The Philly Special
Super Bowl MVP and Seminary Student Nick Foles on Finding Your Identity
Backup quarterback is a unique position. While it comes with its own set of responsibilities, the heaviest task is the one that is most rarely realized—stepping in on a moment's notice. Not only did today’s podcast guest have to step up and be QB1 late in the season, but he also took the helm of a team favored to win the Super Bowl.
But if the pressure got to Nick Foles, he didn’t show it. Instead, he led the 2013 Philadelphia Eagles to a Super Bowl title and picked up a Super Bowl MVP award in the process. On today’s show, he talks to us about this experience, as well as what it looks like for him to live out his faith on the field.
As always, thanks for listening.
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Episode Transcript
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Henry Kaestner: Welcome back to the Faith Driven Athlete. We've got a great episode today. We have Nick Foles in the house, quite literally. I'm recording this right outside the house. And he was nice enough to coach my youngest son through some 360 moves. Of course, as is the case in our house we dunk on seven and a half foot rims and came to understand in our intro that Nick was able to dunk when he was in eighth grade, which is super cool. A bunch of great things that we got in store for today, and Nick's story, a couple of things that I do need to throw in there, and that is that it's difficult if you're running a podcast like this to ever say that you have a favorite sports team or favorite athletes. And Nick is actually one of those. But I'm going ask him a question about another one of mine, because I came to understand that he went to high school with Justin Tucker. And I grew up in Baltimore. All of our boys are Ravens fans. He's a hoot and he's a funny guy to watch. To be clear, this is going to be a podcast about Nick Foles and his story. But what was it like growing up with Justin Tucker?
Nick Foles: Yeah, I mean, I think I can summarize it in one story. Justin obviously is one of the greatest kickers ever to play in the NFL. But let's go back to Tuck is like a year younger than me. And I think when I was a sophomore in high school, I was one of few sophomores on varsity. Anyway, he was a freshman. He was a soccer player. And I was there. And Tuck is a super cocky guy, super confident guy, went to our special teams coach and had the audacity to say, I am gonna be the best kicker this school's ever seen. And at this time, he wasn't really like a kicker. I don't think, I think he was just figuring it out. He had a strong leg and we're like, who the heck is this guy again? Because you know how it is in high school. Guys make crazy claims. They fall flat on their face. We all are super cocky and arrogant. High school. As we get older, we realize how silly we were. That's like the first time I remember Tuck. And then I will tell you this. He has backed up that statement tenfold since then. And, you know, he was a wonderful teammate to have. He's extremely talented person from a wonderful family, extremely talented family.
And it's really cool. We actually did a joint practice with the Baltimore Ravens last year while I was in Jacksonville. So I got to spend some time with Tuck and do a video with them. And it's really cool to have known him for so long and see him grow into a husband and a father and a role model. He is really outstanding, but he's always been an extremely confident individual.
Henry Kaestner: Did he sing when he was playing football in high school or did that just come on later?
Nick Foles: Oh, he's always rapped, sing, done anything you can think of. And he actually was a really good safety defensive back in high school as well. I believe he had a pick six during my time with him and just uber talented person. I think he's using all his talents to showcase right now, which is really, really cool.
Henry Kaestner: So in this high school, this is Westlake High School. This is a big time high school. This is where Drew Brees went to, right?
Nick Foles: Yeah. Drew Brees also went there. So Drew and I are 10 years apart. And if you hear background noise, my daughter's dressed up as Elsa and Anna from frozen singing songs. Life is real right now. But yeah. Drew Brees, went there. We're 10 years apart. And we've been blessed to have, you know, several other professional athletes as well.
Henry Kaestner: And not only that, but I mean, these are athletes that are very serious about their faith. I mean, Drew is well known for being very serious about his Christian faith. Justin is a great Catholic leader. And your faith is obviously very, very important, which, of course, has landed you on the Faith Driven Athlete. Tell us about who you are. Tell us about your background and your upbringing and maybe when faith became a big deal for you.
Nick Foles: Yeah. I mean, I grew up in Austin, Texas. You know, it's crazy how I ended up in Westlake. I would've gone to Anderson High School if anyone knows Westlake. My parents were moving to another home. Something fell through and we weren't able to move in that home. So we ended up moving to Westlake. And that's how I ended up like being in the school to start Westlake as a first grader. I was actually supposed to grow up in a city and go to Anderson, which was crazy. So I ended up there, grew up going to church. I tell this all the time to keep it real. Did not like going to church. I went to a Presbyterian church and would fall asleep in church. And I just like most kids, just want to go play. I want to go do things, I didn't want to sit in church. But, you know, I had a foundation. My mom grew up in a Christian household and, you know, learned about Jesus, learned about God. I learned about the beginning creation. But like you said, I was a Christian. I did everything in high school, went through confirmation.
