Eagles’ Jalen Hurts surprises Philly football team and honors young player killed earlier this year

A few dozen students, athletes, and teachers gathered inside the Walter B. Saul High School gymnasium Tuesday afternoon, whispering as they looked toward the double doors.

The students knew someone was here to surprise them, but not who.

“Joel Embiid?” one boy said.

“Nah,” his friend replied. “I bet it’s the MVP.”

He was right.

To a chant of those three iconic letters, the Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts entered the gym. Children cheered. Teachers clicked their cameras.

One boy buried his face in his hands. Some looked as if they were holding back tears.

Because the reason for Hurts’ visit was bittersweet.

» READ MORE: The mother of Roxborough shooting victim Nicolas Elizalde, 14, has a message: ‘He isn’t a number’

He was there to honor Nicolas Elizalde, the 14-year-old who was fatally shot outside Roxborough High School earlier this year after a football scrimmage. Inside the gymnasium of the school Nick attended for just three weeks were his family, best friends, and teammates — many of whom were there when the gunfire erupted that September afternoon.

Nick, who was a freshman at Saul but played for Roxborough, was walking with his teammates toward their locker room when five shooters jumped out of a car and fired more than 60 bullets at the group. Four other players, ages 14 to 17, were injured.

Nick, whose family has described him as a gentle, loving boy, was not the intended target. Four of the alleged shooters, most of whom are teens themselves, have since been arrested.

The violence gripped the community, with city leaders and professional athletes alike questioning where, if not at school or a sports game, Philadelphia’s children could be safe from the gun violence. And it has stayed on Hurts’ mind ever since, he said.

Hurts, who was born and raised in Houston, said in an interview that since moving to Philadelphia in 2020, he has sought to better understand the obstacles and tragedies the city’s residents regularly face. Being here for the students, he said, and spending time with the Elizalde family, means a lot to him.

“Nick’s family finds a lot of value in what I do on the field,” said Hurts, who’s led the Eagles to a historic 12-1 season and is a front-runner for the league’s Most Valuable Player award.

“They find a lot of joy in what I do on the field, so I hold that in high regard,” he said. “It’s definitely on my mind when I’m out there playing.”

» READ MORE: Nicolas Elizalde, 14, laid to rest with a kindness he wasn’t afforded in death

Before the event started, Hurts spent about 20 minutes alone with Nick’s family, away from the cameras. He listened intently as they told him about Nick — his gentle, soft-spoken nature and his excitement at being a new member of the junior varsity football team — and the depth of their pain since his death.

“We don’t have much joy anymore, but Sundays help us,” Marge LaRue, Nick’s aunt, told him.

Meredith Elizalde, Nick’s mother, held tears in her eyes through most of the day. She said she was honored when Hurts’ management team reached out about organizing the event, especially after Eagles linebacker Shaun Bradley designed his cleats to honor her son.

“Every day is so hard,” she said, “but these things get me through this time.”

Nick’s grandmother, Marge LaRue, couldn’t hide her excitement. Before she strode up to Hurts, whom she called her “new best friend,” for a final selfie, she had to make sure she looked good.

“Do I have any cookies in my teeth?” she asked her daughter with a laugh. “His smile is just so perfect!”

Hurts spent nearly 2½ hours at the school. He hugged students and staff, took selfies, signed autographs, and played games over a catered lunch. When one boy beat Hurts at Connect Four, he reacted as if he had won the Super Bowl.

“You can overcome anything,” the star quarterback told them at the start of the event.

“I’m not in your shoes, I don’t go through the things y’all go through,” he said. “But I want to help y’all, and be there for y’all.”

It was a bright spot in what has been a difficult school year for Saul and Roxborough students. The shooting happened just a few weeks into the Roxborough JV team’s season. Many teams canceled games in the aftermath out of fear of playing at their field, three players said.

“It means a lot to know that he cares,” said Zahfir Cleveland, 15, a freshman running back for Roxborough.

But Cleveland wished Hurts didn’t have to visit, he said, and felt torn by the attention.

“If something bad hadn’t happened to us,” he said, “nobody would have cared.”

Tyrone Riyles, a Saul student who had several classes with Nick, said he’s inspired by Hurts’ journey and underdog story as an athlete.

Trying to move forward after losing a classmate, he said, is a comeback story of his own.

“After everything, we needed something like this,” said Riyales, 15. “We needed inspiration.”