Big Nick Energy: Nick Foles’s Playoff Sequel Is Already the Stuff of Superhero Legend
The Eagles bet the farm on Carson Wentz, only to have his backup lead them to their first Super Bowl win. A year later, Wentz is back on the shelf, and BDN is scripting his way further into Philadelphia’s heart.
On New Year’s Eve 2017, the Philadelphia Eagles, then 13-2 and locked into the top seed in the NFC playoffs, lost 6-0 at home to their archrival, the Dallas Cowboys. It was for games like this that the English language contains words like “execrable.” It’s understandable that both teams would mail it in on a meaningless season finale played on a slate-gray, freezing-cold day with bone-chilling wind, but somehow it was even worse than the numbers made it look.
Nick Foles was making his third straight start at quarterback after Carson Wentz’s season-ending ACL injury, and he put up a total stinker: 4-for-11 for 39 yards and an interception, before being pulled for third-stringer Nate Sudfeld. In that moment it was just about impossible to envision what would transpire between New Year’s Eve 2017 and New Year’s Eve 2018. Foles had enjoyed intermittent success in his six-year career; for about two months in 2013 he was the most efficient quarterback in football, but apart from that he’d bounced from below average to bad to almost out of the league altogether. Any popularity Foles enjoyed in Philadelphia came from the goodwill he’d built up during that one hot stretch under Chip Kelly in 2013. That, and the one thing Eagles fans love is a backup quarterback.
For the past 30 years, the Eagles had enjoyed great success under a series of talented dual-threat quarterbacks—Randall Cunningham, Donovan McNabb, Michael Vick, and Carson Wentz—while the noisiest parts of the fan base cried out for the scrappy backup to start. There’s no greater bit of verisimilitude in Silver Linings Playbook—a movie whose climax includes McNabb leading the Eagles to a 38-point win over Dallas to secure a playoff berth in the 2008 season finale—than Jacki Weaver’s character wearing a Kevin Kolb jersey throughout the film.
In 2018, Foles went from millennial A.J. Feeley to genuine folk hero. Wentz was in the midst of an MVP-caliber season when he tore his ACL last year and was therefore not easy to replace. So Eagles head coach Doug Pederson and his assistants retooled the playbook to suit Foles, and the backup grew into a 6-foot-6 Matt Saracen. He took care of the ball in a razor-thin divisional-round victory over Atlanta, then unleashed his merciless wrath over Minnesota in the conference championship game, and most famously stood toe-to-toe with Tom Brady in a thrilling Super Bowl victory. Five weeks after rock bottom against Dallas, this affable, goofy statue of a man was toasted as a hero by a delirious Delaware Valley.
In big moments, it’s as if Foles ducks into a phone booth and transmogrifies into Big Dick Nick, a superhero of clutchness. Foles is 11 career postseason pass attempts short of qualifying for Pro-Football-Reference’s career leaderboards, but if he did qualify, he’d have the highest postseason passer rating (113.2).
It’s ironic that the Eagles would give up a gigantic package of draft picks to trade up to pick Wentz and make him their franchise quarterback, only to have a backup they’d already discarded once lead the club to its first Super Bowl. Beloved though the anointed Wentz may be, it’s Foles who earned Philadelphia’s unending love and gratitude for his playoff excellence. Now imagine what’ll happen if Foles pulls off the same trick again this year.
Foles started the first two games of the 2018 season as Wentz continued to recover from his knee injury, then went back to his accustomed role on the bench by Week 3. But once again, Wentz suffered a (probably) season-ending injury, this time to his back. And once again, Foles grabbed the reins down the stretch, setting the stage for a sequel to last season’s championship run.
Big Dick Nick, Episode II: Attack of the Foles, is more outlandish and self-aware. Foles led the Eagles to three consecutive wins, including one-possession upsets over the Rams and Texans, to eke out another playoff berth. In Week 16, Foles set the single-game franchise record for passing yards (471), and in Week 17 he tied the NFL record for consecutive completions (25). Eagles defensive linemen Fletcher Cox and Chris Long built a shrine to their backup quarterback in the locker room. And while the Eagles were expected to cash in on Foles’s playoff success by selling high on him, portions of the fan base and local media are seriously entertaining the idea of trading Wentz, the franchise quarterback, and committing to Foles long-term.
But perhaps the most unlikely thing about Foles’s evolution into an implacable playoff avenger is how unusual his personality seems for the role. The Eagles locker room is chock full of players with big personalities, ranging from ordinary jocks like Wentz to the full-blown leftist political bloc of Long, Michael Bennett, and Malcolm Jenkins. But the most (only?) interesting thing about Foles is how normcore he is. And not in a performatively macho, anti-flashy way, but completely guilelessly, like Ned Flanders only more so.
In between his season-saving performances against the Rams and Texans, Foles showed up for a Wednesday press conference wearing rolled-up khakis and Vibram five-finger shoes in a color scheme best described as “Gulf War camouflage.” Foles explained that wearing cleats as much as he does messes up his toes and the shoes were an attempt to straighten out his mangled feet, and that he wore them to work over his wife’s objections. Speaking of Foles and his wife: Last year, The Ringer’s Eagles fans came together for a thread before the NFC championship game, and then-Ringer staffer Tanya Hubbard told the following story about meeting Foles and his wife:
I worked at a restaurant named Buddakan in Philly. Nick and his gorgeous wife, Tori, sat in my section. They both treated me so kindly and were so interested in me and my life. They were very in love, and I overheard very sweet and kind words back and forth to each other all night. Long story short, Nick looks up at me and says, “You have something, I can see it, follow your dreams.” Tori nodded in agreement. In that moment, I thought, WOW WHAT A GUY! WHAT A COUPLE. THAT’S SPECIAL. Also, they tipped me $200 on a $150 check. So, yeah, I’m all in on Nick Foles and I hope he throws for 400 yards Sunday.
It’s worth pointing out that a franchise quarterback like Wentz probably wouldn’t tolerate his teammates putting up a shrine to the backup if that backup weren’t the kind of person who left 130 percent tips and told people to follow their dreams. Foles’s record-setting performance in Week 16 came despite having Texans edge rusher Jadeveon Clowney in his face all afternoon; Foles missed a play on the eventual game-winning drive after Clowney hit him in the chest, while earlier in the game Clowney got away with grabbing Foles’s face mask on a two-point conversion attempt. After the missed face mask call, Foles was uncharacteristically irate and gave the officials an earful. Right tackle Lane Johnson followed closely behind Foles throughout the quarterback’s tirade, not because he was afraid Foles might get ejected, but because he’d never heard Foles swear before and thought that might be the moment. (Foles kept his remarks G-rated.)
This human fanny pack is Big Dick Nick, which has to set some sort of record for incongruity between man and moniker. Though maybe it had to be so—such a brazenly R-rated sobriquet would feel creepy on a more charismatic and outspoken quarterback. Besides, Superman lived out most of his life as a mild-mannered reporter. What’s good enough for Superman is good enough for Big Dick Nick.