Don’t buy Eagles’ Hurts as an ‘underdog’
I keep reading headlinesandmusings about “underdog” Jalen Hurts, and I think America needs a vocabulary lesson. Hurts, an underdog story?
That’s curious, because all I see is a lifelong winner doing what he does best for the Philadelphia Eagles. He leads, he competes and he prevails, and he does it with the cool but confident demeanor that would be the prototype in a Quarterback Lab. He runs, he throws, he grins, he galvanizes teammates.
If we ever doubted Hurts, then that’s on us, because all he’s ever done is prove he’s an achiever.
The 24-year-old’s latest act is steering the Eagles into the Super Bowl against the Chiefs. He’s done it with a literal onetime homecoming queen candidate from Alabama on his arm.
Underdog story? I don’t see it. More like, Hurts is the All-American Kid and a trophy magnet. He’s an MVP finalist in his third NFL season.
Underdogs aren’t supposed to win. Winning is what Hurts knows.
Kurt Warner was an underdog who went from starting one season at an FCS school to stocking shelves at a grocery store to Arena Football to winning a Super Bowl with the Rams.
That’s not Hurts’ story.
Hurts excelled at not one, but two, of the greatest and most storied college football programs. He became the first true freshman quarterback to start for Alabama in 32 years. He won a national championship with Alabama. He finished second for the Heisman Trophy at
Oklahoma to the incomparable Joe Burrow. When a reporter recently noted Hurts represents Oklahoma well, he corrected the scribe by saying he “went to Alabama, too.”
Classic response from the All-America Kid. He welcomes everyone’s support, and he’s earned it. They’ll root for Hurts next weekend from his native Houston to Norman to Tuscaloosa to Cincinnati to the California coast to Sin City, because you just know Bengals and Raiders fans aren’t supporting the Chiefs.
Oh, I understand why the underdog narratives are affixed to Hurts.
No one relishes the underdog moniker more than Philadelphia. Not just the Eagles. The whole city. So much so that they probably dislike being a 1.5-point favorite in the betting spread. Philadelphians proudly wear the East Coast’s blue collar. And then here’s Hurts, whom Nick Saban benched (smartly, I’ll add) against Georgia during the 2018 national championship. That benching became an overarching narrative of Hurts’ college career. The following season, he became Tua Tugavailoa’s backup.
Cue the down and out, underdog narrative, even if it’s untrue.
Hurts wasn’t down and out. He had a bad half against a quality defense on the big stage and got benched. Then he was one great quarterback at a great program backing up another great quarterback.
Then Hurts transferred and enjoyed a career-best season at Oklahoma, reiterating his bona fides as a winner but also showing few were better as a dual-threat dynamo. Still, he encountered the usual tropes ahead of the NFL Draft. At the Senior Bowl and again at the NFL scouting combine, the question was raised whether he’d change positions.
Hurts wouldn’t have it.
“I’ve always been a team-first guy, but I’m a quarterback,” Hurts said before the 2020 Senior Bowl.
The Eagles believed that true and selected Hurts in the second round despite possessing Carson Wentz on their roster.
An underdog, drafted No. 53 overall? That’s four rounds ahead of Tom Brady.
So, no, I don’t buy the underdog narrative attached to Hurts. Don’t take that as me diminishing his achievements or persistence. I just don’t see this story being centered on a plucky but unheralded quarterback ascending from obscurity to the Super Bowl.
This is a story about persistence, resoluteness and winning.
Hurts persisted after his NFL rookie season featured some bumps in the road. It was the type of rookie season that either can be a harbinger of a secondround draft pick fizzling or become the footnote to a fine career. Tough to predict, sometimes.
By Year 2, Hurts showed he possessed NFL mojo. By Year 3, he hit full stride.
Much like in college, Hurts keeps getting better in the pros.
And if Hurts’ Eagles topple the Chiefs in the Super Bowl, it will mark be the latest triumph in the success story of the All-American Kid.