“I don’t think that’s pertinent”: Jalen Hurts breaks silence on White House absence

Jalen Hurts is officially back with the Philadelphia Eagles. The quarterback was absent from the team's visit to the White House, citing scheduling conflicts as the reason for his absence. The Eagles still met President Donald Trump after declining to do so in 2018.

NFL teams have started their OTAs, and the quarterback was available to the media after one of Philadelphia's practices. He was asked by reporters about his absence from the White House visit, and he declined to go into details for the second straight time:

“I wasn’t available. I don’t think that’s pertinent. Everyone who went, and was available, they seemed to enjoy themselves.”

There was a lot of discussion about Philadelphia's visit. Led by former safety Malcolm Jenkins, the team declined to visit the White House after their first Super Bowl win due to disagreements with Donald Trump's administration.

This time, however, the team made a different decision. Although there was online criticism about the situation, the Eagles traveled to Washington. Running back Saquon Barkley spoke on Twitter and took politics out of the visit:

“Maybe I just respect the office, not a hard concept to understand. Just golfed with Obama not too long ago…and look forward to finishing my round with Trump. Get out my mentions with all this politics and have an amazing day.”

Jalen Hurts' Eagles to face Tush Push proposal ban this week

The Green Bay Packers submitted a revised proposal to the NFL that, effectively, would represent a ban on the Eagles' famous short-yardage play.

Jalen Hurts and the Eagles reportedly have been calling other teams in the league explaining why it should remain legal. In March, when the Packers sent their first proposal, Saquon Barkley was extremely critical of Green Bay:

"You're lining up and everyone knows what you're doing, it's like, 'Stop me' and they can't. So they're going to get in their feelings about it and try to make changes, but I don't see that happening, and if it doesn't, just get better at stopping it."

Over the past two seasons, Hurts has scored 29 touchdowns on the ground, with the majority of those scores coming from the tush push.