Who Is Jalen Hurts? From Backup to Super Bowl King – The New NFL Force Every Rival Fears
The Super Bowl makes superstars, which is why going into the 2025 edition of the Big Game, everyone knew about Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. By the time the game was over, though, another superstar emerged, rising above the other stars on the field to become the game’s Most Valuable Player and a new household name for casual football fans: Jalen Hurts.
So, who is Jalen Hurts? How long has he been in the NFL? Let’s take a closer look at the career of the newly minted Super Bowl LIX MVP.
Where did Jalen Hurts play college football?
Jalen Hurts #1 of the Philadelphia Eagles reacts in the second quarter during the NFC Divisional Playoff game against the Los Angeles Rams at Lincoln Financial Field on January 19, 2025. Photo: Brandon Sloter/Getty Images
A native of Channelview, Texas, Hurts attended Channelview High School and was recruited by the University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban. Hurts began attending Alabama in 2016, and earned the starting quarterback job under Saban, leading the team to back-to-back National Championship appearances in 2016 and 2017.
During the 2017 championship game, Hurts was benched in favor of another current NFL star, Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagavailoa. The Alabama Crimson Tide won the title that year, and with it Tagavailoa won the starting job. After a season as the backup quarterback at Alabama, Hurts transferred to the University of Oklahoma, where he finished his college career and led his team to a College Football Playoff appearance.
After four seasons of college football, Hurts entered the NFL Draft in the spring of 2020.
Jalen Hurts #1 of the Philadelphia Eagles, the MVP of Super Bowl LIX, holds both the MVP and Vince Lombardi trophies during a press conference on February 10, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Photo: Michael DeMocker/Getty Images
Hurts was chosen by the Philadelphia Eagles in the second round of the 2020 draft, and began his career as a backup in Philly. Late in the 2020 season, he stepped up to the starting spot, and began honing his style of play, which includes powerful, often unexpected runs from the pocket.
In 2021, the Eagles made the playoffs, and Hurts — in just his second season — helped begin what’s become a new streak of excellence for the team under head coach Nick Sirianni. Hurts led the team to the playoffs, starting what’s become a four-season streak of postseason appearances. The next year, Hurts and company would top all of that, making it all the way to the Super Bowl, where they lost to the Chiefs in an instant classic. Hurts earned his first Pro Bowl designation that year, and cemented himself as a Philadelphia sports icon.
In 2023, the Eagles again made the playoffs, but lost in the first round in what could have been a sign that the team’s shot at a Super Bowl was over. But in 2024, the team rebounded, thanks in part to new additions like running back Saquon Barkley. And while Hurts sometimes struggled under center, he remained a steady presence, and came alive in the Super Bowl.
In Super Bowl LIX, the Kansas City Chiefs defense managed to largely shut down Saquon Barkley’s rushing attack, leaving Hurts free to not just do running of his own, but light up Philly’s passing game. In yesterday’s 40-22 victory over the Chiefs, Hurts rushed for 72 yards and one touchdown while throwing for 221 yards and two touchdowns, with one interception. As the first-ever Eagles quarterback to make it to more than one Super Bowl, he made his second time count, and earned MVP honors along the way.
Jalen Hurts’ nonprofit work
Jalen Hurts #1 of the Philadelphia Eagles drops back to pass against the Kansas City Chiefs during Super Bowl LIX at Caesars Superdome on February 9, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Photo: Cooper Neill/Getty Images
Like many NFL stars, Hurts has used his status to boost causes that are important to him. As part of the NFL’s “My Cause, My Cleats” initiative — which allows players to highlight a special cause or charity through specially decorated game day shoes — Hurts highlighted Billie Jean King’s Women’s Sports Foundation in 2021. He attributed to the decision not just to being raised by a strong mother, but to his behind-the-scenes team, composed primarily of women, who taught him about the foundation and its work.
Hurts is also the founder of the Jalen Hurts Foundation, a nonprofit which aims to “strengthen communities by servicing and advancing the youth” through resources and leadership programs.
News
My Parents Humiliated Me at My Father’s Retirement Dinner Then My Husband Revealed Who He Really Was
Chapter 1: The Nobody My name is Diana Parker. I was thirty-two years old when my mother stood in front of 150 people at my father’s retirement party, leaned into a microphone, and made my marriage the punchline of the…
MY MOTHER TOLD ME NOT TO BRING MY SON TO EASTER AGAIN—THEN MY 13-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER STOOD UP AND SAID WHAT NONE OF THE ADULTS WOULD
Chapter 1: Don’t Bring Him It happened at a rented folding table covered in deviled egg crumbs, pastel napkins, plastic forks, and the shiny foil wrappers from Easter chocolate. The April wind moved through the dogwood trees behind my aunt’s…
MY FAMILY USED ME AS AN ATM, Until They Sold My Anniversary Gift and Learned I Was Done Paying
Chapter 1: The Good Daughter The smell of peppermint rinse and sterile latex was the permanent weather of my life. As a dentist, I spent my days working inside the smallest rooms of other people’s fear. I knew the exact…
MY HUSBAND GAVE ME AN “ALLOWANCE,” HIS MOTHER AUDITED MY GROCERY RECEIPTS—THEN THEY DROVE TO MOCK MY “TRAILER PARK” HOUSEWARMING
Chapter 1: The $3 Receipt Friday night in the Miller house always felt like a trial. Not dinner. Not family time. A trial. The kitchen table, a scuffed pine monster Linda insisted was “perfectly good,” was covered in crumpled receipts,…
MY NEWBORN WAS TURNING BLUE—MY HUSBAND LEFT FOR HAWAII AND SAID I WAS “JUST DRAMATIC”
Chapter 1: Blue Lips “Stop being so dramatic, Elena. He’s just coughing.” My mother-in-law said it like I had interrupted her breakfast, not like my three-day-old son was turning blue in my arms. Beatrice Vance stood in the middle of…
MY BILLIONAIRE FATHER DISOWNED ME AT MY OWN WEDDING—HE HAD NO IDEA THE “TRASH” HE MOCKED WAS ABOUT TO BECOME HIS BIGGEST REGRE
Chapter 1: Disowned Have you ever wondered what it feels like to have a billionaire father? Trust me, it is not the fairy tale people imagine. My name is Fiona Ashford. I was twenty-eight years old when my father stood…
End of content
No more pages to load
