Before Jalen Hurts came to Alabama to play for the Crimson Tide, his father, Averion Hurts, came to Alabama to play for the Birmingham Barracudas. Thirty years after the Barracudas’ lone season as part of the Canadian Football League’s invasion of the United States, Averion Hurts got to watch his son put on an MVP performance as the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 on Feb. 9.
After the game, the father and son shared a long embrace on the field at Caesars Superdome in Alabama. “I’ve cried twice dealing with him — well, two days, I guess you could say,” Averion Hurt told KPRC-TV in Houston. “First game against USC when he was at Bama (a 52-6 victory for the Crimson Tide), because all the people had doubted him, and for some reason, soaking in the moment pregame (at the Super Bowl). You know, maybe my allergies kicked in, so my eyes watered.
“But after the game, just in that moment, because I understand what it means to him and how hard he works. And I know that he really wanted his parents to be able to sit there and enjoy that. And when you say in a father-son situation, the dynamic when you coached him and you’ve been through all this, it’s, I mean, it’s just a blessing. I’m just happy for him. … “He’s kind of like me a lot, so it’s not really — we don’t display it as much as we should and we do. But that was a beautiful moment. And I’m sitting there like, ‘OK, now the world is seeing me out here. Now they’re going to see me crying. They see my sensitive side.’ So it was cool.”
Averion Hurts coached his son at Channelview High School in Texas. “It’s been a few moments he’s cried over my career — a few, a few — and just the joy,” the Eagles quarterback said during a post-Super Bowl LIX appearance on NBC’s “Today” Show. “The joy that it brought on, that means everything to you because you know that that’s a man that was along your side throughout every phase of the journey and has endured some of those things as well. And so I’m so appreciative of him and what this journey has been for us.”
Hurts and the Eagles won the NFL championship for the 2024 season in Super Bowl LIX after losing to Kansas City 38-35 when they squared off in Super Bowl LVII, the championship game for the 2022 campaign. “I’m just so happy for him and his teammates,” Averion Hurts said, “because, like, I would tell people, my thing is I know how hard he works at it, and so I want him to get out of it what he puts into it. And so it’s just such a blessing.
“And also, you know, I remember how he felt two years ago. And so the opportunity to come back two years later, I mean, it’s awesome — you know, divine intervention, I don’t know. But I’m just happy for him.” Averion Hurts also is happy for Channelview, Texas. “I’m happy for the community,” Hurts said, “and all those people that supported him and that support us and understand that when we say you can get anywhere in the world from Channelview High School, you can. You can get anywhere.”
