There was Jalyx Hunt. Charging hard off the edge like a Japanese bullet train, dipping his hands at just the right angle, leveraging his forearm and shooing away Joe Thuney, then dragging down Patrick Mahomes for a crucial (half) sack in Super Bowl LIX.

Looking back on it, after a Training Camp practice in early August, Hunt freezes up. The memory of sacking Mahomes has already faded.

"I haven't thought about it in a long time," Hunt said after practice on August 5. "I've been so locked in on the season ... Man, I don't know."

Eagles fans know. They've thought about it every day.

That scene played out on February 9, 2025, in front of 127.7 million rabid football fans, watching in their living rooms, on televisions and streaming devices, all over the country. Everyone was seeing it for the first time. Everyone, except for Hunt. He had envisioned it, in the meeting rooms and in his dreams – then he went out and did it on the NFL's version of a Broadway stage.

Immediately, Hunt bounced off Mahomes' crumbled body and drew his right arm back as a hunter would recoil his bow, holding it steady with his left arm outstretched as if on eagles' wings while firing an imaginary arrow up into the ether.

"I always envision all of my sacks," Hunt said. "To be so prepared for the game, the way we broke down that film, to know the exact look we were going to get ... I had a vision of the moves I was going to rush so I get the rush, I get the sack – shout out (Josh) Sweat for taking half – then I hit the bow and arrow for Trent Cole."

The perfect ending to a dream sequence ... until he woke up the next morning.

"I got fined for it. Didn't see that coming," Hunt said. "I would've thought about it a little harder, but I was planning on doing it. Didn't know it was wrong."

The league office condemned Hunt's sack celebration as a "violent" gesture, accusing him of unsportsmanlike conduct and fining him $5,690. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia actor Rob Mac offered to pay the fine, with legions of incensed Eagles fans proposing to chip in, but Hunt had a better idea. The 24-year-old shared a fundraiser on social media, pledging support to a cause he learned about from his hairstylist.

"I actually found out off Instagram that I got fined," Hunt said. "Then I got an email, so I had to go through the whole process of appealing it and whatnot, and when it was going around social media that I got fined a lot of people reached out to me saying, 'Hey, we'll pay the fine.'"

They did. It went viral. And Hunt's heroics helped raise $25,350.

One month later, in Southwest Philadelphia ... A 16-year-old student at Boys' Latin Charter School is waiting for the bus on the corner of 55th Street and Cedar Avenue. Elijah Horn is questioning his principal about the importance of going on a college visitation trip, fighting for his right to enjoy spring break at home instead of sitting in a cramped bus for five hours.

Horn doesn't see the point. He's not going to college anyway.

Principal Robert Parker isn't having it. Just like Jalyx Hunt had envisioned his Super Bowl sack, Principal Parker had visualized this moment. So, the two walked and talked ... like this:

Principal Parker: We were walking down the street and I asked him, What is your intent? Do you want to go to college?

Elijah Horn: Principal Parker, I don't know if college is for me. I don't think I want to go.

Principal Parker: Well, how do you know if you've never been?

Silence. Blank stares.

Principal Parker: Listen, can you agree with me that if we do an overnight college trip, will you at least come with me?

Elijah Horn: Sure thing, Mr. Parker.

The principal and student shake hands to seal the deal. There would be more haggling between the two as the three-day college trip neared – a trip bankrolled by the fundraising efforts of Hunt. You see, Barbers Who Care – a nonprofit group of barbers, founded by Kenny Duncan, was the charity he picked. They had already been raising money for Boys' Latin and their yearly out-of-state campus trips, only now they had the weight of a 6-foot-3, 252-pounder who creamed Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl behind them.

"I had heard about Barbers Who Care a couple weeks before the Super Bowl and about the opportunity for these kids to go on college trips," Hunt said. "I thought it was the perfect opportunity because when I was younger, I went on college trips with my parents."

Hunt, who attended college at Cornell and Houston Christian, navigated the hallways at Boys' Latin on March 12 before presenting them with an oversized check made out for $25,325 (more money came in later). He stuck around long after the PR photo opps and TV cameras. He wanted to see and touch as many people as he could. Hunt denied zero requests from the star-struck students. He didn't leave the school until everyone had a story to tell on summer vacation.

"I was amazed by his openness and – if I may use this word – vulnerability," Parker said. "After he presented the check and addressed the crowd, he could have left the building. His obligation was over. Jalyx stayed for, I want to say an hour and a half? He did TikTok videos with the kids. He signed an autograph for anyone who wanted one. He posed for pictures with everyone. He even said hi to parents from the kids' phones. He was just so down-to-earth and humble."

If there was one scene that encapsulated everything, it happened behind closed doors. No one saw it, except for Principal Parker. This would become his "Welcome-to-the-NFL" moment.

