The O’Toole Chronicles: Fly Eagles Fly

After leading his underdog team to a one-sided victory in the 59th Super Bowl, MVP quarterback back, Jalen Hurts, had some advice for the rest of us: “I have been able to learn from every experience, the good, the bad all of it to fuel me…we get to learn from the past.”

Jalen brings it home with this keeper — “you either win or you learn.”

Jalen went on to credit his remarkable teammates and gave them their due. To put it in proper context, you need to appreciate that prior to winning the Super Bowl, Jalen has faced quite a few hurdles in his life.  Most notably, Jalen was second-guessed in college, embarrassed by being pulled and benched from a college championship game for his understudy. Even though he prevailed and vindicated himself the next year by bailing out the then-starter and winning the championship game, he moved on to another college to recreate himself.

With his work ethic, religious faith and leadership, Jalen represents the heart and soul of the gritty Philly team, and represents the best of all of us, and many of us who had previously hated (yes hated) the loud and brash Eagles team, found ourselves rooting for this group.

Interestingly, two years ago, Jalen took his team to the Super Bowl, only to fall short due to his late-game fumble. Jalen  was last seen at that game walking off the field as red and yellow (Chiefs’ colors) confetti rained on him. Unlike others who would wallow in that “poor me” moment , Jalen took a copy of the picture and used it as a screensaver on his cellphone to remind him of that pain point to motivate to reach the winner circle .

Pivot time. In this day and age, where we live in a society of people that want to blame others and not learn from past failures, we could all take a page from Jalen’s playbook and learn about dedication, perseverance, commitment and hard work. In politics, we see folks who make a mistake or lose an election or position because of their own choices, and it is high time  those individuals learn from those decisions and look inwards and work hard to make their situation better.

Maybe a picture of that losing moment as a cellphone or computer screen saver will help guide those lost souls back to the promise land.

Congratulations to the Philadlphia Eagles. Fly Eagles Fly!