Jalen Hurts knows his history. He knows his Eagles history.

He knows of the long, bleak past when African American men who had as much ability to play quarterback as any white man were denied that opportunity by the NFL. He knows about the pioneers who in cracking that door open endured overt racism.

Hurts also knows about the next generation of Black quarterbacks who faced some of the same challenges and yet persevered. He knows that the Eagles organization was in many ways ground zero for that rise — from Randall Cunningham to Donovan McNabb and Michael Vick — and how each inspired countless young men to pursue the same dream.

He knows because growing up in Houston, he wanted to be one of them.

And now as the latest manifestation, he is one of them.

“When I got drafted to Philly, it felt like, I don’t know, destiny,” Hurts said when asked about following in the footsteps of Cunningham, McNabb, and Vick. “I’ve definitely modeled my game in different ways around all of them over the years as I’ve grown and as I kind of hold this torch up of being the next dual-threat African American quarterback in Philly and knowing what that means to them and to this franchise.

“It’s important to me.”

No other franchise in NFL history has as many starts from Black quarterbacks as the Eagles. When Hurts takes his first snap in the opener Sunday at Detroit, and begins his second season as QB1, the margin will only expand. The Eagles’ prominent place in that hierarchy may be circumstance, or may not be, but either way, it’s a legacy the 24-year-old embraces.

“When I got drafted to Philly, it felt like, I don’t know, destiny... It’s important to me.”

Hurts, who said he has relationships with Cunningham, McNabb, and Vick, chose his words carefully when asked recently if he wants to be known as a “Black quarterback.” Cunningham, nearly four decades ago, downplayed the cultural significance of his ascent to the position, even if he was still subject to the same stereotypes.

Hurts is cognizant of the once long-held belief that African Americans weren’t mentally or physically equipped to handle the demands of being a quarterback and that many who had played the position in college were moved to wide receiver or defensive back.

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When the name Jimmy Raye, the former Michigan State quarterback who played briefly for the Eagles, was brought up, Hurts knew that he had been converted into a defensive back after the Rams drafted him in 1968. Sometimes those decisions are made years earlier, and he understands that dynamic still exists, and if he can have any impact on changing it, he welcomes it.

“I am a quarterback. I look at it as that,” Hurts said during an interview. “But I know we live in a world where some things mean a little more. I feel like, for me, a lot of kids who come up, just because he’s athletic, they want to change his position because he’s not the prototype. And those are typically the Black kids.

“I was a kid where I came out and I went to the best college in the country [Alabama]. Coach [Nick] Saban didn’t ask me to change my position, not once. I take pride in that. I take pride in being a quarterback. And I take pride in what it means to be an African American quarterback because I know it’s not about me. I know how hard it was to get to this point.

“I know the people before me, the Warren Moons, one of the best quarterbacks to play the game, he had to go to a whole other league to prove himself. … There’s a deeper meaning to it all.”

When Moon, after six seasons in the Canadian Football League, finally got his chance with the Houston Oilers in 1984, only 11 African Americans had started at quarterback in the 64-year history of the NFL. This season, the same number of Black quarterbacks are projected as starters.

“I take pride in what it means to be an African American quarterback because I know it’s not about me.”

There are Super Bowl winners, MVPs, and perennial Pro Bowlers in that group. Patrick Mahomes, Russell Wilson, and Kyler Murray are among the highest-paid players in the history of the league and are the faces of their franchises.

“There’s clearly a cultural significance to these Black men rising to this position of power in the most important position in team sports, and not just team sports,” said Jason Reid, the longtime NFL writer whose book, Rise of the Black Quarterback, was recently published. “If we take it off the field … quarterback is a uniquely American leadership position, not only confined to football. If you look at corporate America, if you’re leading a big project for a company, you’re considered the quarterback of that project.

“We think of the brightest among us, we think of the best among us, we think of the person who inspires everyone around them. And if Black men are excluded from that position as they were for most of NFL history, what does that say about Black people in America, overall?”

Despite the advancements made, just a few years ago several members of NFL scouting departments and the media argued that Lamar Jackson couldn’t play quarterback in the NFL. Some believe that race played a role in keeping Colin Kaepernick out of the league after his protest against police brutality and racial inequality, and that Black quarterbacks still face additional scrutiny because they don’t fit traditional norms.

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There are still four teams that have had less than 2% of their starts made by a Black quarterback. The league average, according to the website readjack.com, is 11.2% since 1953. That’s when Willie Thrower became the first conventional quarterback to toss passes since the ban on all African Americans was lifted seven years earlier.

