The first time that quarterback Jalen Hurts won the Alabama Sports Writers Association’s Pro Athlete of the Year Award, it was for getting the Philadelphia Eagles to the Super Bowl. Hurts became the latest winner of the award for getting the Eagles back to the Super Bowl – and winning this time.
The former Crimson Tide signal-caller is the state’s Pro Athlete of the Year for 2024-25, the ASWA announced on Thursday morning. Hurts will be honored at the annual ASWA banquet on Sunday in Jacksonville, Alabama.
Hurts had a one-of-a-kind game in Super Bowl LVII. He became the first NFL player to have at least 300 passing yards, 70 rushing yards and three touchdown runs in the same game and also threw a TD pass. But Philadelphia lost to the Kansas City Chiefs 38-35 on Feb. 12, 2023.
Two years later, the Eagles and Chiefs made it back to the NFL championship game, and Philadelphia posted a 40-22 victory in Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9. Hurts won the Pete Rozelle Trophy as the game’s Most Valuable Player as he completed 17-of-22 passes for 221 yards with two touchdowns and one interception and ran for 72 yards and one touchdown on 11 carries.
Hurts became the third starting quarterback to win in his second Super Bowl appearance after losing in his first. It hadn’t happened since Bob Griese led the Miami Dolphins to victory in Super Bowl VII 52 years ago.
“It’s been a very unprecedented journey,” Hurts said after Super Bowl LIX, “and a journey, it’s always the beginning until it’s the end. It means a lot, quantifying all that work over the years, embracing everything, taking every challenge head-on and taking every joy and moment of achievement and success head-on as well and processing them all as one. …
“I’m that same kid that went to the national championship and lost and went back and got benched and had to transfer – had to go through this just unprecedented journey. That kid always kept the main thing the main thing and was always true to his vision to what he saw.”
As a freshman at Alabama, Hurts led the Crimson Tide to the CFP national-championship game for the 2016 season, but Alabama lost to Clemson 35-31. Hurts led Alabama back to the CFP national-championship game the next season, but he was benched at halftime as Tua Tagovailoa came on to rally the Tide to a 26-23 overtime victory against Georgia. Alabama went back to the CFP national-championship game for the third season in a row in 2018, but Tagovailoa was the quarterback and the Tide lost to Clemson 44-16 before Hurts transferred to Oklahoma for his final college season.
After finishing as the runner-up for the 2019 Heisman Trophy, Hurts entered the NFL as a second-round draft pick of the Eagles in 2020. He began his NFL career backing up Carson Wentz but became the starter with four games remaining in his rookie campaign. That was the most recent season in which Philadelphia did not make the playoffs.
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Hurts is among the 10 former Crimson Tide football players who have won the ASWA Alabama Pro Athlete of the Year Award. The others are Ken Stabler for 1975, Ozzie Newsome for 1984, John Hannah for 1985, Cornelius Bennett for 1988, Shaun Alexander for 2001, 2003 and 2005, DeMeco Ryans for 2006, Julio Jones for 2016, Derrick Henry for 2019 and 2020 and Trevon Diggs for 2021.
Baltimore Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson won the honor between Hurts’ two awards.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at@AMarkG1.