Football World Reacts To Eagles Super Bowl MVP QB Nick Foles Announcing His Retirement

Perhaps the most striking example of how building a legacy in the playoffs can launch one’s career into another stratosphere, Nick Foles’ magical run to win Super Bowl LII in a thrilling shootout against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots secured his status as a legend. Or at least he was for the Philadelphia Eagles franchise.

The City of Brotherly Love is a cold, unforgiving place to the vast majority of even its most beloved athletes because of their beyond-obnoxious fans. But win a championship for Philly? Outduel TB12 on the biggest stage in sports? Nothing else matters. Although “Big Dick Nick” Foles didn’t have anywhere near the success of his epic highs with the Eagles, his retirement announcement on Thursday was still met with predominantly positive fanfare.

It was the Eagles who first drafted Foles in 2012, as the 88th overall pick in the third round. That actually predated Chip Kelly’s tenure, so Andy Reid had a big hand in getting Foles his big break in the NFL. You could say Reid has a good feel for the quarterback position. He’s made just about everyone he’s ever coached into a star. Now he has the unfair advantage of an all-time talent on his hands in Patrick Mahomes.

To keep it on Foles, though, you can tell that the Eagles organization still has plenty of reverence for him thanks to the heroics that brought the city a Lombardi Trophy.

The most iconic play Foles ever made was actually a reception. Dialed up by Doug Pederson, the play was known as the “Philly Special” and it outfoxed the likes of Bill Belichick in a huge spot. No surprise that the Eagles chose to highlight that moment on this day.

What’s odd and funny is that between and after Foles’ beginnings in Philadelphia and that Super Bowl triumph, he had a strange, circuitous, and frankly kind of a mediocre career. The Rams made a bold trade for him in a deal involving ex-No. 1 overall pick Sam Bradford. Safe to say it didn’t work out for either side, as Foles completed just 56.4% of his passes in 11 starts for the franchise that was based in St. Louis at the time. A reunion with Reid in Kansas City to back up Alex Smith in 2016 preceded Foles’ grand return to the Eagles, as the 2017 season and Carson Wentz’s season-ending injury set the stage for Foles to spark that Super Bowl run.

Foles even got the Eagles a playoff win the next year, only to sign a big contract with the Jaguars, go down with a season-ending injury four games in, and proceed to the Bears for a forgettable two-season stint and one last shot at starting in Indy in 2022, which he didn’t capitalize on. His regular-season record as a starter was 29-29. But my goodness, that 2017-18 playoff run: 72.6 CMP%, six TDs, one INT, 323.7 passing yards per game, and a 115.7 passer rating. MERCY.

The high highs and low lows of Foles’ career will never cease to baffle me. Again, is Foles a better QB than so many superior players who never lifted a Lombardi Trophy? Absolutely not, but you’d never know it based on how fans hold him in such high esteem.

Congrats to Foles on retirement. Nobody can really talk smack about a former third-round pick lasting more than a decade in the league, and rising up to lead one of the most improbable championship teams ever.