It was the Bears’ low number in 2019 — they’ve since increased their percentage with Justin Fields — that compelled Chicago sports historian Jack Silverstein to do the research and compile the full team-by-team listing.

“You can’t tell the story of the rise of Black quarterbacks in the NFL without talking about the Philadelphia Eagles.”

There could be any number of reasons, most of them having nothing to do with race, why some teams have had more starts by Black quarterbacks than others. But as Silverstein discovered, it often took the success of one to persuade other teams to follow suit. It has always been a copycat league.

But there were key teams — not to mention key figures in leadership roles — in that progression. The Eagles’ 360 starts are 24 more than the Oilers/Titans franchise and 126 more than the next team, the Buccaneers.

“You can’t tell the story of the rise of Black quarterbacks in the NFL,” Reid said, “without talking about the Philadelphia Eagles.”

Cunningham was the spark. McNabb caught fire. And Vick, while his impact was greater in Atlanta when he became the first Black quarterback to be drafted No. 1 overall, burned his brightest in Philly.

All three had prodigious arm talent. But it was their mobility that initially gave them an added edge. Hurts has similar traits. When he talks to any one of them, he said, their advice is to play to his strengths and be “a true dual threat.”

“I tell him, ‘Just do you, bro,’” Vick said. “I look at him as Donovan. Donovan had the running intangibles. He had the throwing intangibles. He wasn’t the fastest. And that’s kind of Jalen. He’s not the fastest, but he’s mobile enough and he has the arm strength to get it to any part of the field.

“And now Jalen has a chance to take it a step further, be that franchise guy, and hopefully win a championship and start cementing his legacy in Philadelphia.”

» READ MORE: The Eagles don’t need Jalen Hurts to be the next Randall Cunningham. They just need him to be him.

Hurts said he didn’t always want to be a quarterback. But several factors made him the natural choice in youth football. His father, Averion, was a longtime high school coach and his older brother, Averion Jr., had already laid the groundwork at the position for the Hurts family. But, mostly, it was his physical skills.

“I was a baseball guy growing up, so I had the strongest arm,” Hurts said. “So it was known when I got to middle school I was going to have to play quarterback because if I didn’t, nobody would be able to get me the ball. So I played quarterback and it just kind of stuck since then.”

Hurts’ immediate role model was his brother, who played under his father at Channelview High just outside Houston. But he studied every quarterback he watched, and gravitated toward multifaceted types such as Steve McNair, Vince Young, Cam Newton, McNabb, and Vick.

“I think [Hurts] is more talented than I was.”

He said he had McNabb and Vick jerseys growing up, and while Cunningham’s heyday occurred before he was born, Hurts said he has gone back and watched his highlights. After the Eagles beat the New York Giants in December, he came out to his postgame news conference in a vintage Cunningham uniform.

“You see Randall as ahead of his time,” Hurts said. “He did stuff that hadn’t been seen before.”

Cunningham said he got bombarded with texts, emails, and social media posts when Hurts wore his kelly green No. 12. He said he designed a piece of clothing — he wouldn’t offer the particulars — he intends to send to the current Eagles quarterback once he gets his size.

“I think he is more talented than I was,” Cunningham said. “I think he has a great understanding of how to live the life of someone who really understands the position, what it takes, the dedication. And the thing I like about him most is just his character.

“I listen and I only hear him saying things out of wisdom. I don’t hear him putting a lot of foolishness out there.”

“I’m going to instinctually do what I do as a player because that’s what makes me the winner I am.”

Cunningham’s famously staying upright after the Carl Banks hit and throwing a touchdown pass was the play Hurts cited as his favorite. For McNabb, he recalled his 14-second scramble before tossing a downfield dime. But it was maybe Vick who inspired him the most.

“Everybody wanted to be like Vick growing up,” Hurts said. He continued: “I liked the way he played. It was electrifying. And I can reflect on it now and say, ‘I am who I am.’ I’m growing and I have grown. But I am who I am as a player.

“I’m going to instinctually do what I do as a player because that’s what makes me the winner I am.”

While there have been plenty of “dual-threat” white quarterbacks to succeed in the NFL, some have derisively viewed the phrase, particularly when used to counter “pro-style,” as code for Black quarterbacks. But as offenses have shifted to include college tactics to accentuate mobility, the connotation has evolved.

Hurts acknowledged his forerunners in helping to change that narrative, and it’s a description he welcomes. McNabb was once criticized by a prominent local Black leader when he became more of a pocket passer. And while Vick may have been “the first to play unapologetically ‘Black,’” as Reid suggested, he was conflicted.

