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Jalen Hurts, who Downplays Everything, Downplays Knee Injury After Throwing for 319 Yards and 4 Touchdowns
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Jalen Hurts threw for a season-high 319 yards and four touchdowns in Sunday’s come-from-behind win in Washington.
Not bad for a guy playing with a bone bruise in his knee, allegedly.
He didn’t want to talk about that though, and downplayed the injury that Jay Glazer reported when he spoke to media after the win. Here’s a portion that explains it from a Mike Sielski Inquirer column that the aggregator accounts are butchering on social media:
LANDOVER, Md. — It was 5:23 p.m., more than an hour after the game clock had hit 0:00 on the Eagles’ 38-31 victory over the Washington Commanders, when Jalen Hurts finally emerged from the visiting locker room at FedEx Field. He had played his best game of this season, throwing for 319 yards and four touchdowns. He had played in pain. How much, only he knew. How much, he would not say.
Jalen, how is your knee?
“I’m here,” he said. “I’m really happy with how we persevered and how resilient we were today. I’m happy we won.”
Yes, but how is your knee?
“I’m here. I told you guys I don’t really want to speak on it anymore. I’m out there.”
Sielski and other reporters made the safe assumption that Hurts was late arriving because he was receiving treatment.
If you’ve ever had a bone bruise, they’re kind of a pain in the ass. They take some time to heal. Depending on where the injury is, you can feel it lingering even if the pain isn’t particularly detrimental. It would seem like that’s the case here, because Hurts has been performing admirably despite being noticeably hampered. Everyone sees him out there, looking gimpy at times, but it hasn’t affected his play to a significant degree. Problem is, he’s an NFL quarterback and we’re doughy weekend warriors. He doesn’t have the luxury of taking 4-8 weeks off and sitting his fat ass on the couch like we do.
Which brings us to the topic of PR strategy. It was no secret that he was dealing with something, so speaking about the injury is probably not going to reveal any kind of secret. Other teams knew that his running looked “off.” They knew his ability to plant and open up was slightly compromised. So I think there might be some sort of benefit to Hurts describing how he feels if it serves as a way to assuage fans and drive media off the topic. When you shut down a question like this one, it leaves open the door for speculation, which takes on a life of its own. There’s no story to craft if the real one is made public, but since little information is being provided here, the conjecture will continue.
Regardless, if he’s going to sling the ball like he did on Sunday afternoon, then nothing else matters, as James Hetfield once said.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com