All that and I say all that to say, you know, I would pray and talk to God. I'd really talk to my grandpa George, who had passed away when I was in kindergarten, when I prayed during games and stuff. I knew he was watching over me in heaven because he was a believer that he'd be there with me. But there was never that foundation of faith where like a relationship with Christ. But I didn't realize that at the time until a lot of circumstances happened, too. I ended up at Michigan State for my freshman year, and ironically enough, to get to East Lansing. I flew in to Chicago, which has sort of crazy, which we'll get into later, but flew into Chicago with my father and then we drove the East Lansing. And that was the beginning of what I look at as my faith journey, because several months later, several things happened in my life. I was recovering from a complete right shoulder surgery that I played through my entire senior high school. I had eight or nine acres put in. Both my grandmothers passed away, among other things, in the first couple months of school. So one of those I couldn't make it to the funeral because of the football schedule and different things like that, which was really difficult being a Texas boy in Michigan. Anyway, I ended up giving my life to Christ in a parking garage just sitting there in my dad's truck and just say God like I can not hold myself up. Like I don't have any more energy, I don't have any more strength, I don't have any more confidence. I don't know why I'm basically saying this prayer, but I'm giving you my life. And that's where the beginning of my faith journey began, where I started really diving deep into the work as I was craving and I needed it. And I didn't understand scripture. I didn't understand the Old Testament, but God placed people in my life. Ever since then, to equip me and understand the Bible, to allow it to seep into my soul, to live it out and realize how following I am as a human being, but how I have a savior in Jesus Christ. So that year was such a special year of my life. And that's really how it all began.
Henry Kaestner: So it continues. One of the things that I hadn't known until recently is that the faith journeys continue. And it's not something like you say, well, one day when I finish playing football may get more serious about my faith and investigate it more. You're going to seminary right now. Right?
Nick Foles: Yeah. So in the off season, when we're not playing in Super Bowls and writing books and stuff, when I have time and it's still a stretch, I do take classes.
Henry Kaestner: So you're attending seminary classes, liberty online, presumably with other classmates who may or may not have also played in the Super Bowl. That must be really wild for them when they see the kind of the video up and they see the 12 different squares. And there's Nick Foles.
Nick Foles: Yeah. So, you know, the way I've been doing is like through discussion boards. But you do describe who you are. And, you know, there are several people that are NFL fans that have watched, but it's been great. I'm only nine hours in. I started several years ago, so I've been very slow. The year I started, it was the offseason that I ended up back in Philly, which we ultimately won the Super Bowl a year and wrote the book, believe it. And all those different things. So we've been very busy since. But this offseason I did sign up to take a course and I finished my course and did well. But I'm not going to lie like it took faith to sign up and have the energy to do it. And even after I signed up and did all that the night off, I tried to cancel. I was like man, I can't do it like I can't do a class right now, I'm already depleted. But it's been amazing to go through it and go through with my classmates online and sort of stretch me more than I thought.
Henry Kaestner: What's one thing you've learned? Just give us a glimpse into some of the things you've learned.
I say the biggest thing obviously you could talk about. This year was 3rd and 4th century apologetics. And I'd say the broader understanding those topics might not all all the time make your faith grow. You're going to learn a lot of knowledge and foundation and where the church has grown and fallen.
But I would say this is a broad overview of what I learned this last semester was any time humans and their fleshly instincts try to think they know better than God and try to step up and think that I can do better than God, it never has worked and it always ends badly. But whenever humans say, you know what, I trust the Lord, I trust his word as the word in living word of God and walk it out and live it, even though it's against what everybody else thinks is right. It might not necessarily end well, like because people, you know, are martyrs and there's things that happen. But the impact that's created by living it out and living through that sacrifice is truly amazing. And we're seeing the effects by believers today because of what those early Christians have done. And that's just a broad overview. And one more topic, I might add is that I love that we learned this. The first class I took in seminary was about how seminary students become very arrogant in the sense that they are in seminary and they think they know all so therefore they are better and self righteous. And I think we went through a whole course in how to stay a Christian while you're in seminary, basically saying, listen, this isn't about saying you know more. This is about living it out and learning and having a foundation and teaching and loving and serving. As Jesus said, don't go out and act like you're notorious at the day. That's not what's about. It's about living and out and sharing the gospel with others. And if seminary helps, you have a foundation of knowledge, of understanding, of other topics as it pertains to the early church and Christian. That's wonderful. Use as a tool to glorify God by serving and humbling yourself to others, not thinking of yourself greater. So those are a couple of things that I've learned how to stay Christian while you're in seminary. Yeah. Literally a book we read and it was a topic and it was amazing because you can see how you'd sort of think you start knowing and you're better because you're like, I'm going to school. There's a plenty of pastors and people out there that never went to seminary that are doing amazing things and have a ton of fruit to show for their life-giving for Jesus Christ.
Justin Forman: It's a great word. And when you talk about living it out, I mean, you don't have to look far, it seems like these days in the NFL to see guys that have been living it out. And we've had Case Keenum and Kirk Cousins and some other guys here on the podcast already who are some of the guys in the league that you look to maybe as a mentor or that have been that community for you guys that have gone before. You have lived out this idea of intersecting your faith and your work in the league?
Nick Foles: Yes, that's a great question. And like you mentioned, Case Keenum and Kirk Cousins have both been former teammates of mine and wonderful human beings. And it's really awesome to see what they're doing and how they're sharing their faith and making impacts in their communities and around the world, which is amazing. I would say for me, you know, someone I really admire and I told him this recently, he'd probably hate that I'm saying him is Matthew Hasselbeck.
