Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is a Super Bowl MVP and one of the highest-paid players in the NFL.
He just doesn’t live like it, or at least not during the season.
While three-time Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes has an entire par-3 golf hole and mini-football field at his Missouri estate, his successor, Hurts, spends the regular season living in a modest $2,000-a-month apartment in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
And he does this in spite of a five-year deal that pays $255 million, of which, $180 million is guaranteed.
The reason is fairly straightforward, if also a bit underwhelming. He wasn’t making an average annual salary of $51 million when he broke into the NFL as a second-round pick in 2020. Back then, Hurts was earning a $1 million base salary, living alone and staying out of a pricy real estate market, which made a quiet apartment across the Delaware River a reasonable decision.
‘I didn’t buy a house or anything like that when I got drafted because it was just me,’ Hurts told AL.com in 2021. ‘I didn’t need this big place just for myself. I just got me a little apartment. You know, something smooth that’ll last me for the time being.’
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Another reason, Hurts explained, was that he spent so much time living at his mother’s in his native Houston in the offseason, it didn’t make sense to buy a home in Philadelphia.
And according to the New York Post and US Sun, Hurts still lives in the New Jersey apartment during the regular season.
Of course, Hurts does have glamorous fiancée, Bry Burrows, to consider these days, so he could be motivated to find new place in the Philadelphia area.
Besides, he reportedly owns a $6 million Texas mansion, where he spends his offseason, and is said to have purchased the property next door for $2.5 million, not to mention homes for his mom and dad.
‘There are a ton of ways you can save money and be smart about your money,’ Hurts said in 2021. ‘Instead of buying a brand new car, because it depreciates as soon as you get off the lot, you can buy a used car or lease a car.
‘Instead of going out to eat all the time at these five-star restaurants, you can simply cook at home, or a person like me, I’m a take me a few to-go plates from the facility.
‘The third way you can save money is on the phone plan like Straight Talk because it runs on the same major networks like other brands but that allows you to save a lot of money. Instead of hiring a landscaping company, you can hire a local kid from the community to come cut your grᴀss like I used to do.’
Many fans credited Hurts with being wise with his money while ignoring his Texas mansion
NFL Films’ Steve Sabol is seen in his office at NFL Films in Cherry Hill, New Jersey in 1992
Muhammad Ali signs autographs for neighborhood kids in front of his home in Cherry Hill
As reported by AL.com at the time, Hurts’ only big expenses were charity, his younger sister’s education, and a $215,000 Texas home for his father.
It’s unclear if and when Hurts plans on upgrading along the Pennsylvania-New Jersey border now that he’s signed through the 2028 season, when he’ll still only be 30.
Fans were understandably intrigued by Hurts’ financial restraint.
‘Smart,’ one fan remarked on X. ‘He’s not spending so much keeping up a mansion and the property.’
‘Good,’ another remarked, ‘why waste it?’
Interestingly, Cherry Hill, New Jersey was once home to a number of other sports heroes, such as Muhammad Ali, Philadelphia Flyers legend Bobby Clarke as well as Phillies pitcher and US Senator Jim Bunning.
What’s more, the league’s award-winning documentary production company, NFL Films, had offices in Cherry Hill, although it’s headquartered in nearby Mount Laurel.
