If Nick Wright could erase the memories of Super Bowl week in New Orleans, he might reach out to Ben Stiller. After being mercilessly trolled by colleagues following his Kansas City Chiefs’ devastating 40-22 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX, it seemed Wright had a week to forget in The Big Easy. But the story doesn’t end there.
On Tuesday’s First Things First, the 40-year-old shared an amusing encounter from a Klutch Sports party on Saturday night. After a few drinks, an unknown woman approached him with a question: “Why do you talk so bad about Jalen Hurts?” Wright found it hard to convince her otherwise, stating, “I don’t think I talk bad,” but she remained unconvinced. After several minutes of debate, he suddenly asked, “Are you Jalen Hurts’ mother?” Indeed, she was, which led to a cordial yet intense back-and-forth as she defended her son.
To Wright’s credit, he hasn’t publicly labeled Hurts a “liability,” as Dan Orlovsky did, later apologizing for his harsh remarks. However, Wright had previously speculated that Hurts’s impressive 2022 season was an anomaly and doubted he could replicate that success, claiming Hurts was being “too cautious” in training camp. Wright further remarked, “If I had to make a bet, I would bet 2022 was an aberration,” expressing skepticism about Hurts’s future performance.
Mrs. Hurts wasn’t having it, and after 15 minutes of spirited discussion, she challenged Wright directly: “I just want to know what you’re going to say when he wins [on Sunday].” Wright responded cautiously with “if” but wound up having to acknowledge Hurts’s exceptional performance, which helped solidify his standing in the league.
Hurts completed 77.3% of his passes for 221 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions, alongside 72 rushing yards and another touchdown. After witnessing Hurts deliver one of the best performances of his career, Wright had to eat crow, admitting, “To Mrs. Hurts and to anyone else, he was phenomenal. The Chiefs did manage to stop Saquon [Barkley], which they needed to do, but Jalen made every play that was asked of him.”
“It’s the second Super Bowl he’s played in — great in both. It’s the fourth Conference Championship or Super Bowl he’s played in — he’s been great in three of them. The one he wasn’t great in didn’t require him to be; it was the one [Brock] Purdy got knocked out of. He is as impressive a leader as anyone in the sport, and the team he leads delivered, in my opinion, a top-five all-time Super Bowl performance.” Wright’s acknowledgment extends to placing Hurts among the top players in his position, saying, “I think it is unfair to say that Joe [Burrow] or Lamar [Jackson] or Josh [Allen] are just definitively clearly in a different class than Jalen; I think he’s gotta be in that top five.”
