Jalen Hurts got to hoist the Lombardi Trophy. He was named Super Bowl MVP. He stood on the field at the Superdome as green and white confetti rained on him.
But losing the last Super Bowl still drives him.
“This whole year has been more magnifying to me in terms of my desire to win because I kind of learned how I processed everything after the game and where my heart was,” Hurts said during Thursday’s locker cleanout day at the NovaCare Complex.
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“It’s like the joy of winning it still had no comparison to the pain of losing it. Those things are still going to continue to motivate me and drive me internally.”
Even during the Eagles’ 40-22 beatdown of the Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX, Hurts wasn’t going to relax until the clock read all zeroes. In a moment captured by mic’d up cameras, tight end Grant Calcaterra tried to get Hurts to smile.
“I can’t lie to you, bro,” Hurts said during the game. “That last one changed my soul.”
The Eagles had a 10-point lead over the Chiefs at halftime of Super Bowl LVII two years ago before coughing up that lead and losing the game. As we discovered later, Hurts changed his cellphone wallpaper to an image of him walking through red and white confetti.
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On Thursday, Hurts was asked about his comment that the last Super Bowl “changed his soul.”
“All I was saying was my mentality transforming,” Hurts said. “It was just a transformation for me. You have experiences that transform who you are and it’s all been based off the same foundation of who I am. But for so long, I put tons of effort into improving, trying to be the best I can be. But going through everything that I’ve gone through, you learn the value of winning.
“Winning is beating the opponent and improving is beating yourself. And I think both are required to be great and be remembered in history. … The desire to win just burned like it never burned before.”
Hurts, 26, said the mission had been accomplished after winning the Super Bowl but he’s clearly not going to let this feeling linger.
On Thursday, as the team prepared for the next day’s parade down Broad Street, Hurts was already thinking ahead. In fact, when asked what he has enjoyed most about being Super Bowl MVP, Hurts didn’t mention his trip to Walt Disney World or his appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
What was his favorite part of being MVP?
“It’s the work. That’s all I think about,” Hurts said. “I think about what it took and what it takes and I know I’m behind in what’s to come in the future. You play this long into the year, you have other people, other teams, other quarterbacks kind of have a head start of the next year. Just want to plan out my routine and plan out my offseason so I can put the appropriate work in with my teammates.”
Hurts had a tremendous game in Super Bowl LIX. He completed 77% of his passes for 221 yards with 2 touchdowns and an interception. He also rushed for a quarterback Super Bowl record of 72 yards.
This Eagles team started the season with a 2-2 record before winning 16 of 17 to close out the season.
What was Hurts most proud of this season?
“Just proud of the team and what we were able to accomplish, proud of the effort and I’m proud that in terms of how it all began, you think about that and you see where you end,” Hurts said. “You saw a group that was committed in the end, committed to the mission of winning. I think that seeped through the whole entire team and I think more importantly, I think all of that is an opportunity for us to be better in the future.
“I think that’s something that we can build on and seeing that confetti falling and hoisting that trophy as a team, we now know this is what it’s about. I think that places more of a challenge on all of us as a group to keep the main thing the main thing because we know what the main thing is. We’ve experienced that feeling before. So now it’s about doing what you can to continue to build and start that next pursuit.”
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