A key part of Jalen Hurts' story is consistently ignored by the national media

Jalen Hurts is finally getting the flowers he has long deserved. He led the Philadelphia Eagles to a 40-22 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX, winning MVP in the process and avenging the loss to the Chiefs two years prior.

The love started pouring in on social media in the immediate aftermath of Hurts leading the Eagles to the Super Bowl victory.

Hurts has a fascinating story, something you could pull right off the pages of a Hollywood script. It's an inspiring story that will forever be talked about in motivational speeches for every level of sports. It was a long, mentally taxing road for Hurts to get to where he is. He deserves every bit of praise that has come his way.

But the national media constantly misses a huge part of his story when it gets discussed in an almost revisionist history type of way.

The narrative I continue to see is that Alabama benched Jalen Hurts and he subsequently transferred to Oklahoma immediately afterward. But that's not what happened, and for whatever reason the media seems to want to ignore the 2018 season, an integral part of Hurts' story.

Hurts was benched in 2017's National Championship Game in favor of Tua Tagovailoa. Tagovailoa led Alabama back from a 13-0 deficit and threw one of the most famous touchdown passes in college football history to Devonta Smith to win the game.

You can only imagine how Hurts felt after the game. It was a difficult interview to watch when ESPN shoved a microphone in his face in the aftermath. He was simultaneously happy to be a national champion and crushed to have lost his job in the process. He dreamed of avenging the previous year's loss in the title game and wasn't able to finish the job himself.

But that's not where Jalen Hurts' Alabama story ended. He didn't transfer in the aftermath of the benching, though there was plenty of pressure to do so. Everyone assumed Hurts would leave. He didn't.

He wanted to stay and compete and, most importantly, earn his degree from the University of Alabama.

The 2018 season was a massive year for Jalen Hurts' development as a QB

Hurts defied expectations and stuck around in Tuscaloosa for the 2018 season. He refused to allow his Alabama career to end with the benching in Atlanta. He came back to Alabama for his junior season and competed with Tagovailoa for the starting job.

Nick Saban refused to name a starting quarterback going into the season and he rotated the two in the season opener against Louisville in Orlando. It was obvious that Tagovailoa was the better player and his ability as a passer unlocked the Crimson Tide's offense in a way we'd never seen.

But Hurts' development was also obvious. Working under a dedicated QB coach in Dan Enos and competing every day with Tagovailoa, Hurts took a sizable jump as a passer. Albeit in a limited number of passing attempts, the 2018 season saw career-bests for Hurts in completion percentage, TD%, and passing efficiency rating.

Hurts saw a good bit of playing time because Tagovailoa and the 1st team offense consistently bludgeoned opponents.

Hurts' persistence ultimately paid off. He got to have one more moment in an Alabama uniform. He went 26-2 as the team's starting QB over two years and was the SEC's Offensive Player of the Year as a true freshman. He had writ his name in crimson flame already, but he forever cemented himself as a Tide legend in the 2018 SEC Championship Game.

With Alabama trailing Georgia 28-21, Tagovailoa got his foot stepped on early in the fourth quarter and had to be helped off the field. Hurts entered the game, and proceeded to deliver one of the best moments in the history of Alabama football.

He led a game-tying touchdown drive, culminating in a touchdown pass to Jerry Jeudy to bring the game to a 28-all tie. Following an ill-fated fake punt by Georgia, Hurts engineered the game-winning touchdown drive, running in the winning score on a QB draw. I could watch this clip every day:

Alabama didn't win the national championship that season, but if you asked me for a list of Top 5 moments in my Tide fandom, this would easily make the list. It would probably be No. 1. If you scripted that moment and put it in a movie, people wouldn't believe it.

In the same building, against the same team he had been benched against, Hurts got his redemption.

With Tagovailoa still entrenched as the team's starter, Hurts entered the Transfer Portal and ultimately settled on Oklahoma as the destination, thanks in large part to Nick Saban. He went to a team with a ton of weapons, a wide-open offensive style, and a coach with the pedigree of a QB whisperer.

Lincoln Riley gets a ton of credit for the development of Hurts as a passer. Undoubtedly, Hurts learned from Riley's tutelage and got better. But to say that if it wasn't for his one-year stint at Oklahoma that Hurts wouldn't be where he is now is a disservice to Hurts. It also shows that those who say that know very little about him.

And of course, those in Norman will never know Jalen like we do. He spent triple the amount of time at Alabama than he did Oklahoma.

The conclusion of Hurts' story was always going to be the same. He works too hard and has the mental toughness, resiliency, and work ethic that was always going to breed success. A program trying to take sole credit for that is pathetic. Both Oklahoma and Alabama should be proud to have had Hurts for the time they had him. Not the other way around.

Hurts played at Oklahoma, but he's an Alabama legend.

Ignoring his 2018 season at Alabama is ignoring a major part of his story, and a huge part of how he became the player he is now.