Jalen Hurts’ improbable path to Super Bowl MVP removes any doubt that the Eagles ‘have the quarterback’

NEW ORLEANS — Jalen Hurts emerged from the Eagles locker room with his song of choice blaring loudly enough to reach him and his trophy in an adjacent hallway.

Cigar in mouth, Lombardi in hand, the Eagles quarterback leaned onto the wall, slid down to the floor, and let the moment wash over him. He shook his head in disbelief in between the lines of “Happy Feelin’s” by Frankie Beverly and Maze, singing along to the song by his favorite artist as it reverberated into the walls of the Caesars Superdome after the Eagles’ 40-22 win over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX.

I’ve seen the light, I watched it shine down on me ...

Two years after arguably the best performance of his career came in a Super Bowl loss to the Chiefs, Hurts had answered the call for the Eagles in a blowout win that vaults him into rarefied air. The kid who led a plucky high school team in Channelview, Texas, the kid who got benched in the national championship game as a sophomore at Alabama, and the man leading the Eagles back to the biggest stage two years after watching the red-and-yellow confetti fall on him and his teammates. A champion at last.

I’m gonna spread my wings, yeah, I’m gonna tell all I see ...

Hurts, if nothing else, is intentional. From the cigar the 26-year-old plucked out of a leather pouch to the Jordan Brand goggles with the word “CHAMP” inscribed on the lenses, to the song choice that accompanied the lasting image of Hurts’ transformative night, it was clear this plan was years in the making.

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So little of his football career has gone according to those plans. A public benching at Alabama led to him transferring to Oklahoma and getting drafted to a team that, at the time, thought it had an entrenched franchise quarterback in Carson Wentz. Even after an MVP-caliber 2022 season ended in a Super Bowl loss, questions lingered about Hurts’ ability to truly join the ranks of the elite quarterbacks.

Reflecting on the plan and the deviations from it in his postgame news conference, Hurts seemingly fought back tears processing the improbable path he took to leading the Eagles to their second Super Bowl victory in franchise history.

“It’s not normal,” Hurts said. “It’s been a very unprecedented journey, and the journey is — it’s always the beginning until it’s the end. I think — it means a lot. Quantifying all that work over the years, embracing everything, taking every challenge head-on, and taking every joy and moment of achievement and success head-on as well. I’m processing them all as one.”

Unbeknownst to him, his father had a similar sentiment an hour before, waiting for the final whistle before celebrating with his son as green, white, and black confetti descended upon the field and the Eagles fight song filled the surrounding tunnels. It should come as no surprise, the similarities between the two stretch beyond the resemblance they share into the way they think and the way they present those thoughts as well.

The two were playing pool in the basement of Hurts’ home after the NFC championship game, Averion Hurts Sr. told The Inquirer, when he reminded his son how uncommon his latest accomplishment was.

“My response was, ‘Two Super Bowls in three years is not normal,’” Averion Sr. said. “This ain’t some normal [stuff.] We just laughed and kept it moving, but for me, I’m just so happy for him. I understand what it means to him, I understand how hard he works. I understand how he is as a person, and it ain’t always easy to deal with, but I understand what this means to him.”

“You know, F.A.F.O?” Averion Sr. said, alluding to the sentiment mess around and find out. “We found out tonight.”

Hurts’ performance will certainly silence most doubters. He finished 17 for 22 for 221 yards with two touchdowns and an interception, adding another 72 rushing yards along with one rushing touchdown on a quarterback sneak. His rushing total set the mark for a quarterback in Super Bowl history, breaking his own record from two years ago by 2 yards.

» READ MORE: Eagles force three Patrick Mahomes turnovers in Super Bowl win: ‘I didn’t play to my standard’

Hurts also became the fourth Black quarterback to win a Super Bowl, joining Doug Williams, Russell Wilson, and Patrick Mahomes. There’s a case to be made he is the first true dual-threat quarterback to win a championship as well, although his brightest moments came operating out of the pocket Sunday with timely throws to A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith to pad the Eagles’ lead.

“Jalen’s special and the criticism just blows my mind because I think he’s so special,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “And he’s won so many games and works his butt off. He just continues to get better and can block out everything, focus on the task at hand of getting better and put himself in the position to win each week. He does a great job of that and he had an unbelievable game today when we needed him to.”

Standing outside the pulsing locker room party, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie added, “Going into this game, it was the least of my worries. I knew he would play great, just as he did two years ago. You worry about almost everything, that’s one thing I didn’t even think about. I just said, ‘We’ve got the quarterback.' He’s 26, incredibly clutch, he knows what correlates with winning.”

» READ MORE: Nick Sirianni is at the doorstep of an Eagles dynasty with Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts and a dominant young defense

Midway through Lurie’s answer, the music cut and restarted with Hurts’ preferred song. The quarterback had his moment, and gave the Eagles reason to believe he could deliver more just like it in the future.

Happy feelin’s in the air ...