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Nick Foles knew it as soon as he told the story. The epic tale of the Super Bowl MVP “pooping in the woods” on a fly-fishing trip was about to go viral.
After deciding to quit football in 2016, Foles embarked on a peaceful camping trip with his brother-in-law as a way to escape reality and soak in nature. Andy Reid had recently texted Foles a photo of the quarterback holding up the 2014 Pro Bowl MVP trophy. He was trying to lure Foles out of retirement and get him to join the Chiefs. Foles needed to clear his mind so he dug a hole and let it all out. Literally.
“One of the most exhilarating things I did was poop in the woods. Like, dig a hole and poop. If you’ve never done that, you haven’t lived,” Foles recalled on his new podcast Misson of Truth. “That was the biggest thing and I know that will probably be some hashtag or something but that’s real talk. It was the first time in my life I didn’t think about football.”
After his bathroom break, Foles phoned Reid to let him know that he wasn’t coming back. The two talked for a bit. He was in a good place and enjoyed spending quality time with his wife, Tori. He didn’t want to return as a backup quarterback.
“That was it, I lost cell phone reception,” Foles recalled. “I was done.”
Former Eagles special-teams ace Chris Maragos couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Maragos is Foles’ co-host on the podcast and the two hope to impact people’s lives positively by talking about their deep faith and spirituality. On this particular episode, Foles detailed all the trials and tribulations from his remarkable football journey.
That conversation with Reid lingered in Foles’ head. Four or five days later, he brought it up again to Tori with the assumption she would talk him out of it. She didn’t. In fact, Tori encouraged him to give the NFL another shot. Foles walked out of his house, roamed the street for a minute and then called Reid. He was ready to return. And the rest is history.
“God’s plans aren’t our plans,” Foles said. “We didn’t understand it and there are a lot of times we’re not going to understand why we go through it but it’s necessary to go through it.”
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Philadelphia Parking Authority Once Towed Foles’ Car
Another funny nugget from Foles’ first podcast came when he was talking about how much he appreciated Philadelphia. He didn’t want to leave when Chip Kelly traded him in 2015. He loved the city’s history. He loved the city’s restaurants. And he loved the city’s rabid fan base.
But, the one thing Foles could do without is the parking situation. Especially the notoriously awful Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA), the conniving government agency who boots and tows cars at will from innocent city residents. Foles relayed a story from his rookie year (2012) when the PPA took his vehicle.
Here’s the exchange between Foles and Maragos:
Foles: Thing about Philly, parking … parking, not fun. There was a parking garage in Rittenhouse Square that was tight. We made it work but man, I had my car towed one time in Philly when I was a rookie …
Maragos: Nick, they won’t tow your car anymore …
Foles: I thought they were going to let me off easy. It was the day before a Dallas game my rookie year, or two days before it, and I was just at a friend’s house having dinner — I was at Trent Edwards’ condo having dinner — and they towed my car. I had to spend all night there. But that’s neither here nor there … they are wonderful people.
Wonderful people? Foles once again taking the high road.
Super Bowl MVP Says Nate Sudfeld is ‘My Brother’
There has been a lot of talk about Nate Sudfeld in recent days. Is the backup quarterback job up for grabs now that Jalen Hurts is on the depth chart? Eagles coach Doug Pederson indicated that he’ll have the inside track at the No. 2 spot in an open competition.
Foles can relate to holding Carson Wentz’s clipboard and he’s a big fan of Sudfeld. He fondly recalled sitting in the quarterbacks room with Sudfeld the day after Wentz got hurt in 2017. They were supposed to be reviewing film but they couldn’t put the tape on. The intensity of the moment, taking over for Wentz and maintaining the best record in the NFC, was getting to them.
“Nate Sudfeld and I are in the QB room and we just sort of look at each other, like we’re about to study film and I’m like, ‘Man, I can’t even study film right now. We just need to close the door and talk’,” Foles said on the podcast. “And we didn’t study film that day because we just had to talk about everything that was going on. Our team is rolling and our city is depending on us. We’re sitting there almost like ‘Oh my gosh, this is just too much for us to handle.'”
Foles credited Sudfeld for helping calm his nerves at the time.
“It was crazy, it was an insane thing,” Foles said. “And the one thing throughout it all was Nate and I having those deep discussions. Nate Sudfeld is a brother to me, that’s my brother, I love him.”
The Underdogs Become World Champions, Finally
Foles also delves into that 2017 championship season, with many fun jaunts down memory lane. For one, the Super Bowl MVP called the atmosphere “unreal” for the NFC Championship Game against the Vikings. Lincoln Financial Field was rocking.
“I’ve never felt so much energy in a stadium in my entire life,” he said. “Meek Mill came on and that was it. It was unreal.”
One interesting tidbit he revealed was the way GM Howie Roseman sought to motivate the team. Usually, the team’s practice facility is their sanctuary but Roseman had plastered news articles all over of critics proclaiming that the Eagles were frauds. The underdog label had been fully embraced, never fabricated. In fact, Foles was in the bathroom (notice a theme here?) when he turned around and saw a negative press clipping.
“Something peaceful about having those moments to do your business, I guess,” Foles said. “But I look to my right and there is a poster in the bathroom. I couldn’t get away from it. I guess that was his philosophy.”
Then, the Eagles went on a run for the ages. They closed out the regular season as the NFC’s No. 1 seed and secured home-field advantage with Foles at the helm. The Eagles beat Atlanta and Minnesota to get to the Super Bowl where Foles outdueled Tom Brady in the biggest game of his life. As the quarterback hoisted the Lombardi Trophy, peering out over his underdog teammates, he felt “relief and joy.”
“I remember thinking, I don’t need the trophy to be fulfilled. I’m fulfilled in Jesus Christ,” Foles said. “I’m holding my daughter enjoying the moment, and that was so special because when I hoisted the trophy, it was the representation of what we had done as a team and what we had done as brothers and what we had done as an organization. We all came from different backgrounds and had different belief systems and we were still able to come together to do something really special. In that moment, I remember feeling relief and joy.”
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