This teen’s question to Jalen Hurts got a powerful response at the Eagles post-Super Bowl news conference
“Going into the media room and being able to not break down and cry was pretty awesome," said Giovanni Hamilton.
The Eagles had just lost Super Bowl LVII, but 15-year-old Birds superfan and sports podcaster Giovanni Hamilton kept his cool in the stands at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz.
He had a job to do and somewhere to be — the Eagles postgame Super Bowl news conference.
“I had to keep a calm composure because I was going to work,” Hamilton said. “Going into the media room and being able to not break down and cry was pretty awesome.”
Off-camera, Eagles coach Nick Sirianni walked around the throng of reporters in the room on Sunday to get to Hamilton.
“He came up to me, shook my hand, and said ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t finish it for you,’” Hamilton recalled. “I told him it was OK and we’d get it next year. Then he gave me a hug and went up on stage to do the news conference.”
But it was Hamilton’s question to Jalen Hurts — the final question Hurts took during the news conference — that elicited a powerful response from the Eagles quarterback, one that was quoted by media outlets across the country, from ESPN to Sports Illustrated.
“What is one lesson that you learned from this game that you’ll take on to the next?” Hamilton asked his hero.
Hurts, who was a guest on Hamilton’s podcast last year but had never met him in person before Sunday, paused. Then, he turned and spoke directly to Hamilton.
“You want to cherish these moments with the people that you’ve come so far with, your family, your loved ones, your teammates, your peers, everyone that you do it with and do it for,” Hurts said.
“I think the beautiful part about it is everyone experiences different pains, everyone experiences different agonies of life, but you decide if you want to learn from it. You decide if you want that to be a teachable moment. I know what I’ll do.”
That answer and the time Hurts took to look Hamilton in the eyes as he gave it meant everything to the teen, said Hamilton and his mother, Shannon Algarin.
“The way that he said that to Giovanni, he was almost making a promise to him, ‘I know what I’ll do and I hope you’ll follow my lead,’” Algarin said this week. “Giovanni really looks up to Jalen and that meant a lot.”
It was a monumentally strong showing by Hamilton at his first-ever news conference, especially since the only questions he’d prepared to ask Hurts were about the team winning.
“Then they lost and I was like ‘This is weird,’ because I didn’t have a question prepared if they lost so I had to come up with that on the fly,” he said.
Hamilton, whose family is from central Pennsylvania but moved to Indianapolis last year, has been an Eagles fan since he was 10.
As a young child, he was diagnosed with Schwartz-Jampel syndrome, which he describes as “muscular dystrophy and dwarfism in one.” By the time he was 10, Hamilton had undergone 10 surgeries (to date, he has had 24).
It was while he was laid up in a body cast from a surgery with nothing else to do but watch football that Hamilton fell in love with the Eagles, who are also his dad’s favorite team.
“Then they drafted Carson [Wentz] and you were hooked,” his mom said.
Wentz, whom Hamilton once met in person, was traded from the team in 2021, but remains one of his two favorite players, along with Hurts.
Three years ago, inspired by his love for the Eagles, and the love the team and its fans have shown him, Hamilton started The Giovanni Show podcast, where he talks about all things Eagles, Phillies, and Indianapolis Colts.
Hamilton has had several celebrity guests but one of the highlights so far was having Hurts on his show last year, he said.
“It was before he really became that franchise quarterback for the Eagles, and just being able to tell him I believed in him before everybody jumped on that train was awesome,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton’s podcast was downloaded 50,000 times in 2022 and he has more than 58,000 followers on Twitter.
When the Eagles won the NFC Championship, many of Hamilton’s fans reached out asking his family to start a crowdfunding campaign to send him and his mom to the Super Bowl. While his mom was hesitant at first, Hamilton told her that if they didn’t raise the funds, they’d return any donations they did receive.
She agreed and in less than 24 hours they raised the $18,000 they needed.
“The community believes in him as a sports broadcaster as much as my husband and I do,” Algarin said. “It means everything.”
Hamilton’s fans then started tagging sportscaster Rich Eisen on social media, asking him to get Hamilton a press pass, which he did.
Shortly thereafter, Zach Ertz, a former Eagles tight end who now plays for the Arizona Cardinals, came on Hamilton’s show as a guest and surprised him with two more tickets to the game so his brother and sister could go too.
Hamilton and Algarin said being at the Super Bowl was like attending an Eagles home game because there were so many Birds fans in the stadium.
Sure, the loss stung, but Hamilton said he’s going to remember the good moments of his Super Bowl experience — adventuring with his brother to find a bathroom, singing the Eagles fight song with other fans in the stands, and his question to Hurts at the news conference — more than the loss.
“Being able to look back and not seeing the loss but to see the great moments means a lot to me,” he said. “I feel I wouldn’t have had the same outlook if Jalen hadn’t given me and everyone in the room that advice.”