"We had reporters here who were supposed to do a media session with Jalyx and they were trying to pull him aside, away from the students to do interviews," Parker said. "Jalyx wasn't having it. He said, 'Nah, tell them they can wait' because he wanted to spend more time with the kids which is such a rare thing to see these days. It was beautiful."

Fast forward to a brisk morning on April 10, 2025 ... Two buses pulled into the parking lot at Boys' Latin and whisked away 80 students – 40 middle schoolers, 40 high schoolers – on a three-day overnight college trip. The wide-eyed group was scheduled to tour Winston-Salem State University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Hampton University, and North Carolina A&T, adding leisurely stops at adventure parks like Urban Air and Sky Zone, along with educational stops at historic sites like the International Civil Rights Museum.

There, in the shadow of the sit-ins, they learned what it meant to be a Black man living in the United States in 1960. There, they saw the original F.W. Woolworth's lunch counter where the Greensboro Four (David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr., Joseph McNeil) refused to give up their stools despite being denied service.

"You have to understand, for many of these kids, this was the first time they had been away from their homes – away from their tight-knit communities in Philadelphia," Parker said. "It was a life-changing experience because exposure broadens our students' horizons and allows them to reach beyond what they see at home."

After touring North Carolina A&T, in a bit of poetic irony, the group – Elijah Horn included – sat down for dinner at a fancy steakhouse.

"These trips are life-changing in so many ways," Parker said. "You can see the wheels in their heads turning and the lights going on – some of the students decide, right then and there, after that first tour, that they are now committed to going to college."

Meanwhile, Jalyx Hunt is in the gym in mid-April – "supposed to be relaxing ... this passion makes that impossible," he writes on Instagram – when a text hits his phone. Boys' Latin has put together a highlight-reel video of their college trip for him to watch. Hunt can't open it fast enough.

"That was really cool," Hunt said. "Some people like to just help monetarily – and there's nothing wrong with that – but I like to eat in the places and see the people that I'm helping and show them that I really care."

Hunt's perspective on higher education is a bit biased. His mother, Jaaqua, is a teacher at Volusia Pines Elementary School in Florida, while his father, James, was the first person to graduate from college in his family. Skipping college? Never an option.

"They took me, my cousin, my older sister, their friends on college trips, and I know it opened my eyes a lot," Hunt said. "So whenever I can find something that resonates with me, I try to latch on and help in any way I can."

Yes, we know. Ask Patrick Mahomes about Hunt's determination to latch on.

In early August, Principal Parker recalls his bus stop pow-wow with Elijah Horn. Yes, he went on the tour. Yes, he's interested in attending college now.

That's great. But there was a much more powerful moment on that trip, something that can only be summed up in a phrase: "It's a Philly Thing." The condensed story goes that Parker and the rest of the Boys' Latin teachers were relaxing in the cafeteria at Virginia Commonwealth when they heard a ruckus. Abruptly, everyone turned to see what was going on.

They were shocked to see a suddenly not-so-shy Elijah Horn "Tangin" with real college students in the cafeteria, laughing and joking while showing them how to properly pull off one of Philly's most popular street dances ... Tang, Tang, Tang. It was a full-circle moment for Parker as he watched Elijah Horn bounce his knees and whip his arms in a circle motion, keeping his feet grounded in rhythmic harmony with the music.

"Now he feels comfortable leaving Philly," Parker said. "We cannot underestimate the power that that kind of experience – that kind of exposure to the world and everything else out there – has on the lives of these young men."

Later, the crew hit the campus bookstore and stocked up on swag. Parker, in his first year as principal at the time, wanted his students to buy college-branded merch that they could bring back to Philly. He wanted to see proof of concept in their drip.

"The money that Jalyx gave us allowed the hotels and travel to be paid for," Parker said. "All the kids had to do was bring spending money. We want them to wear that college hat or that college hoodie in the hallways at Boys' Latin to encourage other students to show an interest in attending college."

There is an affable gentleman standing in his living room on February 9, 2025. The prideful smile on his face is growing, widening into an almost permanent tattoo, as he stares at Jalyx Hunt through the television screen. Trent Cole sees the bow-and-arrow in real time. His face lights up. Cole invented that sack dance many years ago when he hunted quarterbacks like big game. This is the first time it's been mimicked in a Super Bowl.

"I was just proud and just smiling," Cole said after Eagles practice on August 5. "I was like, get it, get after it, that's what it's all about. I left a legacy for someone to take the torch. It's great to see someone out there having fun and enjoying it. When you're doing that, you're having fun."

Cole left a massive legacy when he retired from the Eagles in 2017. His 85.5 sacks rank second all time in franchise history. Today, the 42-year-old former pass rusher – he still looks like he could play at least one down, physically fit enough to record a sack and flash the bow-and-arrow one more time – is smiling on the sideline as Hunt fights through a double team at a practice in August. Cole sees the potential that runs deep in Hunt. Deeper than Aquaman.

