NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Jalen Hurts thrust himself into the upper echelon of the elite quarterback conversation with a career-defining performance in the Super Bowl, but on Monday the NFL championship game’s Most Valuable Player said it was too soon to talk about legacy.
Hurts silenced critics with his performance in the Eagles’ 40-22 rout of the two-time defending champions Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday but did not want to think about how the game will define his career.
“In the beginning, it’s never been about what anyone else is doing. It’s always been about you, yourself, the team and the work and the effort that you guys put in as a collective group,” Hurts told reporters around 11 hours after kicking off a night of celebration in New Orleans.
“When it’s over, I think that’s the appropriate time to really reflect on everything.”
Hurts completed 17 of 22 passes for 221 yards and two touchdowns in the Super Bowl. He also ran in a score and set a record for most rushing yards by a quarterback in a Super Bowl with 72, breaking the mark he set in a losing effort in 2023.
While the 26-year-old was brilliant on the NFL’s biggest stage, he was most proud of his ongoing ability to stick to a team-first mentality rather than focus on individual statistics.
“Every team is different, every game is different. And these different moments sometimes require a different version of yourself and as a leader. And that’s something that I accepted and I submitted to,” said Hurts.
“Because when it’s all said and done for me, I won’t measure my success off of any numbers of statistics or passing yards or touchdowns or anything like that. I’ll measure it off of rings and championships.”
Hurts’ winding journey to Super Bowl champion has been far from ordinary as he was once benched at halftime in college football’s national championship game and later transferred to another school.
But Hurts, with the NFL championship Vince Lombardi Trophy and Super Bowl Most Valuable Player award sitting on a table to his left, credited his deep love of the game for helping him to overcome the setbacks.
“As a child growing up I didn’t dream of playing on the big stage. I just loved college football … and I just gravitated towards that but I didn’t dream of these moments,” said Hurts.
“It was more so the work and the determination just to be the best that I can be. And there’s a point where I realized I couldn’t put a limit on myself if I had the right mentality and the right approach and the right effort.
“When you hoist the trophies it’s more so about the journey and less about the result. Obviously we are going to be judged for results but that’s for everyone else to talk about. But the journey is what builds us, it makes us who we are.”
(Reporting by Ossian Shine, Rory Carroll and Amy Tennery; Writing by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
