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Whenever I turn on ESPN’s Get Up! in the morning or catch a clip on social media, I’m reminded that the target demo is not the 25-35 year old sports fan like you or I, but the 10-20 year old burgeoning sports fan. I’m not sure how else you explain some of the segments and commentary they put forth.
From Jeff Saturday throwing around pancakes to Damien Woody smashing toy helmets to Dan Orlovsky’s intentionally corny jokes to Ryan Clark screaming at the top of his lungs, Get Up! is clearly geared toward a more, uh, youthful sports fan.
This target demo, however, has led to a general degradation of ESPN’s product, as Aaron Rodgers (while on The Pat McAfee Show, mind you) recently noted: the network has gone away from analysis and has leaned into personalites and hot takes.
As a result, you get moments like this one on Get Up!, in which a segment called “U-nique Perspective,” named after former NFL cornerback and NFLPA president Dominique Foxworth, sees its analyst making the case that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is the beneficiary of something called “pretty privilege.”
“Jalen Hurts [is] benefiting from ‘pretty privilege,'” Foxworth said on the Tuesday, December 17 episode of ESPN’s morning show Get Up!.
“Because he got up on the press conference after the game and he acting like he was Josh Allen, he acting like he just went for 400 yards for three weeks in a row. Man, you have one good week passing and everyone forgets it when he starts batting his eyes at you.”
Domonique Foxworth is convinced Jalen Hurts is benefitting from “pretty privilege.” pic.twitter.com/qF3uN4DHn2
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 17, 2024
Now, while good-looking people getting away with more within society is actually a scientifically and anecdotally proven phenomenon, it’s certainly not the case in the NFL (certainly in PHILADELPHIA, of all places), which has seen a litany of handsome quarterbacks dumped to the wayside over the years.
What’s happening with Hurts right now isn’t that: he simply isn’t as bad as some fans believe he is but also isn’t as good as he should be and that’s creating a frustration. Short of the Eagles winning a Super Bowl, if Hurts struggles to pass the ball in the playoffs then the offseason will undoubtedly be filled with speculation that the Eagles need to go in a different direction at quarterback.
So far this season, the 26-year-old Hurts has completed 69.2% of his passes for 2,892 yards, 18 touchdowns, and 5 interceptions, in addition to 147 carries for 589 yards and 14 touchdowns. Hurts is essentially an athletic game manager on one of the NFL’s best rosters: nothing more, nothing else. He’s what Geno Smith would’ve been earlier in his career if he wasn’t drafted by the black hole that is the New York Jets.