"I like his game. I like the way he rushes and stuff," Cole said. "He's young right now, so he's got a lot to learn. When I came in I was young but I had lots of vets and other defensive linemen on other teams that I was watching. I listened. I watched and I listened. That was the biggest key. Try and take their games and use it in my game because this is a copycat league."

Cole rattles off names of former Eagles teammates like N.D. Kalu, Jevon Kearse, Jerome McDougle, Hugh Douglas, and Hollis Thomas. They showed him how to use leverage – "swipe, swipe, swipe – in the NFL, it's straight technique," Cole says – to beat beefy left tackles.

"The battle was always with myself," Cole said. "I'm battling myself, and that means just getting my body right, doing what I gotta do to go out there and do my part for my teammates. You don't want to be the weakest link."

Hunt isn't the weakest link and his jersey number backs it up. He wears 58. The same 58 that Cole once donned in Philadelphia. The young edge rusher wanted 13, but it wasn't available, so he did some quick math: 5 + 8 = 13. Problem solved.

"I learned about Trent Cole as soon as I got the number," Hunt said. "And as soon as I got 58 everyone was like, new Trent Cole, he's the new Trent Cole – and I was like, who is this Trent Cole guy? And then I did my research and I said, 'That's Trent Cole.' I've definitely seen him play football, just never made the connection."

As Cole watches Hunt race towards Jalen Hurts at practice, he just shakes his head and smiles.

"I wish I had some of his height," Cole says, as he stoops down to parent his four kiddos. "If someone can get after it and represent 58, 'Hey, no problem.' But they gotta represent it. Gotta live up to it."

Peering out over practice, the Eagles legend can see the "next Trent Cole" in vivid detail. His eyes swell, dancing to the sweet sounds of youthful promise.

"I see a lot of potential. He's got a great future ahead of him, you know, what I'm saying? There's levels to this," Cole said. "And he'll learn and sometimes it'll come quick and sometimes it'll come slow but he's got momentum and he's got confidence – and that's what you need to get better. If you don't got that, it's going to be a long, hard road to misery."

On the other side of the football field, Hunt is watching the guy with the second-most sacks in Eagles' franchise history chase after his youngest son. Swipe, swipe, swipe. Hunt got the message – subliminally whispered, yet crystal clear.

"I'm my biggest critic. I give myself the most pressure," Hunt tells me. "So I don't need any more extra pressure so I don't really care too much about anything that's going on outside of this building. It's all in my head and how I approach the game, and just how much I care about my job. So the pressure is enormous but it's mostly for me."

Principal Parker belly laughs out loud – mid-sentence, lost in a flurry of nostalgic bliss – as he recalls the story about Elijah Horn dancing in the cafeteria at Virginia Commonwealth. He hasn't stopped thinking about it since it happened last April.

Much like Hunt's visit to Boys' Latin last March, it's barricaded in his brain.

Much like Hunt's sack on Mahomes in Super Bowl LIX, it's etched into eternity.

Hunt's fundraiser supported the college tour through Virginia and North Carolina while planting the seed for more trips. Principal Parker is already organizing a November excursion to visit Georgia and Alabama, with tentative stops scheduled for Morehouse College, Clark-Atlanta University, Tuskegee University, and Emory University.

He has built an itinerary that includes stops at historical sites like the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Tuskegee Airmen Museum, and National Center for Civil and Human Rights – all of this assumes that Boys' Latin can raise extra dough for a second bus.

"Currently, we only have enough money for one bus," Parker said. "We are hoping to send two buses down to Alabama. We're open for donations."

Perhaps there will be another illegal sack celebration that kick-starts another fundraiser. Maybe the "next Trent Cole" will meet the "next Elijah Horn." This is Philadelphia, after all, where it's always sunny. Memories sometimes freeze, but championship trophies never rust ... and, evidently, dreams can come true.

Jalyx Hunt is getting up, right after sacking Patrick Mahomes, in Super Bowl LIX. If either player mouthed any words – trash talk, tidings of joy, thank you, whatever – no one heard it.

"I didn't even pay attention," Hunt said. "I was in my own world."

Meanwhile, a young boy named Elijah Horn is watching the Eagles decimate the Chiefs. He has no plans to attend college on this night – the same night that Hunt swoops down for that crucial sack in the second quarter. He sees the bow-and-arrow dance. He'll be showing off his "Tanging" dance later in April, thanks to a $25,350 donation from an emerging Eagles star.

"When they said that they would pay my fine, now I'm in a position of – shout out to God – of being able to afford a little chunk of change," Hunt said. "Okay, it wasn't little – a big chunk of change – but I was able to share the link and start the fundraiser, then we got like $25,000 to take the kids on the trip."

That trip essentially started on February 9, 2025 with Hunt's sack, borrowing a bow and arrow from Trent Cole and finding it a permanent quiver at an appreciative middle school and high school in Southwest Philadelphia. Those memories won't soon fade.