Eagles QB Jalen Hurts inspires change with all-female team

by Chanel Hill

Philadelphia Tribune Staff Writer

When Ashley Gardner heard about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts having an all-women management team, she thought the news was unprecedented.

“Women have remained underrepresented in sport leadership for a long time, so Jalen Hurts deciding to bet on women with his all-women team is really unprecedented,” said Gardner, who is an assistant professor at Temple University’s School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management. “His decision has created another legacy off the field for these women.”

Gardner added that it is still difficult for women to advance in sports, whether through playing or having a career, due to societal ideology and norms.

“Historically, sports were created for men,” Gardner said. “It wasn’t until Title IX in 1972 that it created equal opportunities for boys and girls. But still today, we see the trickle down effects of the centuries of advantage men had on women in sports.

“In the ancient Olympic Games, women were not allowed to enter facilities.

When women began to compete in sports, they said they were inferior because of their menstrual cycle. Now we’re seeing women being inferior not only on the field, but also off. There are still some people today who think women don’t belong in sports,” Gardner added.

According to the online recruitment service Zippia, 68 percent of all sports agents are White. Women make up just 23 percent of NFL agents and of that 10.4 percent are African American men or women.

Nicole Lynn, Hurts’ sports agent, is the first African American woman to represent an NFL draft pick in 2019, when she represented defensive tackle Quinnen Williams. She is also the first African American female agent to represent a quarterback in the Super Bowl.

She is the president of football operations for Klutch Sports Group, and in 2021 she published her autobiography “Agent You.”

Determined to represent Hurts in the NFL, Lynn reached out to him by sending him a direct message (DM) on Instagram.

“She took a risk by hopping in his DMs, but the great thing about her doing that is that now more women and women of color might be empowered to take risks too,” said Megan R. Smith, founder and president of Brownstone PR.

“Whether that’s in sports or another industry that is dominated by men,” she