I think he's someone who played in the league a long time. He obviously is with ESPN. And the way he lives it out, the way he loves, the way he cares, the way he does everything, the way he's a father and a husband. I truly have admired watching him use his platform as an athlete and not think about himself greater than others and just live it. I've been around him for years. I was with him the day he decided to leave football and join ESPN. And like, it's been really amazing. And he's someone that, you know, whenever I need to seek that wisdom with this sport, when things get difficult and I need a word because I know he's always going to pull me back to Christ. He's going to give me as knowledge from his experiences. But he's always. Look at it as a biblical perspective. I think it's truly amazing and then another person who I think has done amazing things and continues to is Ben Watson, you know, Ben is someone who helps lead a conference I go to every offseason, the increased conference put on by PAO. And, you know, Ben is someone who lives it out. He's written books. He speaks about his faith. He lives it. He's got a thousand kids right now. And I don't know how he's doing it, but him or his wife are truly living now and sharing the gospel in a real, genuine way. And it's really awesome to be playing in the NFL, but seeing guys use this platform to share the gospel and they're basically hidden as athletes. They're athletes. They're using the platform to share the gospel. And that's why we do it.
Justin Forman: And when you talk about PAO, you shared a little bit about this before. I think there was maybe it was one of the years that you had gone to an event there in a conference that was really instrumental for you and your teammates there in Philadelphia. And you guys kind of walked out of there with a perspective, not just as a team, but what your impact can be on the city.
Nick Foles: So Tori and I went to this conference in San Diego at the time. And, you know, it was so impactful because not only are you worshiping an obviously being fed by the spirit, by all these amazing pastors, they just love the Lord. But you also break down small groups and get to learn about other people's testimonies and sharing with them information that's deep and stuff you struggle with and realizing you're not alone in your struggles and that, Jesus, there is the help you hold everything up. Well, anyway, I was a Philadelphia Eagles at the time with 11 guys there. And the big thing we were talking about was how we're going to use this. And we were gonna get back to Philadelphia and we're gonna help the city and we're gonna share the gospel in the city and we're going to glorify God. And that's going to be our main purpose. And, you know, that conference is so influential that the last night everyone who hasn't been baptized gets baptized. Well, Tori and I've been baptized as kids and we pray and baptized through confirmation. So we didn't think it was necessary. But that night we had so much conviction in our heart that, like, you know what, we never were baptized. Well, we gave our lives to Christ and we weren't living to our parents faith. We're living through our faith. So in the morning, we like reached out to Don and Pastor Ted, who was the chaplain in Philadelphia, and Don Davis, who is one of the men who lead it. And they baptize us. We leave PAO in a couple of days later was actually I was probably the highest on life when it comes to my faith. I'd been to that point where life is just, oh, man. I was just walking on water like there were so many amazing things in my spirit was filled and I was floating. And that was the day I got the call from Jake Keller that I was traded from Philadelphia. Shortly after that, I'll end with this over this question. Obviously, I left doing the toughest thing for me was knowing what was planned and what we had planned to share the gospel. I never knew what God had in store at that point of us going to St. Louis and almost retiring and going to Kansas City, coming back to Philadelphia. And when I got to Philadelphia, all the things we had prayed for and believed God would have done. We were doing in 2017, sharing the gospel with the North and South campus. We were able to proclaim Christ on these amazing stages. We were able to partner with Philadelphia Children's Alliance and IJM to help end slavery within the city and worldwide. All these things that we had prayed for in 2014 and I thought I would never be able to be a part of like on the ground. God used it and brought it back full circle to where it went. I literally landed there.
We were doing it and it's truly amazing. That's why you never know what God has in store. And God is always working in our lives. It's not always for, you know, our prosperity because I don't believe in the prosperity of everything. I believe. It's always about the kingdom and glorifying God. And he's got to allow us to go through difficult times. But he's shown so many things in my life and allowed me to go through so many trials that are for the kingdom. And that's where I'm at. It's a point now at 31 years old that I'm like, God just use me as you wish. And there's times where it's sort of scary saying that, but it's like I just want to use whatever you give me to glorify you and whatever that may be.
Justin Forman: So let's switch gears here a little bit. Nick, I appreciate you sharing that journey and you talk about some of the journey there in Philadelphia and the way that God used you guys. Let's switch to the playing field for a little bit and talk to us just about some of the things there you hear at the Eagles. You're in that situation and you're sitting there thinking, God has you there for a reason. But we hear that old adage, you never know when that moment is going to come. Talk us through where you were at just your mindset, your frame of mind, where you were in that season when all the sudden things change and and you're up.
Yeah. I say when we decided to go back to Philadelphia after leaving Kansas City, we wanted to stay in Kansas City, but got a different plans. And we did decide to go back to Philadelphia because they wanted us. But not only that, it was.
