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The drive that crushed Tennessee looked like something McNair might have authored. Hurts’ emotional explanation of what the Titans legend meant to him makes the comparison even more powerful.
Tennessee Titans quarterback Steve McNair (9) in Nashville Dec. 8, 2002 Michelle Lord / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK / Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (1) at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tenn., Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. ANDREW NELLES / THE TENNESSEAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts reflected on his Week 2 win over the Tennessee Titans this week, and his comments about the late Steve McNair have made the rounds on social media for good reason.
Hurts spoke to local Philadelphia media and brought up what it meant to play at Nissan Stadium, the building where McNair created so many everlasting moments as Titans quarterback. When Hurts arrived at the stadium and saw the large image of McNair displayed on the exterior, it clearly struck an emotional chord.
“It was a really good feeling, and a bit emotional feeling,” Hurts said. “Pulling up to the stadium and seeing Steve McNair on the wallpaper outside, he was one of the only ones that I’ve looked up to. I get to meet (Michael Jordan) and build relationships with him and Tom Brady and all these other guys. Steve McNair is the only one that I’ve truly looked up to and watched and you know been enamored by. I never got to meet him, so I think that win was special for that reason. And I was reminded of that when we pulled up to the stadium and it kind of hit me there.”
The crazy part about this answer is Hurts was asked about the nostalgia of Soldier Field in Chicago. He brought up Nissan Stadium and McNair.
What McNair meant to Hurts as a young Black quarterback
The follow-up question in the press conference was a strong one because it allowed Hurts to expand on what made McNair so special to him as a young kid who wanted to play quarterback. That answer opened the door to the history of Black quarterbacks, including the Eagles’ own lineage of Randall Cunningham and Donovan McNabb.
“His ability, the demeanor, then he came from the SWAC (from McNair’s Alcorn State college days), so it was, you know, nobody expected it. He was just kind of before his time, and so there’s a lot of history at the position and being a black quarterback, the history of the black quarterback at Philadelphia. I think he falls right in suit with some of the greats that have come here and some of the things that have had to been overcome, and the example that he set.”
The Titans have a fairly meaningful connection with that history, too. Tennessee went from McNair to Vince Young, who idolized McNair and had a real relationship with him growing up. Hurts, younger than both, grew up in Houston. You can see him being somebody who watched Vince Young make highlight plays at Texas, but seeing McNair’s image at Nissan Stadium had to hit home on a deeper level.
“I looked up to Vince Young. Come to find out, Vince Young, you know, as a kid I didn’t know Vince Young was looking up to Steve McNair, but you know, you got great examples out there, and you know, we’re all still kids, so that was a moment for me.”
The mentality aspect Hurts brought up is what stands out the most when reflecting on his admiration of McNair. Hurts is stoic. He doesn’t show a lot of emotion. He’s been described as a great leader, and everything we’ve seen from him backs that up.
McNair was the same way. He wasn’t a guy who would get up and command the room because of how talented a speaker he was. Hurts and McNair hold their teammates’ attention through the respect they demand, the work ethic they put in, and their ability to stay as cool as possible in the game’s biggest moments. When everything is on the line, both Steve McNair and Jalen Hurts have been able to rise to the occasion.
Hurts’ game-winning drive felt like a McNair classic
If you want to be honest about it, the way Hurts won the game against the Titans with a last-second touchdown pass to Darius Cooper in the end zone feels like a Steve McNair game.
Hurts’ stats weren’t gaudy. He didn’t pile up highlight plays. It was clunky. He threw two interceptions. The Eagles were stuck at 17 points for a while. The Titans came back and took the lead. Then the game was on the line, and Jalen Hurts made four humongous plays on a final drive that went 65 yards in under a minute and 50 seconds to win the game.
There were two third-and-long conversions where Hurts made clutch throws to DeVonta Smith, one of 20 yards and the other of 19. The 19-yarder set up first-and-goal at the 3-yard line with 14 seconds left. Then came the touchdown pass itself to Cooper with nine seconds left, which straight up looks like a play we’ve seen many times from McNair in last-moment, game-winning situations. I remember the 2002 comeback against the Giants in New York where McNair threw a TD to Frank Wycheck with nine seconds left. McNair then ran in the two-point conversion to force overtime where the Titans eventually won.
The play that actually made me think twice about this whole connection is the one where the Titans should have won. Jacob Martin should have had Hurts sacked with under 50 seconds to go and no Eagles timeouts, which would have put Philadelphia on the fringe of field goal range at best. Yet Hurts, in McNair fashion, was too strong for the Titans defensive lineman to finish the sack. Instead, Hurts stayed on his feet, took a couple steps to get outside the tackle box, and threw the ball past the line of scrimmage to avoid intentional grounding. The incomplete pass stopped the clock, and the Eagles kept the drive alive. That drive was a Steve McNair drive.
Why this should resonate with Titans fans
Hurts had just turned seven years old in 2005 for McNair’s final season with the Titans. McNair played two more seasons with the Ravens after that, and Hurts was 10 years old, approaching his 11th birthday when McNair was murdered on July 4, 2009. As somebody who was nine years old during the Titans’ Super Bowl run of 1999, I know what that memory does for you as a kid. I can imagine what that time frame would have been like for Jalen Hurts, growing up loving football in Houston, idolizing a Black quarterback who played the game the way McNair did, who carried himself the way McNair did, only to have it end tragically at such a formative age. I’m sure that stuck with him.
Titans fans do not have to feel any better about the drive Hurts authored against their team. That loss should still sting. But there is something meaningful about one of the NFL’s biggest current stars arriving at Nissan Stadium, seeing Steve McNair’s image and feeling like a kid again.
McNair’s influence reached far beyond Tennessee, beyond the Titans and beyond the quarterbacks who had the privilege of knowing him personally. Hurts never met his football hero. On Sunday, however, he honored McNair in the most fitting way possible: staying calm through an imperfect performance, refusing to go down when the game appeared lost and delivering when his teammates needed him most.
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