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Jalen Hurts making a profound impact on Pennsylvania kids, families

Former Bama and OU quarterback donates $40,000 to those in need in Philly area

John E. Hoover

Jalen Hurts
Jalen Hurts / Screenshot via YouTube

Former Oklahoma and Alabama quarterback Jalen Hurts continues to make an impact away from the football field.

The Philadelphia Eagles rookie quarterback donated $10,000 to a West Philadelphia charter school on Tuesday, and now a video is going viral of Hurts presenting a $30,000 check to a needy family in rural Pennsylvania.

The family, whose oldest son Erick has cancer, is living in a two-bedroom trailer in Nottingham, 55 miles west of Philadelphia. Working with the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, Hurts presented them a giant cardboard check — and a real check — for $30,000 to help buy a new house.

“A moment like that for me, just going in there and meeting everybody, it was fun,” Hurts said in the video. “I think what amazes me is how the kids don’t even realize maybe what they’re dealing with the circumstances they’re in, but they’re just happy to be living.”

Jalen Hurts
Jalen Hurts / Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

In the video, Hurts gives 7-year-old Erick hugs and fist-bumps and plays catch in the driveway, and Erick gives Hurts a picture he drew that Hurts says he'll hang in his locker.

“I know they’ve experienced a lot of adversity,” Hurts said. “They’ve had to deal with a lot of different things, but one thing that I like to do is be encouraging at all times, uplift those around me.”

Hurts also partnered this week with Roman Oben, the NFL's VP of Football Operations, for a virtual visit with the football team at West Philly’s Boys Latin Charter School. He sent the whole team a box of Eagles-branded bucket hats and surprised them with a $10,000 donation to the school.

A second-round pick of the Eagles last spring, Hurts signed a standard four-year, $2.82 million contract with the team that included a base salary of $610,000 and a signing bonus of $485,486, per details published on Spotrac. That amounts to almost 10 percent of his signing bonus given to charity.

“I just wanted to make an impact in the City of Philadelphia, in this area,” Hurts said.

As an Eagles rookie, Hurts played only sparingly in the team’s first 10 games, throwing two passes and running 12 times. But in the final five games, Hurts took over the starting job and completed 51 percent of his passes for 1,028 yards with six touchdowns and four interceptions. In his four starts, he compiled two 300-yard games.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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