Former Alabama star and current Eagles wide receiver DeVonta Smith joins a very short list of elite players after winning the Super Bowl.
Ex-Alabama and current Eagles wide receiver DeVonta Smith made college football and NFL history in the Super Bowl game.
Ex-Alabama and current Eagles wide receiver DeVonta Smith made college football and NFL history in the Super Bowl game.
DeVonta Smith made all kinds of history as the Philadelphia Eagles clobbered the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX, thwarting pro football’s first would-be three-peat, and putting his own name in the record books in the process.
By catching a 46-yard touchdown from quarterback Jalen Hurts, the Eagles wide receiver became the first player drafted from Alabama to score a touchdown in a Super Bowl game.
Granted, a few Alabama players have been responsible for touchdowns in a Super Bowl before ─ notably quarterbacks like Bart Starr, Joe Namath, and Ken Stabler ─ but the NFL doesn’t technically count touchdown passes as individual points credited to a player, and thus, not to a college.
But not only that, Smith also became the fifth player ever and the first wide receiver in history to…
Alabama produced four Heisman Trophy winning players during Nick Saban’s head coaching career, but Smith is the first Crimson Tide alum to complete this historic trifecta.
Smith is also the Alabama record-holder in three critical categories, finishing his collegiate career with 235 total receptions, 3,965 receiving yards, and 46 receiving touchdowns.
He completed his legendary Crimson Tide career by catching 117 passes for 1,856 yards and scoring 23 touchdowns during Bama’s national title run in 2020.
From there, Smith was selected as the No. 10 overall pick in the NFL Draft by the Philadelphia Eagles, the first step towards his becoming a Super Bowl champion.
Over his NFL career leading up to this year’s Super Bowl game, Smith has 308 catches for 4,011 yards and 27 touchdowns over four seasons.
Who are the other players to win a national championship, the Heisman Trophy, and the Super Bowl? It’s a very short list.
Tony Dorsett: The legendary running back won the national championship at Pittsburgh in the 1976 season, rushing for 2,150 yards and 22 touchdowns, the same year he won the Heisman Trophy.
The No. 2 overall draft pick to Dallas the next year, Dorsett went on to win Super Bowl XII with the Dallas Cowboys in 1977 while rushing for over 1,000 yards and earning Rookie of the Year honors.
Marcus Allen: The former running back was on a national championship team at USC in the 1978 football season, one that is recognized by the Coaches Poll, when he was backup to Heisman running back Charles White.
Allen then won the Heisman himself in the 1981 season after rushing for a career-high 2,342 yards and 22 touchdowns. He went on to win Super Bowl XVIII with the Los Angeles Raiders after the 1983 season, defeating the Washington Redskins, 38-9.
Charles Woodson: The cornerback won the Heisman Trophy as a rare defensive honoree in 1997, the same year he and Michigan won a share of the national championship.
Woodson won Super Bowl XLV as a member of the Green Bay Packers and finished his Hall of Fame career in a three-way tie for the most defensive touchdowns in NFL history.
Reggie Bush: The former USC tailback won the Heisman after his 1,740 yard performance in the 2005 season.
USC won a share of the national championship in 2003 — AP voters broke with the BCS despite LSU winning the designated title game and named the Trojans the No. 1 team in the country — and another title in 2004, and then Bush won Super Bowl XLIV with the New Orleans Saints in 2009.
