Jalen Hurts broke out the illegal cleats ahead of Super Bowl LIX.
Based on the writing on the back of them, he seemed very content with whatever penalty the NFL eventually throws his way.
The Philadelphia Eagles quarterback wore a pair of red and black Air Jordan 1s ahead of their matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs at the Caesars Superdome on Sunday afternoon. The shoes were custom made for him, too, and had the word “unbannable” written on the heel of both cleats.
NFL rules require that players wear cleats that are white, black or an official team color. While the cleats are incredible, they clearly don’t fall into any of those categories. Hurts swapped those cleats out after pregame warmups for a traditional white and black pair.
Hurts was already fined for a similar move this season. The NFL hit him with a $5,628 fine after the team’s win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in December for wearing cleats that were not “constitutional team colors.” He wore mismatched green cleats during that contest. Jordan and Nike then picked up that fine for him.
But considering this is the Super Bowl, and Hurts has already gotten away with this before with relatively minimal repercussions, he was going for style this time.
Hurts threw for 2,903 yards and 18 touchdowns with just five interceptions this season for the Eagles. He led the team to a dominant 55-23 win over the Washington Commanders in the NFC championship game last month, too, where he threw for a touchdown and ran in three more in the blowout victory. That set up a rematch of Super Bowl LVII, where the Eagles fell to the Chiefs at State Farm Stadium.
If Hurts and the Eagles can win on Sunday, they'll not only avenge that loss, but it will stop the Chiefs from becoming the first team in the Super Bowl era to win three straight championships.
