Jalen Hurts Look-Alike Competition
Rittenhouse Square
Philadelphia
Dec. 15, 2024
Close to 300 Jalen Hurts fans turned out to Rittenhouse Square on Sunday — not to watch the Eagles’ Game, but to attend a grassroots look-alike contest organized in the star quarterback’s honor.
Portraiture and sports collided during Philly’s take on a celebrity doppelganger trend that’s been popping up all around the world over the last few months. A-list look-alike competitions have been getting people off their phones and into performance art since October, when a Timothée Chalamet contest was first held in NYC. Since then, everyday Joes have been trying to fashion themselves into twins of other famous heart-throbs like Paul Mescal, Jeremy Allen White, and Luigi Mangione. There’s even a Wikipedia page about the phenomenon.
Reporters have observed that most of the contests center on male sex symbols, offering an interesting twist on typically female-focused beauty pageants. It’s a ground-up way to recognize gorgeously sculpted celebs — and to practice a kind of live sculpture through challenging regular people to transform themselves into as-seen-on-TV images.
Philly, for its part, has already hosted a contest for actor Miles Teller, who hails from Pennsylvania. But the talent show continued this weekend with hundreds more pouring out to see who could compete with the jawline of Jalen Hurts.
Jalen Hurts may make his money as a football player, but he moonlights as a muse, model and overall work of art — that is, at least, according to the girls who organized a look-alike contest in his honor this weekend.
Three girlfriends in their twenties originally hatched the plan over dinner several weeks ago, planning to award the winner some beard oil, a hair brush and two bags of Crawfish-flavored Lay’s. But after news of the upcoming contest made its way to Dunkin’, they offered to up the ante by sponsoring free coffee for a whole year — and two tickets to that night’s Eagles game.
Game on.
“It’s all about swag and confidence. And the goatee — that’s very important,” onlooker Samantha Foxwell offered as criteria for what makes Jalen look like Jalen. Foxwell’s partner Emily Hoddeson agreed. “You can’t smile,” she noted — Jalen always keeps his cool.
By the early afternoon, 11 “Jalen” wanna-bes had signed up to be judged.
When one of the organizers, 24-year-old Morgan Blagman, asked the crowd what they wanted to know about these men, a resounding “Are they single?” boomed from the predominantly female crowd.
What else did they want to know? “How much can you squat?”
The top two candidates were narrowed down to Quaeleb Monfiston, a 29-year-old bartender who made the crowd go wild upon entry because so many thought he WAS Jalen making a surprise appearance at first glance; and Andrew Atkerson, a 24-year-old who hadn’t considered himself for the contest until a coworker convinced him to shave his beard into a goatee for the occasion. By show of noise, Monfiston was ultimately crowned king.
At the end of the day, I couldn't tell if I had just attended a popularity contest, a sporting event, or an art exhibit. But as superficial as it may seem, the look-alike contest represents a move away from the surface-level shine of Instagram by bringing real beauty into the public square. It reminded me that art is all around us — we just have to learn to look beyond our feeds.
Whatever the trend stands for, here are three rules I gathered about what it takes to look on Jalen Hurts level:
1. You have to have the diamond stud or gold hoop earring. If you don't, then why are you even here? Thank you, next!
2. You must channel Jalen's poise. He’s always calm under pressure. His cool comes from withholding any trace of excitement or joy.
3. Can you squat 600 pounds? If the answer is yes, then you’re an automatic finalist. Even if you don't have any of the other characteristics, but you squat 600, than you're in the top three. Easy.