We're having Lily. Lily was going to be born June 16th. So we want to be somewhere where we knew the community and knew the people within a locker room in the city. And it was a place where we could raise Lily when she was just a baby. So that's how we ended up there. You know, football was a part of it, but it wasn't like go on a go here and start doing things like God sort of humbled that part of me in my life where, like, I thought my identity had to be I. Playing I need to do this, I could be hard to back up. He had broken that part of me, which is a beautiful thing because my identity is not in the position. So anyway, when I went to Philadelphia, my purpose was to obviously glorify God with my actions, be a part of the Bible study, be a part of the community, help a young quarterback in Carson mature and play well in the city that I had previously been the quarterback in. But it was never like, hey, I'm a go and start and do these things like if I want to Super Bowls be as a backup supporting people by running scout team. And I I understood that night to be okay with that. And that was part of his plan for once again, God had different plans that I did not expect to happen. And see, I'm not the player, obviously. Quarterbacks you want to play, only one guy can play. I'm not the player that sits there rooting for the guy to get injured. I'm the player that if you're the starter and you're the best thing for this team, like I'm going to be there supporting you and wanting you to succeed and do those things. And that starts with humbling myself because, you know, if you've played the sport like you want to play and part of you is like man at all costs. That was like one of the toughest things when it happened when Carson got injured. As a man like you don't want to see that happen, but the end of the day too you're like, my responsibility now, my stewardship is to go lead this team and that's not going to be easy. So basically just obviously everyone knows the outcome. But there was a lot of testing of faith and confidence. And, you know, I remember Nate Suffield, who's a brother like his literal brother and me the day after we got back from the Rams game, after Carson went down, like we're sitting there in the QB room studying film. And I don't know if we even studied film that day, to be honest with you, because we were going through so many emotions of the pressure of the situation. And we just sat there and we poured out our hearts and we're like, all right. What are some verses we want to focus on, you know, how are we gonna glorify God? Cause this is way too much for us to handle. Like everyone always says, God is only gonna give you what you can handle that is not scriptural at all. Like I do not see that in scripture. God is going to pour it on you and say if you try to do this on your own strength, you're gonna crumble. The only way you hold it up and handle the situation is by having me in your heart, in your life. And trust me, it's for my glory, not your own. So those conversations with Nate and other brothers were so valuable in that time. And with my wife, Tori and I every single night in that span of the season, in the playoffs, like every night, you would have 30 minute our conversations of all the pressure, all the struggle, all the heartache, everything that was going on. But that was where our faith continued to grow because we are leading towards God's word in that time. And I know it's a lot of the deeper stuff. And then I would just go out there and play. I was blessed to have an amazing coaching staff and amazing teammates to where we were able to go through adversity at the end of the season. Ultimately, figure out a game plan where we could go out there and thrive and God was glorified throughout it. And I'm grateful that my coaches put together a game plan that was like, hey, you know what? The options for running isn't suited for Nick it's suited for Carson. Frank Reich was a big component of looking at my old film of 2013 14. Say, where does Nick play at his highest level? And they reconfigured the game plan to where my strengths lie. And I didn't know that that was where my strengths were in a reed react quarterback situation. And we developed a game plan to where all of a sudden in the playoffs everyone's like, how the heck did this happen? Well, my heart was calmed by knowing that it's not about me. It's about going on glorifying God and trust to my teammates and to the game plan was something that I liked. I loved it to where all I had to do is go out there and sling the rock and trust my teammates and have fun, do it. And we were able to do it in an extremely high level. And ultimately, at the end of the day, stand onstage and say, hey, we do this for the glory of God and we're proud to be a part of the Philadelphia community.
Henry Kaestner: So was it something that Frank Reich had seen back in that film that made him look at you and say that guy can be a great receiver?
You know what, I. You threw me off with that question. I thought you were going to ask the generic playbook question. You know what? I think that one hundred percent had to go with my basketball playing background because everyone had known about my basketball playing background. I had played on the Eagles charity team back in 2000, 13 and 14. And, you know, I'd played pick up basketball with Michael Vick and Jeremy Maclin and all those guys. And ironically, one of my first plays playing pickup basketball was Michael Vick getting a steal and throwing me an alley oop and me slamming it home. So if I could, I had a great foundation on the basketball court and he might not even remember that. But I do, because Mike Vick throwing the ball and I got to slam. Well, you don't forget that. No, you don't. And before practice, every day, before practice, before every game I work on over the shoulder, one-handed catches, between the leg catches, all the Odell catches. Those are the ones I work on as well. I'm not as good as them, but I can still catch the rock a little bit. So I think they have seen enough to think if we throw him a little short pass, he can come home with it. So the Philly special was born. I think Press Taylor actually was the one who had done a lot of research, who's now the passing game coordinator there. He had done a lot of research on it and found it. And, you know, he had confidence in my ability not to mess it up. And for Trey's ability to throw it in, for Corey's ability to toss it to Trey. And the biggest question mark was my ability to be an actor, which, by God's grace, I was able to do. But I was not a good actor at the beginning because there was an acting show. I had to act like I was audibling a play and do all these different things. And it's not easy to do that if you're not an actor. But it worked out and ultimately became a historic play in Philadelphia history.
Henry Kaestner: It sure did. It sure did. Okay. To bring back something you mentioned just a little bit ago about being humble these days, companies and we actually we had a Faith Driven Entrepreneur podcast recently with a guy named Pat Lencioni, and he's just a great business leader and he talked about this concept to being hungry and humble. And, you know, we think that these NFL games who want people were all in who want to do whatever it takes and they're going to be the guy that's going to take over as the quarterback and there's gonna be something that's burning inside of them. And you don't oftentimes think that humility as a part of that equation. And yet, for anybody who's had any type of interaction with you, you get a sense that it's there, that you have the humility without losing the hunger. How do you balance that and how do you encourage others to do the same?
Nick Foles: That's an amazing question And as you were asking a question, a Bible verse came to me and this summarizes how you're able to be hungry. But I'll get to the verse. I'll pull it up to reference it. So I don't skew it.
But how do you stay hungry and humble and do those things? And that was the biggest struggle for me. Honestly, when I was gonna step away from the game was I did not idolize football. Football was not something that I dreamed about and went to bed and woke up wanting to study my playbook and study film and literally sacrifice everything in my life for football, my success, playing football. I had guilt about it to where it just weighed down on me. And I had coaches all throughout my life telling me like, you have to sacrifice everything. And even with families like you and your family, you're going to pay for your family, you're going to provide for them. That's got to be good enough. And to me, that's just not what I felt in my heart. And I felt that guilty. And we all know guilt weighs us down. But that's what was beautiful about my year and insane Lewis was I got to go through that desert time and I got to really study the word and be an unbroken place where I was really broken and strong and didn't want such a football. Well, ultimately, when I came back to play, it was 100 percent to glorify God and use the platform to do those things. And I'm not perfect by any means. I still fall and I still sin and I still have to repent. I still do those things. But the verse come to mind. The verse I was living out last year meditating on through our struggles is Galatians 1:10 For am I now trying to persuade people or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. And I say that to say is, listen, the reason I'm playing the game of football is to glorify God, and that's going to be greater than any human being. So therefore, like you can say, I'm more in than I've ever been in my entire life. Now, if you're a human and you're living in fleshly standards, you don't like what I just said. You don't like that I'm not living, breathing, eating football, sacrificing my life, sacrificing, being a husband or a father for the betterment of the team.
And I've actually seen it done other ways to where. Listen, I'm studying film. I'm preparing. I'm gonna practice as hard as I can and do what I can because I'm not doing it to please my coaches. I'm not doing it to please the GM. I'm doing it to be a good steward of the situation that God's allowed me to do. And that's what my mindset was in 2017 and 2016 and 2018 and 2019. And now you might look at the Super Bowl and say, oh, that's amazing. But this last year didn't go so well for you, did it? It's like, no it did. The amount of growth I had throughout the struggles this last year was more than in 2017 was when the Super Bowl that will come to fruition down the road is not all about success. And I've learned that in Galatians 1:10 was on my heart. Throughout this last year, when I was getting booed off the field by the fans in Jacksonville because I struggled for two quarters and they for some reason hated me for struggling as a human being. I'll never forget sitting there on the sidelines, getting booed, coming off. I are working my way back from a surgery where a plate and screws were put on my shoulder from a hit I took on that field too months before. My dad's watching, my daughters watching, my wife's watching and getting booed and I'm hurting inside. But I'm listening and that verse comes to me and I get it. Like if I was living to please people right now, I would be crumbled, I would be struggling, I would be done. But I'm not now. I felt it with the flesh. Absolutely. Like I was teary eyed in my heart because I know my dad's watching this, tears coming down his face. Like, these people are booing my son because he struggled for two quarters in a football game where he's given everything he has. I don't get it. But what I realized then is like, it doesn't matter. This is for purpose and I need to go through this. And God using this for some reason. And I do not like this situation. I actually hate this situation.
But now I'm in a situation now where a lot has happened this offseason and, you know, different circumstance with a different team. And we had to sacrifice a contract and those things. But it was minimal. Like I wanted to be in a culture that I believed in with Matt Naggy in Chicago. And there's people I love in Jacksonville, in that city and the team. There were seeds planted. There's people we love there. I still care about that city. My wife and I, you know, we're working on right now. We created the Foles Belief Foundation literally 3, 4 weeks ago when it's come to fruition now because we want to help people throughout this pandemic. So we have nine grants going to food pantries across the nation and cities. We've been a part of in Jacksonville is one of those cities that we want to help. Like we didn't just leave it in, like, say peace. We said, no, no. There's people that we love. There's people there in need. We love them. And I'm speaking from the spirit and I'm not speaking about me because it's not about me. And that's what God continue to work in our lives, because every single day we wake up and we're like, I don't know how we're gonna do it, but then we open up the beautiful word of God and say, well, you will be done. And that all has to do with football. And that's why I love playing the game of football, because I get to go share the gospel. And it's not only within the locker room, the city. The hardest point is in a game where there's adversity and you're getting booed and you're struggling to say, all right. I'm a continue to grind. This is for your glory. Like how I handle this is for your glory. It's not all about and touchdowns. It's about how you act and how you glorify him in those tough situations.
Justin Forman: You know, I think it's interesting that when you talk about that, it's fascinating. I think people on the outside, as fans of the game, they hear the stories of athletes that are all consumed, all consumed to their craft and to the point that they even see it as an idol. But yet, what you're unpacking for us is this idea that God's had you on this journey. He's brought you through that place where you seen the balance in that. But yet now we're going through a season as a country, as fans, that something that's good, something that's fun to watch in sports is being ripped from us. And we're kind of seeing this is exposed as an idol and identity and us as fans. What do you make of that? What do you think God's up to this time?
Nick Foles: Yeah, I think that's the big thing everyone wants to know is what is God up to? And I know the Romans 8:28 has talked a lot about God is always working for a good. Doesn't mean everything's gonna be good and doesn't mean we're gonna see good but he's always working on something. Like I just shared like this last year in Jackson. It was not easy, but I look back now and see the growth that had to happen and it was necessary for him to allow us to go through that. And you know, I think when you turn on the news, which a lot of people are and we have in the house and it's a lot of negative, it's a lot of oh, this people die. This is the spread quarantine. This that. And another quote that's been tossed around right now that I actually love is from Mr. Rogers. And what his mother said is because he had the same struggles we all do right now, whereas like I can't watch that stuff but his mom said look for the helpers because they're always there.
