ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky apologizes to Jalen Hurts — but he isn’t the only sports talker eating crow
Orlovsky, whose future at the network is uncertain, was one of several Hurts doubters this postseason.
ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky was wrong about Carson Wentz. Turns out he was also wrong about Jalen Hurts.
Following the Super Bowl, the former NFL quarterback turned ESPN star apologized for, among other things, describing Hurts as a “liability” lacking the same level of talent as the league’s other top quarterbacks.
“Listen, I owe, publicly, Jalen Hurts an apology,” Orlovsky said on First Take Monday. “I was probably one this year who’s been the hardest on him. I’ll go back to a couple of weeks ago when I said the passing game’s not good enough right now, and I don’t think it’s going to get better.”
“All he’s done since then is have his two best games of the year on the two biggest stages that the game has been on — the NFC championship game and the Super Bowl,” Orlovsky said, calling Hurts’ performance against the fourth-ranked defense in the league “sensational.”
He certainly had a good view of Hurts in action — Orlovsky called the Super Bowl on ESPN for viewers in Australia and New Zealand alongside Bucks County native former Eagles executive Louis Reddick and Chris Fowler.
Orlovsky has been a go-to personality on ESPN precisely because he’s unafraid to offer an opinion. As informed as his takes might be, no one is perfect. And his criticism of Hurts dates all the way back to 2021, when he suggested the Eagles regret drafting the former Alabama quarterback.
“If the Eagles could go back right now and redo that decision, I’m 100% convinced that they would not have taken Jalen Hurts,” Orlovsky said on Get Up in July 2021. “If Jalen Hurts plays as well as he can, he can’t sniff as good as Carson Wentz is.”
Obviously, we know what’s happened since then. After unsuccessful stops in Indianapolis and Washington, Wentz was on the opposing sideline as a journeyman backup watching Hurts hold up the Lombardi Trophy at the Superdome Monday night.
Orlovsky isn’t the only one apologizing for doubting Hurts. On 94 WIP Tuesday morning, veteran defensive end Brandon Graham joked with host Joe DeCamara, a longtime Hurts critic, after Hurts won Super Bowl MVP.
“So you know I’ve got to jump right to it — so where does this put Jalen Hurts for you?” Graham said.
“A lot higher than I had him!” DeCamara responded.
“Did Saquon save him this game?” Graham said sarcastically.
But no one had a worse day on Monday morning than FS1 host Nick Wright, famously a Chiefs fanboy. His Hurts takes were so terrible, even Hurts’ mom went after him.
“Saturday night, night before the Super Bowl, late, I’m at the Klutch Sports party, having a good time, I don’t work the next day,” Wright said Monday. “Having a few drinks, like most people are, and a woman comes up to me and says ‘I need to ask you one question. Why do you talk so bad about Jalen Hurts?’ I was like ‘Well...’ She was not budging a bit, like ‘No, no, you do.’ I was like, ‘Let me tell you the good things I’ve said about him.’ Once this goes on for five, six, seven minutes, I have a little moment of clarity. I said, ‘Ma’am, can I ask you one question real quick? Are you Jalen Hurts’ mother?’ She said, ‘Yes I am.’ ...
“She ended it with this, she said ‘I just want to know what you’re going to say when he wins tomorrow.’ Because I’m me, I said ‘If he wins,’ and she said ‘No, when he wins.’ I said ‘Well, I’ve got to see how he plays.’ To Mrs. Hurts, and to anyone watching, he was phenomenal.”
For Hurts, who was benched in the 2018 national championship game while at Alabama, proving his doubters wrong is nothing new. In fact, he embraces it.
“I’ve always found a thrill in any doubt or any questioning or any any opinions,” Hurts said during his postgame press conference on Sunday. “It’s always been something that I’ve embraced, and I don’t want it to change now because of the results.”
Others, it seems, are starting to notice — even if it took a Super Bowl win to open their eyes.
“All Jalen Hurts has done is constantly believed in himself, no matter what anyone else has said,” Orlovsky said. “And just constantly has gone to work and not allow the outside noise.”
There’s been a lot of speculation about Orlovsky’s future at ESPN, thanks to an awkward goodbye he offered on Monday, saying he’s “taking a break” and “never know what the future holds.”
Orlovsky’s contract with the network isn’t up until the middle of the year, so he’s expected back to cover the NFL Combine later this month, as well as the NFL Draft in April.
It seems pretty clear the network would like to keep him, but Orlovsky has not been shy about wanting to call more games (he gets a handful of games at ESPN on its No. 2 crew) and was heavily pursued by Fox Sports in 2022.