By Super Bowl week is an assault on the senses, particularly if you’re the starting quarterback for one of the teams who’ve made it this far.
Hundreds of microphones, cellphones and audio recorders are pointed at you. Television lights shine right in your eyes. Innumerable questions get asked for days, probing at your psyche, your routine, your philosophy of being. It’s enough to make your head spin.
Unless you’re Jalen Hurts.
The fifth-year quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles has been tested more and under brighter lights than most of his contemporaries. Consider all that’s happened since January 2018: he’s been benched in college football’s national championship game, turned into a backup, transferred, rebuilt his collegiate career, got drafted, won the Eagles’ starting job, led his team to a Super Bowl, lost that Super Bowl, threw the most interceptions in the league as his team collapsed in 2023, had fans calling for him to be benched, got hurt, led his team to a massive comeback in 2024, got hurt again and then returned to lead Philly right back to the sport’s biggest game.
That’s enough twists and turns to make anyone want to get off the football roller coaster. But Hurts isn’t just anyone.
“It’s just the determination, the will – the will to work, the will to win – and it’s just something that’s been a constant throughout my journey, you know, and I think that’s something that my parents instilled into me when I put my eyes on something, not stopping until I get it,” Hurts said this week. “And so it takes great perseverance, it takes the mentality, and it takes a person that has high values and high character, but all of it has to come together.
“And so, I’ve been able to learn from all of my experiences, from high school, being a coach’s kid, watching that whole experience from a child’s point of view, and then growing into a teen, and going into a young man, going to Alabama, and being at the University of Alabama, and just the whole transition to where I am now.
“I’ve learned so much. I’ve experienced so much, and always trying to take away as much as I can so I can grow. You know, it’s all about growing.”
All those bumps in the road have led Hurts to New Orleans with the chance to win the franchise’s second Super Bowl, taking on the Kansas City Chiefs – the same team that defeated him two years ago. It’s a chance some players never get – take Miami Dolphins legend Dan Marino, for example, who lost in the Super Bowl in his second year and never returned to the big game.
But Hurts’ quiet-but-obvious confidence seeps throughout his team. Eagles tight end Dallas Goedert experienced it first-hand in a phone call after that loss to the Chiefs in early 2023.
“I always thought that I’d have an opportunity to come back here,” he told reporters on Monday. “You know, playing with Jalen Hurts, a quarterback of his caliber. I remember a call with him, and he said, ‘We’ll be back. Don’t worry.’ And, you know, I had no doubt in it.”
The pressure that’s been placed on Hurts – the pressure he’s embraced – during his time in big-time football is intense.
As a freshman at Alabama, he became the starter early in the season under legendary head coach Nick Saban and led the Crimson Tide to the College Football Playoff national championship game. Alabama lost a thriller to Clemson but Hurts brought them right back to the same big game a year later against conference rival Georgia.
But after going 3-for-8 for 21 yards and not being able to score a single point on the Bulldogs, Saban benched Hurts for Tua Tagovailoa. The future Eagles star went to the bench and Tagovailoa brought the Tide all the way back, winning the national title in overtime.
Despite leading the program to two straight national title games, Hurts had been benched on the biggest stage of his career to that point. A year later, he was Tagovailoa’s backup. A year after that, he transferred away from Alabama to finish out his career at Oklahoma. Suffice it to say, he did that with flying colors.
In Norman, Hurts built himself into a top quarterback, passing for more than 3,800 yards and 32 touchdowns and running for almost 1,300 yards with another 20 TDs. He finished second to Louisiana State quarterback Joe Burrow in the Heisman Trophy voting and earned yet another berth in the College Football Playoff. Burrow and the Tigers rolled Hurts’ Sooners, but – not for the last time – Hurts had proved the doubters wrong.
When asked Wednesday if he secretly likes being doubted because it gives him extra motivation, Hurts gave a sly smile and said, “There’s no secret.”
“It’s not about them. It’s always about the work you put in, and everything has been a reflection of the work,” he said earlier in the week. “So, I’ve always had a focus on myself and trying to improve.”
After all that he’s been through, it may still be possible to rattle Hurts, but the Eagles haven’t seen it just yet.
“He’s the same guy every day,” head coach Nick Sirianni said.
“I think he’s calm in critical situations. I always wondered if you put on a heart monitor on our guys and the situation got bigger and the moment got bigger, what their heart rate would be doing. And I would imagine that Jalen is very steady, very calm, the same way it was in the first quarter as it is in the fourth quarter or in a two-minute drill, or overtime. I think that’s something that I always admired of Jalen.”
Lane Johnson, the Eagles’ All-Pro offensive tackle, said that poise comes through the adversity that Hurts has faced since those years at Alabama.
“I think just him battling adversity, whatever he had to in college. He’s came here to the Eagles, had to battle adversity every year,” Johnson said.
“I mean, everybody matures differently when they leave college. He’s the franchise quarterback in his second year, really. And, yeah, I feel like he’s always maintained a lot of poise. He’s always had that. And I felt like that helps, especially the offensive side of the ball, keeping our cool no matter the situation.”
During his media appearances before the latest biggest game of his life, Hurts’ demeanor was no different than it might have been during media availabilities in training camp or the offseason. Even with the help of microphones, he could sometimes barely be heard above the din of reporters and players talking in other areas of the room. It was not that he was talking quietly because he was nervous or intimidated by the stage – it was that when Jalen Hurts talks, people listen.
“It’s the same thing in the huddle,” Johnson said. “Our biggest thing is – different stadiums can be louder than others – a lot of it is communication, especially for the huddle and the line of scrimmage making our calls. I’ve said it before, but I think his calmness and just his demeanor, I think it’s a help to everybody.”
That confidence and poise have again brought Hurts to the precipice of a championship. Over his winding road to NFL stardom, Hurts has emphasized putting in the work, trusting his process and – above all – believing in himself.
“I think in anything that I do, and I was thinking about this, in anything that I do, I’m going to do it my way,” Hurt said.
“So whether that’s how I play the game, how I dress, me wearing the hoop earring or whatever it is, how I lead, how I speak – I’m going to do it the way that I see best fit for the mission of the group and, ultimately, what my priorities are and where I place them. Some things are what they are, so just take it a day at a time. I lean on my faith and I lean on my work.”
