Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts stands atop the highest mountaintop after a long journey

Jalen Hurts has been fighting to get here for close to 10 years: on the midfield stage of a championship game, holding a trophy while confetti falls around him with the cheers of adoring fans ringing out around a massive stadium.

After three tries, it’s finally Hurts’ turn to be The Guy. After rebuilding his career over and over, there is finally no doubt. Hurts is a Super Bowl MVP, a champion and a star.

Jalen Hurts deserves it.

The Philadelphia Eagles quarterback first had dreams of standing on a stage like he did on Sunday night in January 2017 when he led his Alabama Crimson Tide to the College Football Playoff national championship game. The Tide lost a thriller to Clemson, 35-31.

A year later, Hurts brought ‘Bama back to that same game. He got benched at halftime for Tua Tagovailoa due to poor performance, and it was Tagovailoa basking in the spotlights as the Crimson Tide beat Georgia in overtime thanks to his heroics. Hurts got demoted the next season to become Tagovailoa’s backup and eventually he transferred to Oklahoma and rebuilt himself into an NFL prospect.

The next time when Hurts got close enough to taste this feeling was in his third season in the league. He led the Eagles to the Super Bowl to face off against the Kansas City Chiefs. He played well but lost on the biggest stage again, 38-35.

But now, with the green confetti falling from the roof of the Caesars Superdome and the Vince Lombardi Trophy firmly in his grasp, Hurts has finally done it. He’s reached the top of that mountain.

“That kid in me always kept working at this, and I stayed true to his vision, but it really all began with great leadership and those who set examples for me,” Hurts said after the game.

He added, “It’s been a long journey, it’s a journey of ups and downs and highs and lows. I’ve always stayed true to myself and have this vision of being the best that I can be, and that evolved, over time, into this desire to win. You don’t do great things without having good guys around you. The effort, sticking to the script, and always trusting the process is what got us here.”

What’s clear about Hurts is that the most important thing he brings to the Eagles is consistency and his even-keeled attitude. For a young man – he’s only 26, a testament to just how much he’s matured in all those ups and downs – Hurts is remarkably composed. He’s not quite soft-spoken, but he’s also not exactly ebullient. He’s not a showman, but he commands the attention of any room he enters.

On Sunday, he didn’t put up stratospheric numbers that jump off the box score. But he did have the kind of game where it was clear to anyone watching that he would end up as the Super Bowl MVP.

“He played incredible. He did amazing. I know I’m throwing adjectives at you, but he played really well,” said wide receiver AJ Brown. “He was poised the whole game, he was in control, he made checks and he threw dimes. He just gave us opportunities, and when we were covered a little bit, he took off running – he used his legs.”

Hurts’ deep pass to DaVonta Smith is the standout play from the game, a 46-yard bomb that came late in the third quarter and gave the Eagles a 34-point lead. Coming on first down after the Eagles’ defense had just stifled the Chiefs on fourth down, it looked like the Eagles would turn to the ground game and let Saquon Barkley run the victory out.

Instead, Hurts faked the handoff and hit a streaking Smith with an absolute laser that traveled about 54 yards in the air. The score basically ended any chance that Kansas City might have had to get back in the game.

It’s the kind of backbreaking play that the best quarterbacks make at the biggest times. There’s no question that Hurts – even though the notoriously hard-to-please Philly fans booed him at one point this year – is among that crowd.

“I know everyone’s excited, everyone has been on a long journey to get here,” he said. “It’s been a fun ride and I’ve been grateful every step. I took great pride in never backing down from a challenge, always turning my negatives into positives, my weaknesses into strengths.”

The saying goes that real recognizes real. That’s certainly true in the case of Hurts and Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

Mahomes, who was stifled by the Eagles defense for much of Sunday’s game, said afterward that Hurts is just a winner. After the duo faced off against each other two years ago in the big game, the three-time Super Bowl champion said he had no doubt that Hurts would one day return to this stage.

“What he’s come into the NFL and done his entire career is that if he needs to run the ball, he will run it; if he needs to throw the ball, he will throw it; and if he needs to make a big play, he will make the big play,” Mahomes said after the game. “And so, that’s stuff that not everybody has, and that’s something that I have a lot of respect for Jalen and I said it after the first Super Bowl we played against them, I said he will be back, and he was, and he got the better of me today. I’m sure we’ll face (off) again at some point in our careers in a big game like this.”

In this budding rivalry between two of the game’s best young quarterbacks, the respect goes both ways.

“Things come right on time and you know, the last Super Bowl wasn’t our time yet,” Hurts said. “Sometimes, we have to accept that you have to wait your turn. As great as this experience just was, we still need to process that. So yeah, I have a ton of respect for Pat and the process that it takes to get here.”

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