Hurts explains why ‘pain gives me strength'

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Jalen Hurts spoke to reporters on Thursday afternoon from his locker and gave an update on his shoulder injury he suffered in Week 15.

Jalen Hurts has never been one to back down from a challenge, and that’s how he’s looking at his shoulder injury.

Just more adversity to overcome.

“When challenges or different things are thrown in front of you, ultimately, you have to find a way to overcome them,” he said Thursday. “And that's where my mind is.”

Hurts spoke at his locker Thursday and while he was vague about exactly how he feels coming out of the Giants game after sitting out two weeks and his expectations for the postseason, he was clear that this is something he’s going to have to figure out how to deal with.

What’s it like preparing to play when you might not have all your abilities at your disposal?“It's different,” he said. “It's not the first time I've done it, though. It's happened a number of times. I think this has been a very public venture, but I've been able to navigate that and I have no problem with doing that. 

That's the thing that I have to kind of get my mind right to do.”

This is the second year in a row Hurts has gone into the playoffs at something less than 100 percent.

He was hobbled last year with an ankle injury when the Eagles lost to the Buccaneers in a wild-card game in Tampa and had one of the worst games of his life.

How do you deal with an injury? By embracing it.

“I've always been a man that has embraced everything that's thrown my way, trying to find ways to overcome it and ultimately make it happen,” he said. “There are different challenges that come through your career, and you have to find a way to look them in the face and face them.”

The 24-year-old Hurts is 17-1 in his last 18 regular-season starts, but he clearly wasn’t himself in the finale against the Giants that clinched No. 1 seed for the Eagles.

Then again, the game plan was vanilla, Hurts was clearly playing ultra-conservatively and all the Eagles really cared about was getting a win while expending the least possible energy.

“I think the whole point of that game was coming back and getting done what we need to get done,” Hurts said. …

“Obviously would have loved to have (clinched) a little sooner, but we got it down last week and it was what it was. We’ve got a lot of guys that need that time so we can be ready to play our best ball.

When asked which Jalen Hurts people should expect in the Eagles’ postseason opener next weekend, he answered typically cryptically.

“I want to go out there and be the quarterback that is prepared like he's done from week zero to week 18,” he said. “Play that same way, have that same intensity, have that same type of leadership and create that same type of energy for your team. 

“My pain gives me strength. Failure motivates me.”

Hurts is the first quarterback in Eagles history to take the team to the playoffs in each of his first two seasons as a full-time starter.

He’s only the sixth Eagles QB to lead more than one team to the postseason, joining Tommy Thompson from 1947 through 1949, Ron Jaworski from 1978 through 1981, Randall Cunningham from 1988 through 1990 and 1992, Donovan McNabb seven times from 2000 through 2009 and Nick Foles in 2013, 2017 and 2018. 

Of that group, only Cunningham, McNabb and Foles were drafted by the Eagles.

“We have an opportunity of a lifetime,” Hurts said. “I was talking about that to the team, to the offense. … Obviously, this past week has been a very crazy week in the NFL and across the world given the circumstances that happened (with Damar Hamlin) on that Monday Night Game, and there's so much we have to be thankful for and grateful for and the opportunities that we have. 

“Why not give it your all while you can, because you never know when it could be done. So much to be thankful for. So I wanna give the game everything I have.”

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