Super Bowl hero Nick Foles officially retires after 11 NFL seasons: ‘I love the Philadelphia Eagles’
Foles, who famously called for and caught the "Philly Special" in Super Bowl LII, spent five seasons over two stints with the Birds. He was the Super Bowl MVP in 2018.
Some mornings, depending on how awake and alert one can be around 5:30 a.m., Jeff Stoutland will pause on his walk through the hallway inside the Eagles’ NovaCare Complex. There are photographs of people and moments memorialized all over the building, but there’s a specific image that Stoutland, the Eagles’ offensive line coach and run game coordinator, stops at occasionally.
It’s Nick Foles, circa Feb. 4, 2018, Lombardi Trophy in his hands.
The longest-tenured Eagles coach, one of the few left in the building who coached in that 41-33 Eagles Super Bowl victory over New England, will sometimes take his phone out and take a picture.
“I send it to Nick Foles and I say, ‘I love you,’” Stoutland said.
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Stoutland takes a new one every time, he said. He knows the previous shots live somewhere on his phone, but his way works.
“I keep wondering, I guess, maybe he doesn’t know how to use his phone or something,” Foles joked. “I always enjoy getting that picture.”
Stoutland was a two-time college champion during his two seasons on Nick Saban’s Alabama staff before joining the Eagles in 2013. But Foles — who threw for 373 yards and three touchdowns and caught one of his own on the immortalized “Philly Special” trick play that he called — helped put the ultimate football prize in Stoutland’s hands.
It’s been more than six years since Foles improbably etched himself into the hearts and history books of football-frenzied Philadelphia. On Monday, as the Eagles were preparing to play their first game at Lincoln Financial Field in the second week of a season they hope will end the same way that 2017-18 one did, Foles was back in the spotlight. He officially retired as a member of the team for which he played five seasons over two stints. Foles, 35, hasn’t had his number retired by the team, but no one has worn No. 9 since.
Foles, flanked by family members, entered the Lincoln Financial Field press conference room to officially retire with a speech followed by a few questions from reporters. He had notes on an iPad detailing his football path, beginning with the time his father, Larry, put a football in his hands. Foles liked to have a clear mind on game days at the Linc, and he said he treated Monday like a game, knowing that he had to give this speech and handle the emotions of announcing his retirement.
But before he sat at the podium, he took a pit stop and joined Jason Kelce on a stage to open the Monday Night Countdown broadcast. Alongside Fletcher Cox, Foles donned the dog mask the 2017-18 Eagles made famous.
Foles’ retirement announcement in early August was more of a formality. The Super Bowl LII MVP last played in 2022 as a backup with Indianapolis and spent the 2023 season as a free agent.
Foles, selected by the Eagles in the third round of the 2012 draft out of Arizona, also played for the St. Louis Rams, Kansas City Chiefs, Jacksonville Jaguars, Chicago Bears, and Indianapolis Colts, but found his best success in Philadelphia, including the 2017-18 playoff run that seemingly came out of nowhere. Foles was backing up MVP candidate Carson Wentz and was forced into action after Wentz suffered a torn ACL during a December win over the Rams in Los Angeles.
“There was just something about wearing midnight green,” Foles said. “I always felt something different in this city, in this stadium. I was just meant to play here … It’s made me a better person playing here.
“I’m here for a specific reason. I love the Philadelphia Eagles.”
The team and this city, of course, love him back.
A statue of Foles and Doug Pederson conversing about running “Philly Special” — or “Philly Philly,” as Foles called it when he suggested the Eagles run it — resides outside the Linc.
That play, Foles said Monday, started at Foles’ Westlake High School in Austin, Texas, with Pederson in 2012. Pederson was on Andy Reid’s staff as the Eagles’ quarterbacks coach back then, and leading up to the draft Pederson went down to work out Foles at his high school.
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It was a windy day, Foles said, and Pederson challenged Foles to throw a route he didn’t know existed 65 yards through the wind. His first attempt got caught in the wind and crashed to the field 10 yards short. But Pederson asked him to try it again. Foles threw a perfect spiral on his second try.
“A couple days later, I got a call from the Philadelphia Eagles saying they wanted to bring me up here on a trip, and then ultimately draft me. I have to believe that moment right there with Doug, playing for Doug with him as my quarterback coach, me coming back as a quarterback in 2017-18, culminated with me going over to him ... and asking, ‘You want Philly Philly?’
“To me, that culmination of life, that culmination of events ... led Doug to a pause and said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ And when I’ve looked back at that moment, it just shows you the relationships you make, and how you do it as you go along the journey are so special. That’s why that play, to me, is always so special. I know it’s special to the city. I know it’s special to the Eagles. But that moment with Doug is truly amazing.”
The Eagles were going to run a different play, a speed option, Foles said, double-checking with former Eagles tight end Brent Celek, who was sitting in the back of the room. Once Pederson agreed to run the trick play, Foles said he had one job: to make it back to the huddle without smiling, fearful of revealing to the New England defense that something was up.
Foles got teary-eyed thanking his parents and his wife, Tori, and the couple’s children.
Life after football is mostly about fatherhood for Foles, who is frequently seen wearing hats with “DAD SZN” printed on the front, a line he released with his former Chicago Bears teammate Pat O’Donnell. Monday night, his hat read “DAD, No Days Off.” When he’s not coaching his daughter Lily’s flag football team, he’s probably golfing or playing pickleball.
Foles thanked and credited Reid with helping him rediscover his love of football during his 2016 season with the Chiefs. He was in a “different place” when he rejoined the Eagles in 2017.
The quarterback, when asked, said he wanted his legacy to be “that I helped my teammates be better. Not just as players, but as people.” Among his favorite moments, he said, was being on the field during warmups before the Eagles played the Vikings in the NFC championship game.
“Y’all were so loud,” Foles said, addressing Eagles fans. “Y’all were dancing. We were dancing. I had to pause and just watch and take it in and realize how blessed I was to play for a great city and great organization.
“The energy in that stadium, there’s been nothing like that.”
Foles then put on a show, guiding the Eagles to a Super Bowl appearance by completing 26 of 33 passes for 352 yards and three scores. Cool, calm, and collected. The way he was throughout the whole playoff run.
That, Stoutland said, was Foles, who would regularly make the coach think: “We’re gonna be all right. Nick is in the game.”