Super Bowl Sunday Open Thread

What a year it has been for Jalen Hurts.

This past offseason was one of uncertainty. While Jalen had shown flashes of greatness during the 2021 season he, like a lot of young QBs, hadn’t quite found consistency, leading to a questionable full year stat line. In the offseason there were reports of Hurts being dangled to Houston as part of a trade for Deshaun Watson, and to be frank the Houston-area native would have probably been fine with it.

He’s undoubtedly much happier with the way things went down this season.

The Eagles made the decision to commit to their young signal caller and instead spend some money on building a team around him. First up was the trade for WR AJ Brown, a big, elite target to pair with DeVonta Smith. Add in TE Dallas Goedert and Hurts has a set of weapons to rival any in the league. The Eagles also boast perhaps the best OL in the NFL, led by slam dunk Hall of Fame center Jason Kelce and bolstered by 2021 2nd round pick Landon Dickerson, who was just named to his first Pro Bowl.

Philadelphia invested a ton of resources over the past couple of seasons, and the result is a 14-3 team that is slightly favored to win the Super Bowl in a matchup of two MVP finalist QBs. It’s not hard to imagine which one Alabama fans will be rooting for.

Jalen has not only proven to be a shining example of humility, determination, high character and leadership, but he along with a mutual dislike of Texas has helped make strange bedfellows of Alabama and Oklahoma fans. Fans of schools that don’t have an MVP finalist as the face of a Super Bowl franchise this weekend have chosen to deride Alabama’s connection to Hurts because he was beaten out by Tua Tagovailoa and transferred for his senior season.

It’s sad, really.

In any case, the game kicks off at 5:30 CT today from Glendale, Arizona and will be carried by your local FOX affiliate. Of course, the hype will be going on all day.

Join in on the discussion. Hosting a party? Got a new “big game” food or drink recipe you’re trying out? Feel free to share, and enjoy the festivities.

We’ll leave you with a great Jalen-Smitty clip.

Roll Tide.