PHOENIX − For 60 minutes Monday night, Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts answered every question from a crush of reporters, little kids, questioners dressed in costume.
And he actually seemed to enjoy it.
It was Super Bowl Opening Night, the media frenzy that officially kicks off Super Bowl week, and let’s just say Hurts was quite popular. Media members with their cameras started lining up around his dais more than 30 minutes before the Eagles took the stage.
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And they never left.
Hurts often went to his cliches, such as “keeping the main thing the main thing,” and “making daily deposits.” But Hurts also had his share of fun, smiling often throughout the session as he answered question after question, some of them beyond the pale of a typical weekly press conference during the season.
Over on the other side of the arena, Eagles cornerback Darius Slay was going through his Hurts cliches while mimicking Hurts’ voice.
At that point, Slay’s impersonation was being broadcast over the arena’s loudspeaker and on the videoscreen hanging over the arena floor. It was loud enough for Hurts to hear.
He stopped his answer and said with a laugh: “I don’t have to look up. I know who that is.”
Loving the crawfish
When someone asked him what he would do if he wasn’t a football player, Hurts responded, “I’d be a professional crawfish cooker.”
Hurts laughed at his answer.
Fans, meanwhile, filled the lower bowl and most of the upper bowl of the Footprint Center, the home of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns. They started doing their “E-A-G-L-E-S!” chants during the session.
They cheered when Donna Kelce, the mother of Eagles center Jason Kelce and Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, came out on stage and answered questions from the host about her sons. But first, she hugged each of their sons and gave them a container of homemade cookies.
The Eagles players and coaches reveled in the attention, and the zaniness. They came onto the large stage as a team, taking out their phones to video the environment. Then the players went to their respective dais, while the rest of the team lined the outside of the arena floor, and answered the questions.
Some bizarre questions, questioners
Eagles left tackle Jordan Mailata was asked what his favorite food growing up in Australia. When the questioner didn’t understand Mailata’s response, he said, “Google it.”
Then there was “Barrel Boy,” a radio personality from a local country music station. He approached right tackle Lane Johnson’s dais wearing a barrel around his body and a cowboy hat, with no shirt on, and asked Johnson what kind of country music Johnson listens to before the game.
Johnson said he’s not choosy.
Another man wore a cape with a Chiefs’ leather headgear on his head during the Eagles’ media session. He then switched to an Eagles’ leather headgear during the Chiefs’ media session.
Meanwhile, Slay was talking about jewelry, and answering a question about what movie that made him cry the most.
“Love and Basketball,” Slay said. Then he stopped a questioner who called him by his first name, and said, “Call me Slay.”
Then he was asked why just Slay.
“I slay at video games,” he said. “I slay in basketball. I slay at everything I kind of do.”
There were a few football-related questions in there, but they were few and far between. And that included the Chiefs players, many of whom were asked if they prefer barbecue in Kansas City or cheesesteaks in Philadelphia. They chose barbecue.
Hurts, meanwhile, was asked by a German reporter to give a shout-out to Germany, so he said, “Shout out to Germany. Eagles everywhere!”
And when Hurts got football questions, he went to his standards: “I go out there and deposit something,” he said. “Rent is due every day.”
Finally, the 60-minute session was over. Hurts got up, gave a dual thumbs up to the media swarm that was still around him and said, “appreciate ya.”
With that, he walked off.
Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.
