Jalen Hurts’ Super Bowl LIX victory a study in resilience, perseverance

NEW ORLEANS – In the weeks leading up to Sunday’s Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles, my challenge was determining which would be the most compelling story line: Kansas City making history by winning three consecutive Super Bowl championships or watching Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts finally break through.

I settled on Hurts, a young player who has clawed his way back from a major setback in college to an often lukewarm and frequently critical response from Philadelphia fans. In quarterback conversations, Hurts routinely takes a backseat to nearly every elite signal caller in the NFL.

Yet all he does is win, like Sunday’s 40-22 blowout of the Chiefs. His 46-yard touchdown pass to DeVonta Smith in the third quarter gave Philadelphi a 34-0 lead. The touchdown all but nixed a Kansas City three-peat and assured Hurts of a championship that was solidly all his.

Hurts, the Super Bowl LIX MVP, ran for 72 yards and a touchdown and completed 17-of-22 passes for 221 yards and two touchdowns. He became the fifth quarterback in NFL history with multiple touchdowns passing and a rushing touchdown in a Super Bowl, joining Ken Anderson, Brett Favre, Joe Montana and Patrick Mahomes.

But as Hurts tells anyone who cares to listen, he’s not a numbers guy. He’s a wins guy.

“I don’t play the game for stats,” he said after leading Philadelphia to the NFC championship. “I don’t play the game for numbers, any statistical approval from anyone else. Winning and success is defined by that particular individual; it’s all relative to that person and what I define it as winning. And so, my No. 1 goal is to always come out and win. The standard is to win.”

Hurts was masterful on Sunday in leading Philadelphia to its second Super Bowl championship.

New Orleans was the perfect stage for Hurts to win his first NFL championship.

Devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, New Orleans put itself back together and came back stronger than ever. Like the city, Hurts is a study in resilience and perseverance. That’s true of every player who has reached this stage, but Hurts has experienced more public ups and downs than most elite players.

As a freshman at the University of Alabama, Hurts led the Crimson Tide to a 12-0 record during the 2016 regular season. Alabama reached the national championship game and lost to Clemson and quarterback Deshaun Watson. Alabama won the national championship a year later, but Hurts wasn’t leading the team. At halftime of the national title game with Georgia leading 13-0, Alabama head coach Nick Saban benched Hurts in favor of freshman Tua Tagovailoa, who led Alabama to a 26-23 come-from-behind victory in overtime.

After Sunday’s win, Hurts said each of those events continue to be the source of his motivation.

“I’m the same kid who came into the national championship game and lost, the same kid who got benched, had to transfer I had to go through this unprecedented journey and that kid always kept the main thing the main thing, and always was true to his vision and what he saw,” Hurts said.

This Super Bowl championship belonged to Hurts.

“He was the runner-up to Deshaun Watson in the championship when he played amazing,” said quarterback guru Quincy Avery. “He’s the same guy whose team won that national championship, but he didn’t get to be the quarterback of that game. I think this dramatically changes what people think about Jalen Hurts as a quarterback. But it won’t soften his edge.”

Typically, the best insights about Hurts come either from teammates or people like Avery who have worked with the quarterback. Avery, who works with a number of top-flight quarterbacks, met Hurts when he was 16. He didn’t begin working with Hurts until after he transferred from Alabama to Oklahoma. They talked about the halftime benching at Alabama but in the context of what Hurts needed to do better.

“He talked about how coach [Saban] didn’t really talk to him after that about it or any of those things, but he said he didn’t need it,” Avery said. “He didn’t need that conversation, because he knew he needed to be doing something better for him to be on the field, so his only job was to attack that.

“I think that there’s so many people in that situation, if they struggle and they get benched, they want to look at every single person other than themselves. He turned inward and the only thing he thought about was, ‘How can I improve so this doesn’t happen to me again?’ ”

Hurts has not come close to being benched in Philadelphia, though for an elite level quarterback, he’s been criticized in the City of Brotherly Love. After Sunday’s championship performance, Hurts has all but silenced his critics.

What’s impressive to everyone who knows Hurts is that he seems oblivious to criticism.

“He’s one of those guys that he don’t let adversity get to him,” said Eagles offensive lineman Mekhi Becton. “He’s one of those guys that water flows down his back no matter what’s going on. That’s very inspirational, makes you want to go even harder because you know he’s not frantic or messed up about the situation.”

Hurts led the Eagles to Super Bowl LVII against Kansas City in 2023 and the Eagles lost. Last season, Philadelphia started strong then faded at the end of the year and the critics re-emerged. There was midseason drama this year when reports surfaced about tension between Hurts and receiver A.J. Brown.

Hurts didn’t react but kept turning in dominant performances as the Eagles rolled toward the playoffs. His teammates rallied around him. “I would say this whole year, just the way that people been talking about him, like everything, everybody said he can’t do this, he can’t do that. But [he’s] still been doing it,” Becton said. “When you see him go out and dominate every game, we just want to go do it too.”

Hurts doesn’t have the flash of Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson or Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, this year’s NFL MVP. But Avery said Hurts has one of the most unique traits he has seen in an elite level quarterback.

“He’s the best player in the NFL at doing the things that require no talent,” Avery said. “That comes from working hard, the preparation, to rallying the guys around. Everything that you can do that doesn’t take talent, he mastered that. He’s a great talent as well. That, to me, is what makes him special.”

Hurts was at his masterful best on Sunday. Running when necessary, passing with pinpoint efficiency and doing perhaps what he does best: lead.

“He is a thermostat,” Avery said. “He changes the temperature in the room. He makes everybody rise to his level of excellence. I think that sometimes that may rub people the wrong way, but the people that are rubbed the wrong way don’t want to be great like he wants to be great.”

Hurts was great on Sunday. He climbed to the top of a steep mountain and may finally receive the unfettered acclaim that has been just beyond his grasp.

For him, that won’t be enough.