Some Insights From Nick Foles Book

[soulman]

‘I’m able to light up a scoreboard. I’m a game manager. I’m a building block. I’m a stopgap. I’m a franchise quarterback. I’m an insurance policy. I’m a Pro Bowl MVP. I’m a career second-stringer. I’m dependable. I’m a fluke. I’m a Super Bowl MVP. I’m trade bait.’ — From Nick Foles’ book, ‘Believe It: My Journey of Success, Failure and Overcoming the Odds’

What Nick Foles’ book tells us about the Bears QB and his roller coaster eight-year NFL career.  Nick Foles won a Pro Bowl MVP during a three-year run with the Eagles to start his career and a Super Bowl MVP in his second stint in Philadelphia, below, but he only spent one season in each of his stops with the Rams, Chiefs and Jaguars. (Mark Humphrey/AP )

By Colleen Kane  https://digitaledition.chicagotribune.com/html5/desktop/production/default.aspx?edid=ff19a98d-6277-4edd-9cfc-a5e663e971b4

Nick Foles’ text to Andy Reid in July 2016 was supposed to end his football career.

After a dismal season with the Rams, Foles had lost his love of the game and asked for his release from the organization, which had just drafted Jared Goff with the No. 1 pick. Other teams inquired about signing the former Pro Bowl quarterback, including Reid, who was looking for a backup to Alex Smith with the Chiefs.

But Foles, who spent his rookie season with the Eagles under Reid, had made up his mind.

In a McDonald’s parking lot, on the way to a camping trip in the Sierra Nevada, Foles texted Reid to tell him he was hanging up his cleats. Foles then texted his wife, Tori, to tell her the final decision on a topic they had long been discussing. And he powered down his phone for the weekend trip.

That, of course, wasn’t that.

As Foles told in his 2018 book, “Believe It: My Journey of Success, Failure and Overcoming the Odds,” he returned home to a four-page letter from Tori suggesting he give football one more season. Two nights later, after coming to an impasse in their discussions, they prayed.  “From a human perspective, I don’t want to play football anymore,” he prayed. “But I also know this is about more than what I want. I need to trust you with all I have.”
In that time of reflection, Foles decided to continue playing.

The story of Foles’ return to football is one of several in the book, co-written with author Joshua Cooley, that give insight into what makes the new Bears quarterback tick. The Bears acquired Foles from the Jaguars for a fourth-round pick earlier this month.

The book was released just months after Foles led the 2017 Eagles on their improbable run to the franchise’s first Super Bowl championship, and it has a fair amount of football play-by-play for Eagles fans wanting to relive that fairy tale. But for Bears fans looking for some light reading in an odd time without live sports, Foles’ story also details the challenges he has faced during a wild eight-year NFL career.

In the book, Foles gets right to the heart of the questions that even now linger as he comes to Chicago to compete with or replace 2017 No. 2 pick Mitch Trubisky. Foles lists the many labels he has been given.

“I’m able to light up a scoreboard. I’m a game manager,” he writes. “I’m a building block. I’m a stopgap. I’m a franchise quarterback. I’m an insurance policy. I’m a Pro Bowl MVP. I’m a career second-stringer. I’m dependable. I’m a fluke. I’m a Super Bowl MVP. I’m trade bait.”

Foles, 31, has been all of those things. The book doesn’t provide the answer to which one he will be in Chicago after signing a big contract with the Jaguars and then losing all four games he played with them in 2019. Instead his story is about how he came to grips with the highs and lows of his life and career with the guidance of his faith and family.

He is candid about the most challenging moments, including during his second season with the Eagles in 2013, when he replaced the injured Michael Vick.

Foles had the season of his career, throwing 27 touchdown passes and just two interceptions in 10 starts. But while he was earning a Pro Bowl invitation on the field, Tori, then his girlfriend, became ill with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), a blood-flow disorder that was at times debilitating. Foles struggled with being away from her and wondered if playing football was what he was supposed to be doing.

Foles prayed before a Week 9 game against the Raiders for a sign he was on the right path — and courage if he was not. He threw for 406 yards and seven touchdowns in that game.