“You had Tom [Brady], you had Peyton [Manning], and they were winning. Do I continue to just do me?”

“I went through a lot in terms of what I grew up watching and what I felt like what the position should look like,” Vick said. “You had Tom [Brady], you had Peyton [Manning], and they were winning. Do I continue to just do me?

“They wrote articles saying, ‘This style won’t last, he needs to become a pocket passer.’ So now there’s all this trauma in my head about how I’m supposed to play and the game will never look like this. And I was like, you know what, I’m just going to do me, the same thing I’m telling Jalen now, another Black quarterback 20 years later.”

Newton may have been the nexus point. Here was a Black quarterback seemingly unabashed about his style of play. When Hurts scored against the Panthers, Newton’s old team, in Carolina last year, he paid homage by replicating his Superman celebration.

Newton, who is currently out of the NFL but still wants to play, received plenty of reproach for his flamboyance. McNabb once claimed he was the most criticized quarterback ever. Some of it had a racial component.

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Asked if Black quarterbacks still face greater scrutiny, Hurts said, “I think there’s levels to that, and I’ll just leave it at that. … I think as time goes on, things change.”

Aside from touchdown celebrations, Hurts rarely shows emotion. He is very much a coach’s son, but he also gets his diligence, some close to him have said, from his educator mother, Pamela. Saban was another influence in how to comport himself.

His teammates often describe his unflappable, stone-face demeanor. Wide receiver A.J. Brown and others have said Hurts can joke around and laugh, but when he’s at work, he’s all business. He rarely, if ever, slips publicly.

“As I grow and mature, that will evolve... But like I said, there’s levels to everything.”

It comes with the position, but does Hurts add an extra layer to his already hard shell because he knows the amount of dissection his every word brings?

“I don’t disagree,” he said.

Hurts has spoken out on social issues. He gave a passionate address on the need to curb gun violence in June. He advocated for “Women Empowerment” with his choice of footwear in the NFL’s annual “My Cause, My Cleats” campaign last season, and made gender equality one of the messages of his camp for kids this summer.

At the start of his rookie season, Hurts was among a handful of Black Eagles players who raised their fists during the national anthem to protest racial inequality. Others took a knee during those last few protests.

“As I grow and mature, that will evolve,” Hurts said about showing more of his personality. “But I am who I am in terms of my character, how I was raised and where it comes from. But like I said, there’s levels to everything.”

Hurts may represent how far the Black NFL quarterback has come, and how much progress the league has made, but like many American institutions, there is an immoral history of treatment.

It was just a fledgling alliance when Fritz Pollard played for the Hammond Pros in 1923. He didn’t play quarterback in the modern sense, but as the tailback in the single-wing, he is widely regarded as the first Black starting quarterback.

Joe Lillard of the Chicago Cardinals followed nine years later, but he was chased from the NFL when Boston Braves owner George Preston Marshall brokered a leaguewide ban on Black players.

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The ban was lifted after 14 years in 1946, but few were given the chance to play quarterback over the next two decades. George Taliaferro threw passes as a multipurpose back, but Thrower and Charlie Brackens were the first Black quarterbacks in the modern mold to throw passes in the NFL.

It wasn’t until 1968, when Marlin Briscoe was inserted for the Broncos, that an African American man was under center as the starter post-ban.

“The thought process by owners and team owners and executives and coaches was that they couldn’t handle the rigors of the up-the-middle thinking man’s positions, like quarterback, center, and middle linebacker, because they just weren’t bright enough,” Reid said. “They also weren’t leaders in their estimation, and they couldn’t make the calls and the adjustments.”

“There wasn’t much attention paid to it, honestly. You look back on it and it probably should have.”

Briscoe would be converted to a receiver the following season, however, and if there was any headway, it moved at a snail’s pace over the next two decades. James Harris was the first to start and win a playoff game, in 1974. Doug Williams was the first to be drafted in the first round, in 1978.

The Eagles acquired Taliaferro late in his career, but he never threw a pass for the team. They had Raye, who was the first Black quarterback from the segregated South to win a national title, shortly after he was cut by the Rams. But he remained in the secondary and suited up for only two games before his playing career was over.

It wasn’t until 1976, when new coach Dick Vermeil brought in John Walton as a backup, that the Eagles had their first bona fide Black quarterback.

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“There wasn’t much attention paid to it, honestly. You look back on it and it probably should have,” said Ray Didinger, the Hall of Fame NFL writer who covered the team then and would eventually coauthor The Eagles Encyclopedia. “It was pretty obvious early that he was pretty good. None of us knew very much about him coming in. Small-college guy — Elizabeth City State.”

