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Examining the Narrative that Jalen Hurts isn’t Respected in Philadelphia Because he’s Black
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Let’s talk about this tweet that made the rounds earlier in the week:
I would disagree on the face-value understanding that Philadelphia fans and media are equal-opportunity haters and always have been. Carson Wentz was the whitest individual you can possibly be (a hunter from North Dakota) and white Eagles fans absolutely destroyed the guy between 2019 and 2021, calling him “zit neck” and a loser and annihilating him at every turn. He did have his defenders, like any quarterback does, but when Indianapolis finally came calling via trade, you had people climbing over each other to drive him to the airport, figuratively speaking.
It’s true that Carson never won a Super Bowl here, while Jalen Hurts played well enough to win two of them, so if you want to argue that the negativity Jalen receives is not commensurate with what he’s done on the field, you can do that. But it doesn’t change the fact that the last white starting quarterback got absolutely killed by a large portion of white fans, because more than one thing can be true.
The assertion that Philadelphia is racist towards black quarterbacks has always been nebulous, certainly unable to be proven or disproven without mind-reading technology that currently does not exist.
What we can confirm is that the Eagles have had more black franchise quarterbacks in their history than anybody. In fact, black quarterbacks have started more than 375 games for the Eagles over the decades. A large portion of us grew up with either Randall Cunningham or Donovan McNabb, who started 22 Eagles seasons between 1985 and 2009. That segued into four years of Michael Vick before the Nick Foles, Sam Bradford, and Wentz era, with some Kevin Kolb and Mark Sanchez mixed in. Now we’re enjoying a run of five seasons with a black quarterback at the helm who has taken the Eagles to two Super Bowls and won the franchise its second Lombardi Trophy.
(And before Randall, there was Ron Jaworski, who old school fans will remind you took a lot of hate after the Super Bowl appearance, especially during the short-lived tenure of Marion Campbell)
“Colorblind” is kind of an outdated term when talking about race, the concept that we only see people and not skin color. Academics don’t like it because they equate it to willful ignorance, but we’re not talking about redlining here. We’re talking about whether or not athletes are playing hard and winning games, which is the only thing that matters to Philly sports fans.
Along those lines, black Eagles are some of the most revered athletes in the city’s history. Brian Dawkins, Reggie White, and Brandon Graham. Harold Carmichael, Brian Westbrook, and now guys like DeVonta Smith and Saquon Barkley. Hell, look at the respect for guys like Mike Quick, Ike Reese, and Seth Joyner upon their transition from players to media.
Then you go to the other sports. Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard jerseys were everywhere during that Phillies run. Allen Iverson might be the most popular Philly athlete of all time. There’s a rich combat sports history highlighted by black men like Joe Frazier and Bernard Hopkins. And this past Union team started guys from South Africa, Haiti, Jamaica, and Cameroon, in addition to a handful of young black Americans.
On the other side, there are numerous recent examples of white athletes that white fans have wanted to run out of town. Alec Bohm famously said “I fucking hate this place” before getting things straightened out. Trea Turner was declared a bust, so completely lost that it required a wildly off-brand standing ovation to figure that one out. Fans wanted Garrett Stubbs’ head after the Arizona pool comments and hurled insults at Jason Babin and Nick Castellanos while Max Kepler was so over it that he sounded borderline depressed.
Again, equal-opportunity hate here. If the fans think you’re shit, or giving shit effort, you’re going to hear about it whether you’re black or white, hispanic or Asian, if the Phillies ever outbid the Dodgers for one of those players.
If it seems like Hurts isn’t getting enough respect around here as the reigning Super Bowl MVP, it’s because a portion of the fan base (and NFL media at large) doesn’t think he has the passing chops to ever be a top-5, “elite” NFL quarterback. Never mind the fact that he’s a dual-threat quarterback who uses his legs as well as anybody and last year played some of the smartest, turnover-free football you’ll see en route to the title.
From what I can tell, the majority of these recent discussions stem from Hurts not checking the arbitrary boxes that define what some people think makes for the ideal quarterback, and maybe it’s being extrapolated into the “black quarterbacks can’t pass” stereotype. Objectively speaking, that’s not even a legitimate stereotype in 2025 considering that three of the top four QB rushers right now are white (Justin Herbert, Jaxson Dart, Josh Allen). The fourth is half-black (Patrick Mahomes). Hurts, meantime, has a 99.4 QB rating, which is 9th best in the NFL, better than white quarterbacks Baker Mayfield, Bo Nix, and Trevor Lawrence. He has the same yards per attempt as Dak Prescott and a better completion percentage than Mahomes and Lamar Jackson. He has fewer interceptions than Allen, Herbert, Sam Darnold, and almost every starter in the league.
Nevertheless, there are people who will ignore this information and allege that Hurts was “carried” to a Super Bowl by Barkley, an elite defense, and the league’s best offensive line, but anybody who watched all of the games last year knew that Jalen was a perfect fit for the offense and did his job at the same high level as everyone else. He didn’t have to be the second coming of Joe Montana because the offense did not require him to be the second coming of Joe Montana, but when he did have to sling it, he did it as well as anybody. See the games against Pittsburgh, Washington (NFC Championship Game), and Kansas City (Super Bowl LIX).
Then you throw the intangible leadership qualities into the mix, and voila! – Lombardi Trophy #2.
A lot of Hurts critics just don’t like his play style and never did, and the Super Bowl win didn’t change their opinions. They want a cautious, dual-threat quarterback to be a gunslinger instead, which he never has been and never will be.
What you’ve heard over the last two weeks is residual complaining from chronically-online people who never liked Jalen Hurts in the first place, mixed in with some rage bait from the fake news media. That’s not racism. And speaking anecdotally, I don’t encounter anybody outside of social media or sports talk radio who dislikes Jalen as a quarterback or wants to bench him. Real-world interaction with normal people suggests that he’s already one of the best Eagles QBs of all time, if not the best.
The final thing to consider is that Philly has been trying to bench the starting QB for the backup QB since the dawn of creation, so it’s not like this is anything new.
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