Offseason hobbies, his family crawfish recipe, and more takeaways from Jalen Hurts’ Men’s Health cover interview
First, he was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. Now, the Eagles quarterback is the cover athlete for Men’s Health. Here are some of the takeaways from his interview.
After winning Super Bowl LIX and claiming his Super Bowl MVP trophy, it seems like Jalen Hurts is appearing everywhere this offseason — from Jordan commercials to Time Magazine’s annual list of the top 100 most influential people. Now, the Eagles quarterback is adding yet another title to his long list of accolades: Men’s Health cover star.
Appearing on the May/June cover of the men’s fitness magazine, Hurts hard launched his marriage with Bryonna Burrows, discussed his diet, and opened up about his winning mentality. Here are some of the main takeaways from Hurts’ interview with Men’s Health…
A short celebration
After Hurts led the Eagles to their second Super Bowl win in franchise history, the two-time Pro Bowler didn’t give himself much time to celebrate before he was back to the grind.
“I allocated five days of celebration,” he said in the interview with Men’s Health before listing off four of them. He mentioned the locker room celebration, the Eagles parade in Philadelphia and the Disney parade. “Four is the ring ceremony. That’s it.”
But why did the quarterback only take five days to celebrate? It’s simple. He’s already focused on the next task at hand.
“It’s hard for me to enjoy certain successes in real time, because I’m in pursuit of something,” he says. “You have to have a constant drive. It has to burn within you to where you don’t want to stop. How can I better myself? How can I evolve? It’s days and nights and years of hard work paying off. Now, what do I have to do the next time around?”
Keeping the main thing, the main thing
Hurts isn’t a player worried about his stat lines. The “main thing” for the quarterback has always been winning. In Super Bowl LVII, Hurts finished the night with 304 passing yards and three rushing touchdowns in the Eagles’ 38-35 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
“That’s an example of me having a great game statistically and feeling empty,” Hurts said. “I value winning. Everything is centered upon that.”
And this wasn’t the first time Hurts tasted defeat. Even before the former Alabama quarterback was benched during the College Football National Championship game, Hurts suffered two major losses in high school that still stick with him to this day.
The first loss happened in ninth grade, when he was the anchor in a track relay. The second loss occurred in 10th grade, when his football team lost six games straight to end the season. Since then, Hurts has used every loss as an opportunity to grow.
“I’m not ever in a place where I’m the same person,” Hurts told Men’s Health. “Those calluses, those bumps, those bruises —they’re all necessary for you to be who you’re supposed to be. You have to embrace them.”
His offseason hobby
When he’s not training in the offseason, which seems rare at this point, Hurts is distracting himself with a different hobby: pool. The quarterback has fallen in love with the strategy game because he feels like the “ultimate puzzle solver.”
“There’s always a shot on the table. You got to find it,” Hurts said. “I could bank it like this. I could hit it on the left side and put some English on the ball. There’s always an opportunity. Sometimes you got to see it when it’s not even there.”
“Eat Like” Jalen Hurts
Along with his Men’s Health cover interview, Hurts also filmed an episode of the Men’s Health video series entitled “Eat Like.” During the video, Hurts discussed some of his favorite snacks — including sunflower seeds.
“In the office, we spend a lot of time in there coming up with the game plan, and we eat a lot of sunflower seeds, so that’s our thing,” Hurts said. “A nostalgic remembrance of my childhood playing baseball and being in the dugout and stuff. So it done me well.”
Another snack Hurts likes to indulge in are game-winning cookies.
“My D-line coach’s wife makes us cookies after wins. He gets them for the D-line room. Somehow, I found myself getting a bag of cookies as well, and we kept winning and he kept them coming.”
Hurts also shared the recipe to his favorite family meal: crawfish.
“My father got it from my grandfather, and I now carry the torch,” Hurts said. “I don’t mind telling you it’s pretty hard to replicate. You have the base, your Louisiana seasonings. You can put anything in it. The secret is to make sure they’re clean.”