Jalen Hurts sent this sixth-grade teacher a special birthday gift to thank her for being one of his ‘Day 1’ fans
The Eagles quarterback follows Jyrah Campbell’s ‘HurtsFanZone’ account and has sent her birthday wishes before — but this year was different.
Jyrah Campbell started her Jalen Hurts fan account, HurtsFanZone, in 2017, when she was 15 years old.
Campbell, now 23, is from Alabama, where Hurts started his college career, and was immediately drawn to the way he carried himself and interacted with the wider community.
Even after Hurts left Alabama, transferred to Oklahoma, and was eventually drafted by Philadelphia, Campbell continued to follow his journey. But while she has a fanpage for Hurts, the quarterback and his family have followed her journey as well.
Hurts follows her Instagram page, and he and his family members congratulated Campbell on her college graduation and sent her birthday messages. Campbell joked that every year Hurts has sent her a message back — like, “This is the year we changed the narrative” or “It’s going to be a great year” — that the Eagles went on to reach the Super Bowl.
But nothing beats the gift Hurts sent her on Wednesday: a signed pair of cleats and a jersey with a special message.
“I’m a schoolteacher,” Campbell said. “I had told him a while ago that I just wanted something to be able to either put in my classroom or to hang up, but to be honest, I thought he had forgotten about it, so it was a complete shocker when I received the package yesterday. I was not expecting that at all.”
Campbell’s sixth-grade students in Huntsville, Ala., didn’t believe her when she mentioned that Hurts followed her page on Instagram. Now, she’s basically solidified her status as the coolest teacher in school.
The jersey reads “You are a Day 1. Much love to you and yours. Your support has always given me great motivation. P.S., never lose faith.”
Never lose faith is one of the biggest lessons Campbell said she’s taken away from watching Hurts over the years.
“Seeing what happened to him with the benching at Alabama, it really did show me that it’s not about one point in your life,” Campbell said. “It’s not about one thing that happens, it’s about where you end up. Even though he went through that hard situation — and it’s so funny, because I was so young when it happened, I cried for him that night — seeing him just continue to grow and just keep going until becoming Super Bowl MVP, it’s like, you can do anything, even when life throws its speed bumps."
Receiving a birthday gift from Hurts just made her appreciation for him and his career even deeper.
“It made me feel seen,” Campbell said. “I didn’t know it was possible, but it made me appreciate him that much more, and it showed me that he really is who he portrays himself to be, an upstanding guy.”