A little more than a year later, after he broke his left collarbone midway through the 2014 season, the next big obstacle came calling. Eagles coach Chip Kelly informed Foles during a brief phone call he was being traded to the Rams.

“When I saw that the call had lasted only a minute, I was really shaken,” Foles writes. “I’m a pretty relational guy, and the fact that I’d been cut loose so quickly and without warning was difficult to absorb. You give everything you have to your team, you struggle through adversity, you work hard to come back from trials on and off the field, and then, in less time than it takes to order a pizza, your coach tells you that you’ve been traded.”

His career took a dive with the Rams during the 2015 season, when Case Keenum eventually replaced him. A brief foray into retirement followed. But after a season with the Chiefs, in which he rediscovered his love of the game under Reid and then-co-offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, Foles was back with the Eagles in 2017.

Foles knew he was going to be the backup to Carson Wentz when he re-signed, but he was honest about the difficulties of stepping into that role. He often had to walk by the 2013 Pro Bowl photo of himself hanging in the Eagles training facility.

A coffee connoisseur — his go-to drink is Bulletproof butter coffee — Foles became the team’s barista each morning to remind himself “that the best way to lead is to serve.”

“For me, this fight would be a season-long inner conflict with my pride,” Foles writes.

About half of the book is spent on the 2017 season as Foles suddenly was thrust back into the spotlight when Wentz injured his left knee in December. He properly captures the wackiness of his run from backup to Super Bowl MVP.

After the game in which Wentz was hurt, Foles went out to lunch with his family at a burrito joint and heard a fan tell another, “I guess we’ll just have to wait another year for the Super Bowl.” Weeks later, after the Eagles beat the Vikings in the NFC championship game, Foles had an uninterrupted dinner out with his family, only to have the entire restaurant give him a standing ovation as he walked out.

The Super Bowl narration includes how he turned down every marketing opportunity leading up to the game for fear it might affect his play. He drew inspiration in the days before from the Bible’s Book of Psalms, many of which have been linked to King David, of David and Goliath.

He spends pages on the retelling of the “Philly Special” play, the touchdown pass from Trey Burton to Foles. He writes of the memories of holding his 7-month-old daughter during the Super Bowl celebration, predicting that in the future he’ll tell her, “The real trophy in my arms that night was you.” And he talks about feeling slightly guilty about accepting the MVP award because his teammates and coaches did so much to help him.

As he wraps up the book, Foles is preparing to be the backup again to Wentz for the 2018 season, a role change he calls “a tangible reminder that we are called to humility and to a life of service.”

As he ruminates about his story, he wonders if readers might see “a person like yourself — someone who struggles daily. Someone who doesn’t have all the answers. Someone who has failed many times and says, ‘Failing is okay. But what am I supposed to learn from it?’ ”

Likewise, Bears fans aren’t likely to find their answers about whether Foles, coming off the down year in Jacksonville, is what the team needs at quarterback. But they’ll find a player who has been through the extremes of a career and has been able to pick himself back up from failure.

His next chapter awaits.

[soulman]

14 hours ago, soulman said:

Foles knew he was going to be the backup to Carson Wentz when he re-signed, but he was honest about the difficulties of stepping into that role. He often had to walk by the 2013 Pro Bowl photo of himself hanging in the Eagles training facility.

A coffee connoisseur — his go-to drink is Bulletproof butter coffee — Foles became the team’s barista each morning to remind himself “that the best way to lead is to serve.”

“For me, this fight would be a season-long inner conflict with my pride,” Foles writes.

FWIW, this is a section that caught my eye.

If Pace is to be believed then once again Foles is walking into a situation where he's initially seen as a #2 and a backup to Mitch but also given a shot at winning the #1 spot before the season starts. Unless Mitch falls completely apart or Foles simply dominates in camp and preseason I'd still lean toward Mitch being the starter when the season opens but also playing on a very short leash.

But it was his attitude coming back to Philly as Wentz's backup that stands out.  He has that same ability that Chase Daniel had to actually help Mitch process better and the ability to take over for him permanently that Daniel didn't have and it seems to me he'll be patient and willing to serve the needs of the team first even while in competition for the #1 spot. He can mentor when needed.