Walton threw only 65 passes over four seasons, but he threw a memorable touchdown in the Eagles’ first win over the Cowboys at Texas Stadium in 1979, when he spelled the injured Ron Jaworski.

When Cunningham arrived in Philly in 1985, Williams had five seasons as a starter and Moon had made the transition from the CFL. But they were mostly pocket passers. Cunningham broke the mold with his freakish athleticism, but it took a few years before he supplanted Jaworski as the full-time starter.

“It was a tough position to be in, with Jaworski being white, but Randall handled it very well,” Didinger said. “Every time someone would ask a question that had a racial component to it, Randall just sort of dismissed it and said that’s not what it’s all about.”

“I didn’t want to be distracted...[but] I didn’t go through as much craziness as Doug Williams and the men of the past.”

Cunningham grew up in Santa Barbara, Calif. In Reid’s book, he said he had never been called the N-word until he heard it on the road after a UNLV game. In Philly off the field, Cunningham was known more for his flash and mercurial personality than he was for anything pertaining to race.

“I didn’t want to be distracted,” Cunningham said. “It’s one thing to plant seeds. But I think my best option was to do it on the field because if I didn’t do anything on the field, I wouldn’t be representing like I needed to. ... I didn’t go through as much craziness as Doug Williams and the men of the past.”

Cunningham redefined what a successful quarterback could look like in the NFL, but his failure to win in the postseason and injuries derailed his career in Philly and he would eventually lose his starting spot to Rodney Peete.

Williams, meanwhile, was named Super Bowl MVP with Washington in 1987, and Peete and other Black quarterbacks began to emerge. But it was the 1999 draft, when McNabb, Akili Smith, and Daunte Culpepper were selected in the first 11 picks, that many now consider a sea change in how the position was evaluated.

It also impacted the next wave.

“That gave me so much confidence. Here’s a guy that looked like me, played like me.”

“I went through the process of having people that looked just like me tell me that I was going to be a receiver once I got to college,” Vick said. “Told me straight to my face and really killed my confidence. Andy [Reid], what he did in the 1999 draft taking Donovan No. 2, that did so much for me.

“That gave me so much confidence. Here’s a guy that looked like me, played like me.”

The talent pool was too obvious to deny. McNabb had boatloads of it and by his second season finished runner-up in MVP voting. He helped guide the Eagles to four straight NFC championship games in the early 2000s.

McNabb’s relationship with Philly got off to a rocky start when fans in New York booed Andy Reid’s pick — they wanted running back Ricky Williams — but the city’s love for its football team and its best players is almost color-blind.

“If guys come in and perform, then that’s really all the fans here are looking for,” Didinger said. “And if you look at the way guys have been received here, the racial thing has never really been an issue. It really hasn’t been talked about. And the only time it was talked about in a really meaningful way, in a really grab-the-headlines kind of way, it was raised by Rush Limbaugh.

“It didn’t come from Philadelphia. The Black quarterback thing — that wasn’t a WIP creation, that wasn’t the local media, that was Rush Limbaugh. And if you remember, the city rallied behind Don.”

Limbaugh, the conservative commentator who worked briefly for ESPN, downplayed McNabb’s accomplishments by 2003, and said he had been overrated by a media that was “very desirous that a Black quarterback do well.”

“Back in the day it was more, ‘How did that player impact his position?’ And from what I’ve heard, I had an impact...”

Silverstein maintained the opposite and said that a largely white media has long been complicit in the language associated with the position and that there aren’t enough Black viewpoints in the field.

He made a strong case, as did Jason Reid, for both Cunningham and McNabb belonging in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and said that traditional views on the quarterback position may have helped keep them out. It should be noted that of the 49 current Hall of Fame voters, most of whom are in the media, only seven are Black.

“I used to care, but I’ve kind of lost my desire now,” Cunningham said about the Hall. “Back in the day it was more, ‘How did that player impact his position?’ And from what I’ve heard, I had an impact, not only on African American quarterbacks, but the style of quarterbacking.

“But I just leave it in the hands of the people. I don’t want to be one of these guys who goes out there and is like, ‘I’m [ticked].’ I’m just grateful.”

Vick wants to shine further light on the story of the Black quarterback. He said he’s in the infancy stages of putting together a documentary film on the subject. He said he often wonders whether successful college quarterbacks from the 1990s, such as Charlie Ward or Tommie Frazier, would have gotten better opportunities in the NFL had he been around earlier.

