Jalen Hurts attends the 2025 Time100 Gala at Lincoln Center on April 24, 2025 in New York City.
Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
Texan Jalen Hurts makes Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People of 2025”, and had an awkward moment with a reporter at the TIME100 Gala.
People know the Houston native for his performance as a quarterback on the football field; in 2023, he signed a five-year, $255 million contract extension, making him the NFL’s highest-paid player at the time.
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Hurts was nominated by five-time World Series champion and baseball Hall of Famer Derek Jeter.
“I admire how great athletes deal with both success and failure. What Jalen Hurts went through in being benched during the 2018 National Championship game would break a lot of people down. But not Jalen; he focused on what he could control and found a new path to success. In the NFL, Jalen didn’t let a Super Bowl defeat in 2023 shake his confidence. He used that loss as motivation and kept a picture of himself walking off the field after losing as his phone lock screen,” the nomination read.
After another Super Bowl matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs in February, Hurts led his team to victory and earned the MVP award.
An interviewer asked at the TIME100 Gala on Thursday night, Hurts if he would be visiting the White House next week as per Super Bowl winning tradition — his response was “Umm” followed by looking away from the camera. The reporter responded, “Got it. Thank you so much,” before Hurts walked off.
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His reaction has been going viral as the Super Bowl Champ has avoided answering the question.
In March, the team accepted the offer, with the visit scheduled for Monday, April 28, according to ESPN.
When the Eagles won the Super Bowl in 2018, the team turned down the offer to visit the White House during President Donald Trump’s first term and was eventually uninvited.
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In his personal time, the 26-year-old likes to play pool, noting “you’re the ultimate puzzle solver,” he said in an interview with Men’s Health. “There’s always a shot on the table. You gotta find it.” He recently added another milestone to his list and married his longtime girlfriend, Bry Burrows.
Hurt’s upbringing in Channelview shaped his mentality, as reported in Men’s Health. Starting as a ball boy for his dad, who coached the Channelview Falcons. Where he first-hand saw the struggles the team experienced, helping to instill a drive for success in the quarterback that he’s brought to the NFL.
Carrying the lessons of resilience and determination from his hometown beginnings to becoming one of the most influential figures of 2025.
