Jalen Hurts and the Eagles never have to apologize again

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Good morning, Winners. Welcome back to the Morning Win. Thanks for reading this morning.

Go Birds.

They did it, man. They really did it. The Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl champions. As a fan, I'm thrilled, man. I won't lie to y'all.

You want to know the best thing about watching your team win a championship? Never having to apologize for anything again.

HOW THEY DID IT: The Eagles punched the Chiefs in the mouth, stomach and everywhere else.

Sports debates are built around caveats. Yeah, Player X is great, but they can't do this. Team Y is solid, but it's not a contender because it doesn't have that. We're always pointing out the flaws in things that could, otherwise, be pretty good!

Generally speaking, it's such an exhausting endeavor. You always have to look at things through a glass-half-empty lens. It's almost a requirement. That requirement takes so much joy out of an exercise that should, otherwise, be a pretty fun time. That was me with the Eagles for a lot of this year.

A handful of times this year, I'd sit back and watch the team saying, "You know, maybe they don't throw the ball enough." Or "Should they really be running Saquon this much?" I'd question how real the defense so dependent on rookies to make plays was.

All of that is out the window today. The doubt. The trepidation. The apprehension. It's gone. The Eagles are champions now and they never have to apologize for it.

Say what you want about Jalen Hurts. Call him a running back who can't throw. Say he doesn't see the middle of the field. Talk about how he doesn't have the biggest arm.

Just make sure you call him champ when you do it.

Say what you want about Nick Sirianni. Goodness knows I have. I'm still unsure exactly what his head coach job entails. Does he run the offense? What does he do for the defense? No idea. But it doesn't matter.

He's a champion now.

Did the Eagles overpay for Saquon Barkley? Should they have let him break the NFL's rushing record? Will he wear down after such a fantastic season with a heavy workload? Only time will tell. But we don't have to worry about that right now. Why?

Because he's a champion today.

THE JOKES ARE FLYING: Abbott Elementary is going up today

See what I mean? Nothing else matters, man. Every team has flaws. Every player has different tendencies. Some are good, some are bad. But they all add up. And if they add up well enough to win it all? Then that's really what matters in the end.

Complain about the process as much as you want. The results are what they are. The Philadelphia Eagles have won themselves another Super Bowl. They're champions. No matter their flaws, they've proven it can work.

You can say what you want about them later. But you've got to keep those critiques down today.

Kendrick Lamar is my GOAT

MUSTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARD.

In all seriousness, Kendrick Lamar's halftime show will go down as one of the best Super Bowl halftime shows I've ever seen.

It was so many things. Petty, prideful, loud, well-designed, well-performed. All of it. It was just a masterful performance all around from hip-hop's biggest luminary.

OUR REVIEW: Bryan Kalbrosky wrote up a dazzling review for the 15-minute performance

The post-Super Bowl streaming spike is very real. Kendrick has four of the top 10 tracks on iTune's best-selling songs list right now, according to Forbes. GNX and DAMN. are also the two top streamed albums on Apple Music right now.

The man has flat-out taken over hip-hop. I'm loving it.

RUN IT BACK: Watch Kendrick's entire halftime show here.

Saying goodbye to a legend

Lost in the Super Bowl shuffle yesterday was Hubie Brown's last call on ESPN.

After 53 years in the game, Brown is retiring at 91 years old. So many of his friends and colleagues stopped by (virtually and IRL) to show him love. Mike Tirico, Damian Lillard, Brook Lopez, Bango the Buck (as you can see above) and more. Hubie even got the game ball from the officials before making his exit.

The moment could only be described as bittersweet. Hubie's career will go down as one of the best and brightest in broadcast sports. By losing that, the game is losing a lot.

But, in the end, the sports world got to celebrate and appreciate this man one final time before he moved on to greener pastures. I love that for him. I love that for us.

My only wish is that this game wasn't on the same day as the Super Bowl. He deserved a bigger spotlight than that. Regardless, I'm glad we got the moment with him that we did.

Thanks for all the memories, Hubie.

ONE FINAL CALL: Hubie Brown signs off for the last time. Watch it here. 

Quick hits: When is the parade? ... A Super Bowl conspiracy ... and more

— Here's Charles Curtis on everything we know about the Eagles' Super Bowl parade so far.

— The NFL dropped a conspiracy-proof Super Bowl logo for next year but that won't stop folks from penciling teams in. Christian D'Andrea has more.

— Serena Williams dancing to Drake's demise makes so much sense now. Charles Curtis has more on that.

— Here's the NFL draft order now that we're officially moving into next season.

— Robert Zeglinski and Christian D'Andrea have their post-Super Bowl NFL power rankings ready to go.

— Mary Clarke has more on this electric radio call of the Eagles' Super Bowl win. Chills, guys. Real chills.

That's a wrap, folks. Thanks for reading today. Appreciate you.

Go birds.

-Sykes 🦅🦅🦅

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Jalen Hurts and the Eagles never have to apologize again