He also wonders about the success he might have had with the Falcons had Andy Reid been his first coach or if his offensive coordinators then thought more outside the box like today’s play callers.

“The league now is everybody just ‘Do you’ — white, Black, or indifferent.”

“I just want to know more,” said Vick, currently an analyst for Fox Sports. “I just wonder if the Charlie Wards would have gotten a chance. If the way I played would have been a detriment to defenses in the mid-’90s or the way they’re playing now.

“The league now is everybody just ‘Do you’ — white, Black, or indifferent.”

Jason Reid spends a considerable amount of Rise of the Black Quarterback chronicling the struggles of the pioneers and talking to many of the living trailblazers, but he also makes the case that there has never been a better time to be a Black man who plays quarterback in the NFL. Mahomes and Wilson, who just signed a $245 million extension, have immense clout.

Deshaun Watson, despite allegations of sexual impropriety, was able to engineer a trade to the Browns during the offseason and received an unprecedented, fully guaranteed $230 million contract.

Reid recalled his days covering college recruiting and how elite quarterback camps mostly had white faces. Now, he says, there are as many Black ones, with most going to power college programs.

“It’s America being fair,” Cunningham said. “It’s young kids who are coming up and they’re learning earlier because there’s not the stigma any longer of because of a person’s skin they can’t get it done.

“I’m grateful they’re not saying, ‘Well, the Samoan guy can’t get it done.’ Come on. It doesn’t matter what color you are.”

Silverstein cautioned that the NFL is far from being post-race, citing the league’s just-recent use of “race-norming” in its settlement with former players in the $1 billion concussion lawsuit. Didinger recalled a few years back when he turned on the TV to watch a playoff game and how two Black quarterbacks were starting and it was no longer considered a big thing.

“I think Jeff is just like the fans — he wants guys that can play and win games for him.”

“I was thinking about that in the context of why aren’t there more Black head coaches?” Didinger said. “If you look at the past, the more Black players made it the better game, more Black quarterbacks made it a better game. The more really good Black head coaches and executives in the front office, it would only seem to stand to reason that the game will also improve if you improve on that level.”

The Eagles were among the first to hire a Black coach when Jeffrey Lurie hired Ray Rhodes in 1995. And while it was Andy Reid who chose McNabb and drove the signing of Vick 10 years later after he was released from prison following a dogfighting conviction, those decisions don’t get made without owner approval.

Lurie said he takes “great pride” in the Eagles’ standing when it comes to Black quarterbacks.

“I think we all know that Jeffrey is a very liberal guy. And I think this is consistent with his views on things,” Didinger said. “But I don’t think that has anything to do with decisions that are made in terms of bringing in guys to play the position.

“I think Jeff is just like the fans — he wants guys that can play and win games for him. I don’t think he even thinks in those terms.”

Hurts was another acquisition Lurie championed. He was chosen in the second round of the 2020 draft initially to be Carson Wentz’s backup, but he has already exceeded those expectations and became the full-time starter last season.

He had his ups and downs in 2021, but ultimately guided the Eagles to the postseason. Cunningham and Vick praised Hurts, not only for his on-field production, but also for his composure and leadership, and McNabb has expressed similar thoughts in other forums. They emphasized the importance of surrounding him with talent and called for patience.

“I really just want to be the best version of myself and set the right example for those to come...”

Hurts said that each first reached out after he was drafted and that they now talk “a reasonable amount.” They offer counsel on handling one of the most passionate — and critical — fan bases in the country.

“When they’re with you, they are with you. Period,” Cunningham said. “Yeah, we have armchair quarterbacks, but the best armchair quarterbacks are in Philadelphia. Not only will they critique you, but they’re willing to say, ‘You know what, my bad, I was wrong, I didn’t give you enough time.’”

Hurts’ future beyond this season is uncertain. And he has a ways to go before he can be mentioned in the same breath as Cunningham, McNabb, Vick, or any of the great African American quarterbacks. But it’s easy to see how he wants to continue that legacy, in his words and his actions.

It’s evident in his interactions with youth football players at the NovaCare Complex and at various camps. And it’s evident when he lets his guard down, as he did momentarily at NovaCare recently, seemingly lost in thoughts, when he reminisced about watching the athletes he idolized growing up and how they inspired him.

“These guys are people who I admire as competitors and the way they play the game,” said Hurts as he leaned back on a couch and stretched his arms out. “I really just want to be the best version of myself and set the right example for those to come and be someone that a young quarterback growing up in Houston or Philly or wherever can look up to and maybe model themselves after me.”

Hurts wants to make HIStory.