Open Letter to Jalen Hurts
By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted on October 24, 2026
This seems like a good time to share some advice with you. Think about it as you recover from your current medical condition.
Football is what you do for a living. It is not who you are.
I was at your graduation from the University of Alabama because my daughter was a member of your graduating class. You embody class and character, which is still an invaluable commodity in the business world.
The greatest gift you have is your brainpower, not your athleticism. Your brainpower will get better with time and exercise. Your athleticism will diminish with the passage of time.
You are familiar with Steve Young. Please pay attention to his career path.
Young’s professional football career spanned more than fifteen years in the NFL, primarily with the San Francisco 49ers, where he received numerous accolades, including Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl XXIX, Sports Illustrated and Sporting News’ Player of the Year from 1992 to 1994, and the NFL’s Most Valuable Player for 1992 and 1994. In 2005, Steve was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. At his retirement, Steve was also the highest-rated quarterback in NFL history.
Steve Young established a private equity firm named HGGC (formerly known as Huntsman Gay Capital Partners) in 2007 with Rich Lawson, industrialist Jon M. Huntsman, and Robert C. Gay. HGGC manages over $10 billion in total assets. The company specializes in middle-market buyouts, software, tech-enabled services, financial services, consumer sectors, and sports-related investments.
Young got his start in business during his playing days by joining the board of PowerBar and co-founding early tech and internet-localization projects (such as Found.com) before launching Sorenson Capital and later HGGC.
Young serves as chairman or board member for multiple HGGC portfolio companies, including IDERA, Integrity, DealerFX, AutoAlert, and Innovative.
Young received his J.D. from the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University and his B.S. in Finance and Political Science from Brigham Young University.
Jalen, you earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and Information Sciences from the University of Alabama and a Master of Arts in Human Relations from the University of Oklahoma.
You have the intellectual acumen, mental acuity, discipline, ability to focus under adverse circumstances, physical toughness, family support system, and professional relationships needed to replicate and exceed the success Steve Young found in the world of business and finance. Young has enriched himself to billionaire status through his brainpower and business relationships. You can accomplish this level of success, too.
If you start now, you may become the second Black person to achieve majority owner status of an NFL team. Because of my prior experience as a qualified and capable bidder for the St. Louis Rams in 2009-2010, I am further down the road on this quest than you are. I am working every day to become the first Black NFL majority owner.
If people are NOT talking to you about these career options and the Steve Young pathway forward, they are wasting your time.
The only competitor you have who is a current NFL player is Fernando Mendoza. He has already established the framework needed to replicate the Steve Young post-football model for business success.
Jalen, put yourself in a Jerry Jones-type of position where you can draft, trade, showcase, and retire NFL players while sipping bourbon from a skybox. Not every NFL player can do this, but you can.
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