July 13, 2023
BILL STREICHER/USA TODAY SPORTS
A Texas man who went viral for his resemblance to Jalen Hurts said he'll soon be meeting the Eagles quarterback for an ESPN feature story.
It's likely that most of us have doppelgängers out there somewhere, roaming the earth and looking the same as us while doing it. The exceptions are people outside the standard deviation, like the San Antonio Spurs' 7-foot-5-inch phenom Victor Wembanyama, but even then, faces are the real measure of uncanny similarity.
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts has a doppelgänger with a pretty big following on TikTok. He's a UPS driver from Corpus Christi, Texas, named Mykol Gummings. Last fall, people started commenting on Gummings' videos that he looks an awful lot like Hurts. He leaned into it and went viral. Hurts even cracked a joke about it.
On Wednesday, Gummings went on TikTok to announce that ESPN had reached out to him about doing a feature on his resemblance to Hurts. Gummings said ESPN is first visiting him in Texas to shoot video while he's on his UPS routes, and later he'll be flying to Philadelphia to meet Jalen Hurts. They're both Texas natives, so there's some added novelty to the story. The downside for Gummings is that he said he'll have to shave his beard. That's a tradeoff most people would make to hang out with Hurts.
I never told y’all about my side hustle ? https://t.co/DXQPhXZQLa
— Jalen Hurts (@JalenHurts) November 5, 2022
In a second video, Gummings said UPS is on board with the plan and all of his coworkers are "freaking out" about the opportunity he's getting.
"Some people don't believe it's happening," Gummings said. "I'm like, I promise you it's happening."
The UPS employee who went viral last season for his resemblance to Jalen Hurts says ESPN reached out to him and that he and Jalen will be collaborating on a feature together in the near future.
— Eagles Nation (@PHLEaglesNation) July 13, 2023
(Yes, he will be shaving his beard) 😂#Eagles
(Mykol_Cummings on TikTok) pic.twitter.com/yydugysdtR
A look at Gummings' social media channels reveals, unsurprisingly, that he's a fan of the Dallas Cowboys. Before he embraced looking like Hurts, Gummings made a video in a room filled with Cowboys gear and declared "Jalen who?" in response to a comment about his appearance. He said Hurts would "get his ass sacked" all season. Instead, Hurts led the Eagles to within a few points of a Super Bowl victory and the Cowboys flamed out in the divisional round of the playoffs.
Gummings even represented UPS at AT&T Stadium last winter by presenting a game ball for a matchup between the Cowboys and Colts. The Cowboys smoked Indy 54-19.
The fact that Gummings is an annoying Cowboys fan adds some juice to the story. If it actually goes down the way Gummings describes, the best part will be that Hurts is participating and having fun with it. And if Hurts ever has to attend some boring function or just needs to escape the public eye, he can always hire Gummings as a body double.
Looking like Jalen Hurts isn't a bad gig. When one person asked Gummings on TikTok if the comparisons bother him, he shot the suggestion down.
"Why would I find it offensive or irritating when someone tells me I look like a multimillion-dollar quarterback, the face of a franchise?" Gummings responded.
