Jalen Hurts joins college football QB royalty with Super Bowl LIX victory

The Alabama and Oklahoma product became one of just three QBs to win a national championship and Super Bowl.

Feb 9, 2025; New Orleans, LA, USA; Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (1) speaks to the media after defeating the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX at Caesars Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The Philadelphia Eagles absolutely dominated the Kansas City Chiefs, 40-22, in Super Bowl LIX. The game wasn't nearly as close as the score line suggests and even then, most of Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts' yards and points came in the second half.

Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts played his best two games of the season in the NFC Championship Game and on Super Sunday

Hurts was decisive throwing vertical, able to be a positive on scrambles, and ended the day 17/22 for 221 yards and 2 TDs + 72 yards and a TD on the ground pic.twitter.com/RiFJINBVad
— Shawn Syed (@SyedSchemes) February 10, 2025

Hurts' big night came with several historic implications. He entered Sunday as the first quarterback since Buffalo's Jim Kelly in 1990 to make it back to the Super Bowl after having lost in his first attempt. Now having won it, he became the first since Miami's Bob Griese in 1973 to do so in his second attempt.

But that wasn't all. Hurts is now just the third member of an extremely exclusive group of QBs. So exclusive, in fact, the last member joined in 1982.

Jalen Hurts joins college football QB royalty with Super Bowl LIX win

Joe Namath, Joe Montana, Jalen Hurts. Those are the only three QBs in history that have won both a college football national championship and a Super Bowl as a starter.

Namath won the 1964 national title with Alabama and then Super Bowl III in 1969 with the New York Jets. Montana won the 1978 national championship with Notre Dame and then four Super Bowl wins with the San Francisco 49ers (XVI, XIX, XXIII and XXIV).

Hurts, despite being benched in the second half, won the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship with Alabama. His redemption story was finally completed on Sunday by winning Super Bowl LIX.

Funny enough, former Oakland Raiders QB Ken Stabler was a freshman on the same Alabama team that Namath led to a national title in 1964. He went on to win Super Bowl IX with Oakland but unfortunately missed out on this illustrious list due to a technicality. NCAA regulations prevented freshmen from participating on varsity teams at the time.

In fact, two other big-name Super Bowl champions also missed out on this list. Tom Brady (seven-time Super Bowl champion) was a backup on the 1997-98 national champion Michigan Wolverines and Troy Aikman (three-time Super Bowl champion) was injured and did not play for the Oklahoma Sooners during their 1985 title run.

So what Hurts accomplished on Sunday is rather significant and shouldn't be lost in the narrative of Philadelphia ending yet another dominant dynasty in the AFC.

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