One of Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts’ biggest fans had a message for him as he heads into Super Bowl LVII against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.

“My grandmother, she sends me a message every day – some encouragement, showing a lot of love and really keeping me rooted,” Hurts said during the Super Bowl Opening Night event on Monday, “so she just told me to go be Jalen.”

And who is Jalen Hurts?

A football coach’s kid.

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Averion Hurts has been a high school football coach throughout Jalen Hurts’ life.

“He’s the reason I am who I am on the field, off the field,” Jalen Hurts said. “Being a coach’s kid – I talk about it all the time – but I truly lean on that. I have a foundation kind of set for myself, but my parents did that for me. And I think being a coach’s kid, they created habits for me to see things a certain way, have the wisdom that I have, and I give all the credit to them. …

“To always compete, to always give my best, to always show respect to the people around me, I think those are some core things that he instilled in me. I learned a lot from just watching. I always go back to my experience and my time of being a coach’s kid. Those are times I wish I could go be that kid again and do that again. Those are special times. But I learned so much, and I saw him lead. I saw him lead. I saw my brother grow right before my eyes. I saw all these different things.

“And I feel like regardless of the platform, regardless of how times change or circumstances change, those are all things that I can lean on. I think the thing that people have to realize is as time changes, as all these different things change around you, when things get tough, you’re going to lean on that foundation you have for yourself. My foundation is my family, my faith, the people around me and those are things that I lean on regardless of the circumstances.”

Hurts is a Super Bowl quarterback even though over the course of the past five seasons he lost his starting position in college, entered the NFL as a widely criticized draft choice and began his pro career as a gadget player.

“I embraced all the opinions,” Hurts said. “I embraced all the hate, the doubt, and I didn’t let it define me, and I won’t start letting it define me now.”

Hurts said he did that with the same advice his grandmother is offering now: “Just by me being me, by being who God called me to be. I truly try to focus on the things that I can control, not the things that I can’t, so control the things you can, put the work in, never lose faith in what you believe in, and it usually works out.”

Hurts earned the SEC Offensive Player of the Year Award as a freshman in 2016 and helped Alabama reach the CFP national championship game in each of his first two seasons. But for Year No. 3 with the Crimson Tide, Alabama replaced Hurts in the starting lineup with Tua Tagovailoa.

After a season at Oklahoma in 2019, Hurts entered the NFL as a second-round draft choice of the Eagles, a pick that didn’t thrill Philadelphia fans. The critics thought Philadelphia should have spent the selection on a position of need. The Eagles already had Carson Wentz entrenched at quarterback on a long-term contract.

In the first 11 games of his NFL career, Hurts played 33 offensive snaps – sometimes with Wentz on the field, too — completed 3-of-3 passes for 33 yards, ran 12 times for 53 yards and caught one pass for 3 yards.

After replacing Wentz in the second half of Philadelphia’s 30-16 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Dec. 6, 2020, Hurts has started the 37 games in which he has played, including three postseason contests. The Eagles have won 25 of those game.

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Philadelphia and Kansas City will square off in Super Bowl LVII at 5:30 p.m. CST Sunday at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. But Hurts doesn’t feel as though he’s arrived.

“One thing I’ve always been adamant on is not putting a limit on myself, and that’s something I’ll never start doing,” Hurts said. “I’m not going to put a limit on myself or my game, and I just want to continue to go. I think people expect a person to arrive, but I believe there is no arrival. There’s only the journey.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.