HURTS: Yeah, I'm very appreciative. I'm very appreciative of the support and people taking notice. I know you don't come this far and have these opportunities without work, without investing into yourself, without investing into your future and purely putting the work in. I'm thankful for that.
But I'm also proud that I was able to see a lot of things through. I know this is just a part of the journey, and that's my whole entire point.
One day, God-willing, I know there are a lot of things I really don't speak on, but one day I'll talk about it. One day we can set it up, and when it's all said and done, we can talk about a lot of things. Today ain't that day.
I think as for now, it's just the approach of just embracing what's coming on on the journey and knowing that there is no arrival, there is no point where I will arrive. This is not an arrival point. This is just a stop in the journey. This is just a point in the journey, and the journey continues.
For us, what we want to accomplish as a team, we just want to continue to grow. As an individual, as individuals on the team, we want to continue to grow so we are stronger together when we fly together.
I have mixed emotions right now. I have mixed emotions. I am grateful, I am thankful, but -- no buts, but I'm just so hungry. As I said, the hard work continues, and the fire continues to burn. Time and time again, like many individuals on this team, you go through stuff and you experience stuff, and that teaches you. That teaches you. That builds character in you, propels you forward.
I think for just as the many trials that I've had to go through that's propelled me forward, I think it'll do the same for this team.
Q. With this great contract, you also have teammates, some of them starters, who don't have that kind of contract. Have you thought about their feelings and how something may surface as the season goes on, that there is that kind of an imbalance there?
JALEN HURTS: As far as what?
Q. Contracts.
JALEN HURTS: Man, I want to win. I just want to win. Kind of awkward sitting here talking about that anyways, talking about money and all that. I'm an old southern boy. I love football. This is my life. I've invested everything into this game since day one, being a coach's kid and all those things.
I know this is a building full of hungry individuals that are willing to do everything needed to be done to win, and I'm grateful to lead that path.
Q. In this building today I'm sure it was the first time you've seen some of the teammates, coaches, staff for a long time. What was the reaction from them when they first saw you today?
JALEN HURTS: Yeah, they said I had a nice suit. (Laughter.)
No, everyone is excited. Everyone is excited. I'm appreciative of my teammates, first and foremost. I haven't seen them in a minute, just everybody kind of been doing their own thing. But this is an exciting time. It's a very exciting time for us all to be together. I can't wait to get back with those guys and get to work and get to meeting with the coaches and talking ball.
That's what I get the thrill from. That's what I get the thrill from.
Q. You coined the term "It's a Philly thing." You have a no-trade clause, so you've obviously chosen and want to be here. What is it about Philadelphia that you get that maybe other guys don't?
JALEN HURTS: What makes this place special?
Q. Yeah.
JALEN HURTS: The fans, the culture, the enthusiasm, the passion and the love for the game. I'll never forget talking to Howie one day, he was telling me, just wait. Wait until we get rolling. You're going to see how stuff really is around here. That's something that I saw firsthand.
Early in my career, I wouldn't call myself naïve. I'm saying early in my career, I'm 24, going into year four. But when I first got here, everybody kind of treats me like a journeyman, and I've experienced a lot, whatever, whatever. But playing at Alabama, playing at Oklahoma, those are two very special places. But Philly, it's a Philly thing. It's different. It's different.
For professional sports, to see them out there tailgating, the enthusiasm they have, everything, I can't really go nowhere around here, but that's the sacrifice we make. That's the sacrifice we make because I love this place. I love this place. I love the fans. I love the culture that we have here. I love everything about it.
As we all should be, I'm excited for what's to come.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports