Jalen Hurts: Shane Falco, The Replacements
Shane “Footsteps” Falco. A former All-American at Ohio State at quarterback, who fell to pieces after a disastrous Sugar Bowl outing. When the Washington Sentinels bring retired coach Jimmy McGinty back to coach replacement players during a players’ strike, McGinty goes looking for the former quarterback, finding him in scuba gear, scrubbing barnacles off of “rich people’s toys.”
But while Falco still had the arm and athletic ability he displayed while playing at Ohio State, there was something else he brought to the group of replacement players: “Heart,” as McGinty termed it. Falco became a leader in that locker room very quickly, and the other players soon learned to follow him on the field and off. When the strike ends and the team’s original starting quarterback returns, it is clear almost immediately that the rest of the replacement players will follow only one quarterback: Falco.
Leadership matters at the quarterback position, and one of the things that Hollywood gets right about football movies is this fact. From “Any Given Sunday” to “The Program” to “The Replacements,” quarterbacks need to inspire those around them. In both versions of “The Longest Yard,” a critical plot point is whether Paul Crewe has his own interests at heart, or those of the team around him.
Jalen Hurts is rising up draft boards, to the point where he could be the fifth – or even fourth – quarterback selected in this draft. Why? Because of his character and leadership skills as much as his athletic prowess. Football coaches look at how Hurts handled the situation at Alabama, and then how he became a leader in Oklahoma, and want that kind of player in their locker room. They can know full well that when Hurts steps into a huddle, he will command the attention and respect of the ten men in there with him.
Just like Falco did when he earned the trust of the replacement Sentinels.