Altogether it seems to me now that Pace made the correct decision as far as who to bring in to compete with Mitch.  I preferred Andy Dalton initially but now based on the realities of a shortened offseason with many OTAs likely to be canceled having another QB who not only knows the basics of the offense but has also performed well in it actually gives us an advantage others may not have.

[dll2000]

2 hours ago, soulman said:

FWIW, this is a section that caught my eye.

If Pace is to be believed then once again Foles is walking into a situation where he's initially seen as a #2 and a backup to Mitch but also given a shot at winning the #1 spot before the season starts. Unless Mitch falls completely apart or Foles simply dominates in camp and preseason I'd still lean toward Mitch being the starter when the season opens but also playing on a very short leash.

But it was his attitude coming back to Philly as Wentz's backup that stands out.  He has that same ability that Chase Daniel had to actually help Mitch process better and the ability to take over for him permanently that Daniel didn't have and it seems to me he'll be patient and willing to serve the needs of the team first even while in competition for the #1 spot. He can mentor when needed.

Altogether it seems to me now that Pace made the correct decision as far as who to bring in to compete with Mitch.  I preferred Andy Dalton initially but now based on the realities of a shortened offseason with many OTAs likely to be canceled having another QB who not only knows the basics of the offense but has also performed well in it actually gives us an advantage others may not have.

I think if told Mitch is starter he will help him, but I think he is coming here with idea that he is going to start or has a chance to win the job.

[soulman]

20 minutes ago, dll2000 said:

I think if told Mitch is starter he will help him, but I think he is coming here with idea that he is going to start or has a chance to win the job.

I don't doubt that.  Pace's comments haven't been inconsistent.  He's said from the get go that Mitch would have competition for his spot and Foles is it.  IMHO he's not only good competition but more than likely the right kind of competition as well.

I believe there is only so much Nagy and his crew are gonna be willing to alter their schemes to fit Mitch.  Undoubtedly some adjustments are called for but no matter how they adjust Mitch still needs to be able to see the field better, recognize the coverages he's seeing, process that faster, and make the correct choices.  That's his biggest failure not his physical skills or a lack thereof.

If he can't master that no matter how they scheme for him he will eventually fail when a team throws coverages at him he can't process much like GB did in the 2019 opener.  If that continues his job will be on the line for a game or two and after that Nagy will sit him in favor of Foles.  There is no way Mitch is getting half a season to get his **** together again.

[BEAR FACE DOWN ARROW]

Based on what we know now,  I'd have a hard time accepting that the job isn't Foles to lose.  Giving up the draft capital, and even though his contract is better than it seemed for this year, it's still a TON of money to give someone to be the backup.  Also, from the coaches point of view you've just watched your last QB freeze up under pressure of failure, do you really think getting into a bidding war for at least one QB and paying up for another is going to make that first guy any more confident and better?  Worst case scenario right now is if they both play ****ty but Trubisky has the edge at the end of summer. 

[soulman]

1 hour ago, RunningVaccs said:

Based on what we know now,  I'd have a hard time accepting that the job isn't Foles to lose.  Giving up the draft capital, and even though his contract is better than it seemed for this year, it's still a TON of money to give someone to be the backup.  Also, from the coaches point of view you've just watched your last QB freeze up under pressure of failure, do you really think getting into a bidding war for at least one QB and paying up for another is going to make that first guy any more confident and better?  Worst case scenario right now is if they both play ****ty but Trubisky has the edge at the end of summer. 

Well.....even if Foles cap hit is $15.6 mil when added to Mitch's $9.2 mil that's still less than $25 mil for two QBs when some teams are giving over $30 mil to one so I'm not ready to admit he's a shoe in as the #1.  But what I do believe is that he has a pretty damn good shot at winning the battle even before the season begins.

We do know that Mitch tends to go into "butt clench" mode under pressure and that much of that is self inflicted.  Now he has external pressure from Foles to add to that so he'd better get used to looking for ways to self manage that and chill out because if anything Nick Foles is a pretty cool character when he's on the field.

Regardless of what has been said about it being Mitch's job to lose Pace has made it very clear that he intends to make exactly that quite possible unless Mitch can do a complete 180 and comes out as the guy he should have been a year ago.  If that happens we should see some great competition with one pushing the other.