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Former Oklahoma QB Jalen Hurts Lands Sports Illustrated NFL Preview Cover

After transferring to OU and posting a record-setting 2019 season, Hurts has exploded in popularity and productivity going into his fourth NFL campaign.
John E. Hoover|
Former Oklahoma QB Jalen Hurts Lands Sports Illustrated NFL Preview Cover
Former Oklahoma QB Jalen Hurts Lands Sports Illustrated NFL Preview Cover

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Oklahoma Sooners

Former Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts’ list of career achievements continues to grow.

Hurts on Monday was the cover subject of Sports Illustrated’s 2023 Football Preview.

In a story written by SI’s Greg Bishop, the cover headline calls Hurts “Philly’s New Fresh Prince” and shows him sitting on the floor, smiling, holding an NFL football and wearing a skewed “Eagles” ballcap, a white T-shirt and camouflage overalls. He’s also wearing green Nikes — a product of his new contract as a brand ambassador with Jordan brand.

For More

Read the SI story and watch the video on Jalen Hurts 

In just his third NFL season, Hurts led the Eagles to the Super Bowl last season, where they were defeated by the Kansas City Chiefs. Hurts’ performance in the game was MVP-worthy — 27-of-38 for 304 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions and the second-highest fantasy total for a quarterback in Super Bowl history (41.16 points).

The SI story depicts Hurts’ graduation day with a master’s degree from OU last spring, and includes a video in which he describes chasing his dreams and “staying true to your purpose.”

That came on the heels of his NFL MVP-worthy regular season: 3,701 yards, a .665 completion percentage, 22 touchdown passes with just six interceptions, and 760 yards on the ground with 13 rushing TDs.

Hurts finished second to KC’s Patrick Mahomes in the voting for both NFL and Super Bowl MVP.

Hurts signed with Alabama out of high school and was named SEC Offensive Player of the Year as a freshman. After losing his starting job in the national championship game as a sophomore, Hurts was Tua Tagovailoa’s backup in 2018 and came off the bench to lead the Crimson Tide to an SEC Championship.

Hurts played just one season for the Sooners but lit up college football fields in 2019, throwing for 3,851 yards, completing 69.7 percent of his passes with 32 touchdowns and eight interceptions, and rushing for a school quarterback record 1,298 yards and 20 touchdowns.

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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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