And I turn on the news now and I look at the hospitals, I see the nurses, I see the doctors, I see the people delivering free food. I see everyone helping. There are helpers everywhere. There are people helping and making changes. There are distilleries out there making hand sanitizer and using their alcohol for that. There are delivery services, not charging anyone anything because they know they're getting more business. People are trying to solve. So this. And so there's a magazine or newspaper called Good, Good, Good Newspaper that I just listen to a podcast the other day with the creator of it on. His name's Brandon, I believe. And the newspaper is directed toward positive news around the world. Nothing negative. Because we love negative. We love drama. We love to boo. We love those things. We love when someone messes up. That's what our flesh like when someone fails. But your spirit doesn't want that. So what I see right now is there's a lot of good people are changing. Another thing is the Bible project that does visualizations of the Bible and teaches the Bible in a visual way. They're based out of Oregon. I love them. I'm on their email list. They sent me an email and sent everyone off the chart of March and the views just skyrocketing throughout the month of people wanting to learn about the word of God because they literally realized that there 401k and their portfolio and everything they thought they stood for their sports, they're fleeting. We never knew this would happen. We thought we had things in place to stop what just happened. But we can't. And obviously, it's horrible what's happening around the world. And that's where I'm amazed and I love this. Look at the helpers like Mr. Rogers had said. And I focus on the good and I focus on prayer. And I'm amazed with all the different athletes and the people with great positions wanting to give, wanted to use their platform to share the gospel, to help one another to why we created the fullest foundation. Both Belief Foundation is like we wanted to be able to help in a genuine way and we wanted people to partner with us and to be a part of it. And it came out of I never want to start a foundation. I never want to write a book, I never want to do things. But at the right time, at a certain time, God said, do this and we are doing it. And there's so many people out there. And we don't want the credit because we don't deserve the credit. God deserves all the credit. We are going to be a steward of what he's blessed us to be a steward up. And that is our responsibility. And we're going to continue to love our neighbors. I'd say the big thing to conclude with the question is I get fired up is I see a lot more loving of neighbors throughout this.
And that's what Jesus teaches about all throughout the gospel. And so I focus on what God is actually doing and not the fear basis. Even though it is a very seriously respectful of social distancing and everything going on.
Justin Forman: So it's great when you talk about new neighbors. Obviously, Chicago is going to be the new place. Did you guys call home here soon? So what is it like conducting free agency on Zoom calls?
Nick Foles: Well, what's crazy is like in this situation, the trade happened, so I couldn't really do anything. My agent was the one who was working through it all and we were ultimately traded to Chicago. But the trade actually happened and this is a huge part of it. Like we restructured our contract. A very, very, very different contract than we signed in Jacksonville, because I think a lot of people I don't like read the news, but I read the news a little bit about the situation we like. Why would they pick up his contract? Why would they do this? Is this and that? And that's what you know, once again, people want to be negative because people listen to it. The reason it went through is we restructure our deal because we believed in the trade. We believed in this change of scenery.
We believe that Jack Smith should build around the young quarterback in Gardner, who I love. We believe that change of scenery was great for us. It was great for Jacksonville in the year served its purpose, but it ultimately came down to a restructure of a contract that was not easy, but it was done. And we are excited about the opportunity to be playing for the Chicago Bears, to be with Coach Matt Naggy, who is a quality control coach for me and 2012. And it's truly amazing that God's allowed me to play for Andy Reid twice, for Doug Peterson twice and for Matt Naggy twice and to be a part of what he's doing. I do believe in their culture. I do believe what they stand for. That's what ultimately made my decision of executing, allowing the trade to go through. And now there was other teams that were interested, you know, but God ultimately wanted us to go to Chicago and allowed it to happen. But there was, you know, a couple other teams are interested as well. I love their coaches as well. So excited about the opportunity and so many unknowns ahead. So we're just living in the moment.
Justin Forman: So Chicago is obviously a. Football town, big basketball town. We'd be remiss if we did come back to what you let us in on a little bit earlier, some of the basketball days, we've heard the stories, you know, you and I think some pickup games, Gronk, some other things. We saw some ESPN articles on that. Let's frame it to you this way. If you're putting together your pickup game, you've got four others that can join you. Who's on your squad?
Nick Foles: All time, including NFL players and everything. Or do you want to go back to college?
Justin Forman: Let's go. Current current NBA players. You put together.
Nick Foles: Oh, NBA players.
OK, so. So full disclosure and this is a lot about me. And this is where people aren't going to understand, I don't watch sports. I don't like. Obviously, I know who players are. I know that I don't like watching sports. I have never liked watching sports on TV since I was a kid. My dad used to get on me as a kid. Say what? You need to watch these guys. These guys are the best. And I know, dad. I'm going outside to throw the football and play basketball on my own. Now, I would go to the University of Texas Games as a kid and watch UT in person and loved doing that. But I just to this day, my wife still thinks I'm crazy. Like I can't sit and watch sports because I just want to be playing sports. I say all that to say I will do my best to do this. But I'm not a sports fan in the sense of watching it because I'm playing and I love being active.
Henry Kaestner: So, OK, so when you go back, lets change the rules a little bit completely. I love that you can sit and watch sports all day long and you wouldn't be nick Foles playing the Super Bowl, but you've played with some incredible players and so pick. But we got to stay in basketball. But it could be anybody. It could be somebody that nobody's ever heard of. You've got to put together the best five. You're one of them. Four other people, four other athletes that you're going to put up against the best five that somebody else has put together. Who do you have?
Nick Foles: See, I'm going to get in so much trouble if anyone listens to this, because guys get really sensitive about their basketball skills. All right. I'll keep it simple. And I'm gonna go with one guy comes to mind is my brother Nate Suffield, because he's got some game.
He's great. You can shoot. Try to think of big guys. I got to go with Jason Peters left tackle. No doubt he was played it forever. I don't know if he can still move like he usually still amazing. Played amazing long time. But go with Jason Peters because you need a bruiser down there. I know Jeremy Maclin is a great basketball player.
Henry Kaestner: Would Michael Vick, be the coach. Where's Michael?
Nick Foles: You know what, Michael? I love Michael. He's one of the best athletes I've been around. But he travels a lot. There's a lot of traveling and he doesn't get called on it because he's Michael Vick. Yes, the LeBron James effect. So Mike would be there. But I got a huge travel, so it might not be good. I'll go with Connor Barwin. He played basketball in Cincinnati. So he'd play.
Henry Kaestner: So Justin Tucker is lobbying to be on the team.
Nah, J Tuck i, not basketball. No way. No chance. If we play soccer. Absolutely. I think I need one more. We'll have to stop there because I'll be thinking about forever. Yeah. I mean, obviously, Gronkowski is a great player and we did play pickup in college. We had a good starting five. Football basketball team in college. We had, you know, me, Gronkowski, David Douglas, who played in the NFL. Treveon went to play in the NFL.
And then we had a scrapper named Victor Yates, who is a traitor and is at Arizona State now. So, Victor, if you ever listen to this, I'm still not happy about you. All right. Well, actually, Juron Kriner, who is my receiver, who has offered to play at Arizona. So we were actually able to take it to the basketball team during Pick-Up games because we had some talent. I think that showed just how much of sports, you know, I really that those really good does really, really get a shot. I tried my best. Really.
Justin Forman: Hey, we appreciate it. So one other thing that you probably didn't imagine doing was writing a book. Talk to us about that experience and how you guys come to sitting down to make time for that.
Nick Foles: OK. So in 2017, God had it on my heart to someday write a book randomly. But it wasn't necessarily what I thought the book would be. A book about different topics and different things and stuff like that. I didn't think it'd be about my life and testimony. Anyway, that was on my heart for a short amount of time during 2017. But it was just fleeting. Then after the Super Bowl, we had opportunities to write a book with several different companies. My marketing agent read sounds okay. They want to write a book. This is what how much money they're offering you, which is a very large sum of money. And I just said, listen, I have no energy to write a book. I'm so depleted from the season, the Super Bowl, like I can't write a book. And like, I don't want to accept money for my testimony and my life. Like, I just don't think it's right. Well, my wife and I talked about we prayed about it and sought wisdom from a couple authors that are friends. And they're like, you know, there's different ways you can do it.
You can do it to solely give everything away or if I got to do those things. So we decided to do a book and we decided do it specifically with Tindale Publishing. Christian Publishing Company had done, you know, Tony Dungy books, Drew Brees, his books. So they had a foundation, amazing foundation, sports books that I have admired throughout the years. And as we were negotiating the contract with them, they had an amount that they hit and it was lower than the secular companies, but it wasn't bad going to secular company. But I wanted Jesus Christ to be glorified throughout the book. Well, my market agent said, listen, like Nick is giving away 100 percent from this book. He's doing it like he wants to give to churches. He wants to give the audience foundations. He wants to give to community outreach. He wants to do all these different things with this book is not about him. So anyway, we came to an amount and the agreed upon amount was amazing and matched any secular company because Tendo has the same heart as we do as they give away in our nonprofit. So that was the heart behind why we did the book. When I originally didn't want to do the book. So then I will say this that gave me such a fire to give every single thing I had to do the book with the Tendo team, Carol and Josh Cooley wrote the book Carol Trever was helping on a team. We had this whole team do it. It's a twenty five thirty hours of conference calls. It took twenty five thirty hours of editing the book twice to such a quick turnaround. And Randy Alcorn, who's author, Christian author, who's written several books. He's a great friend. I'll never forget what he said when we were editing the book, because there are a lot of people that write books and do this with a ghostwriter and they don't edit and they're like, you know what? We got paid.
It's cool, stories out there, whatever. He said, write this book as if Lily, our daughter, is reading it at 16 years old and she wants to hear about your testimony and your stories journey throughout these years. And she's reading it. So it needs to be with done with that much accuracy, that much care and that much prayer.
So that's what we did. And I'll never forget the last galleys at its worst. It's the PDA version where Carol emailed emailed me and said, Nick, I know you want to do a hardcore edit, but you can only edit minor things and minor statistics. You cannot afford it. We don't have the time to do it. I then, in the most respectful way, went against that. It did one more hardcore edit on every chapter and three days of the entire book because it had to be just right. And I had to have if we had a pepperoni pizza and it said a pepperoni and pineapple pizza, I wanted the pineapple gone. I wanted pepperoni because we had pepperoni. I want to be so accurate because I did not want to be sensationalized, because it need to be about our testimony, what God had done and not about this imaginary tale that is not reachable. And we were able to write the book and do the book tour and do those things. The book tour was brutal. Six days. You know, did it with my marking. Agent Austen and Todd start to star. We call him Todd from Tindell. It was with us and met some amazing people, grinded it out. Never been more exhausted in my life. But ultimately, we were able to give away all the proceeds and glorify God and share my testimony everywhere.
And it was truly an amazing opportunity that God allowed us to do. And I still to this day cannot believe we wrote a book and we were able to do those things with them. We were blessed to do those things. I had this because authors deserve to be paid a hundred percent, but we play football and God allowed me to make a great amount of money and be steward of the football parts where we can make this decision. So I'd like to add that because authors do an amazing job and they deserve to be paid what they paid.
Henry Kaestner: Nick, one of the things we always like to close every one of our podcast episodes, whether it's on the Faith Driven Entrepreneur or Faith Driven Investor and definitely Faith Driven Athlete, is to ask our guest something that they're learning from God in the Bible, from the Bible. And maybe it's this morning doesn't need to be this morning, maybe this week or sometime within the last month. But something that you hear God speaking to you and you did it actually in the midst of this podcast, you brought out a great passage from Galatians. Is there something in this season, a life, though, that you particularly hear guys speaking to you about?
Nick Foles: Yeah, think so many times in my life, and I think a lot of Christians will also say this where God's given us a platform that we get excited about at first and we realize it's for his glory and we step out onto the water with that first step and then we realize how much is actually really going on in a fleshly standard. And we're like, there's no way I can do this. And then we start sinking like Peter does in the water because we take our eyes off Jesus. What I've seen throughout my life and through the trials and ups and downs is it's always got to be focused on Christ in everything you do. That's one example is I never thought I'd do a foundation. We're starting a foundation. I never thought I would do a podcast. I'm creating a nonprofit podcast called The Mission of Truth Keeping It Real with Nick and Chris.
So Chris Maragos, a former teammate, and I are in the process of also sharing the gospel message and also keeping it real with men about different struggles we've had in our lives. Yeah. And we'll have different guests on eventually and we'll dove down deep. And I never thought I would ever do those guys stretching me. But it's all for his glory. And the verse that comes to mind is the verse that is the foundation of the foundation of our foundation is I was reading in Luke when all this came to be. And it says Luke 3:11 He replied to them. The one who has two shirts must share with someone who has none. And the one who has food must do the same.
And I say that that is the thing that I'm seeing during this crisis. During the coronavirus is people are sharing. They're having to give. Everything is fleeting. And that was what we want to do with the foundation. That is the foundation, you know, that will be below our mission statement. That will be the heart of it is we've been blessed by what I don't know why I'm playing in the NFL. I don't know why God's allowed all these amazing things to happen. There's been a ton of trials in there. We've had a lot of heartache. We've had a lot of struggles. We've had a miscarriage. We've had our daughter in the ER. We've had all these things that people don't necessarily know about.
But we still find joy, as James 1 talks about in the Lord and I'm tested every single day. That's why every single day most important thing is getting the word and praying and taking those steps of faith. And I'd like to make it very clear to people. I do struggle. And there's nights where I don't and I get frustrated and I'm tired. And my wife will be like, I can tell that there's some spiritual warfare going on just two nights ago. She's like, I can tell you're not yourself. Watch. You go upstairs and take a few minutes. And I'm a big epson salt baths. I love epson salt baths. That was a way to sit in a bath for 30 minutes, heal the body and also get in a word and just take a breath and take a prayer, because I don't want to be one of those people that proclaim Christ and act like I'm perfect because I'm not. But I will say this the living word is perfect and it is giving me the strength throughout this time to focus on him and do these things that I never thought possible. And is there money involved in creating a foundation or. I can know you're giving it away. You're giving away your time. You're giving away your money. And I'll tell you this. That is the greatest thing about making money is being able to be a steward of it. And Randy Alcorn writes several books about giving us the good life to treasure principle. And it really is true. And that is a part of the testimony. I don't like pointing to the amount we give in our mission statement, in our statement where we will release next week about the foundation. I'm not going to say the amount we gave because we know the amounts about what God's doing, but we will share where we're partnering. And that was the thing. I always struggle with it. So we're gonna do it in a way that glorifies him. And I say that to say God is stretching me every single day, but I'm going to lean on his word. And I'm grateful to be allowed to be on y'all's podcast, to share my testimonies, to share what's going on. And what you are doing is truly amazing. And I just hope that if there's listeners out there that listen, that it provides hope and realize that, you know, I'm a fallen person. I still sin. I repent. But God truly does love you. Jesus Christ really did give his life for you. And I'm just grateful to be able to share that on this platform.
Henry Kaestner: Nick, it's been actually awesome having you with this. Thank you very much for taking the time. Excited to watch you in Chicago. Bring out the Bears jerseys and rooting for you on Sunday.
Nick Foles: Well, thank you all so much for having me on. And truly, I'll be praying for y'all's ministry and what you are doing here with this podcast. It's is really awesome.