SUPER BOWL 52: Backup QB delivers in clutch and helps Eagles hold off future Hall of Famer Tom Brady
MINNEAPOLIS Nick Foles didn't see any future on a Michigan State team that had Brian Hoyer and Kirk Cousins, so he shipped out to Arizona.
Only now has "Sparty" begun to feel the loss.
With Hoyer looking on as Tom Brady's backup Sunday, Foles was the man of the hour in Philadelphia's 41-33 Super Bowl conquest of New England.
The Eagles will be busy for a while celebrating their first NFL championship since a month after John F. Kennedy was elected President.
Soon enough, they'll have to decipher what to do with the 29-year-old Foles, whose 25-18 record now includes three fresh postseason wins and a Super Bowl MVP trophy.
Foles finished the first year of his two-year Eagles contract in style, but what to do? Carson Wentz, who was having an MVP far before blowing out a knee in Game 13, is a budding superstar.
"Nick Foles is amazing," said tight end Zach Ertz, who caught the game-winning touchdown. "People panicked when Carson (Wentz) went down, but Nick has been playing out of his mind.
"He's a fantastic human and a fantastic player."
Foles went toe to toe with Brady for an Eagles team that didn't hesitate to play mind games right along with Bill Belichick.
Early on, the Patriots ran a trick play that had Brady open as a receiver. The future Hall of Famer took his eye off the ball. With 34 seconds left in the half, Foles sneaked to the line of scrimmage just before a direct snap went to No. 3 tight end Trey Burton. Foles was wide open (as were his eyes) on Burton's short touchdown pass that gave the Eagles a 22-12 halftime lead.
Foles passed for 373 yards and three touchdowns in addition to his TD catch.
"Listen, I was going to stay aggressive with Nick the whole game," head coach Doug Pederson said. "I was going to stay aggressive with him, and trust him to make plays with our playmakers."
Brady's future is a different kind of story. He is going on 41 and shows no outward signs of erosion. He passed for 505 yards in his eighth Super Bowl (5-3 record).
It is not that there is no country for old men here, but it is a tiny country.
Peyton Manning's last game was Super Bowl 50, seven weeks before he turned 40.
Brett Favre had just turned 41 in 2010 when he lost a 28-18 duel against Brady. The old slinger had just six more starts in him.
Doug Flutie played until he was 43. Warren Moon and Vinny Testaverde made it to 44. The late George Blanda, who would be 90, has the longevity record, having still been in a game at quarterback when he was 48.
Brady was named NFL MVP on Saturday.
Is it possible Brady could be playing at 50?
"I don't know about that," Hoyer said. "I do know he's the best of all time. I know he's still doing it at a very high level."
Hoyer, 32, was hoping to take his first confetti shower. He was Brady's backup in the Super Bowl that capped the 2011 season (a loss to the Giants) and then got cut in the 2012 preseason. He went 10-6 as the Browns' starter from 2013-14. He got squeezed out of San Francisco by Jimmy Garoppolo and landed back in New England as Brady's backup.
"To see him still doing it arguably even better than he was when I left has been a real treat," Hoyer said. "His intensity, his passion, his will to win are unmatched by anyone else I ever met."
Brady talks as though he will play on indefinitely. He will go on without his longtime friend and coach Josh McDaniels, who is headed for Indianapolis as head coach of the Colts.
McDaniels arrived in New England as a bottom-rung assistant in 2001, the same year Brady became a starting quarterback and won his Super Bowl.
Brady's eighth Super Bowl took him back to the time when he had none.
"It's been a long journey since I was a boy just dreaming of going to pro games, not playing them," Brady said. "I actually was better in baseball growing up."
By the time the Patriots drafted Brady several picks after the Browns took Spergon Wynn in Round 6 in 2000, he wasn't dreaming. He KNEW he would be a good pro.
"People said, 'What are you talking about? Sixth-round picks don't make it,'" said the former Michigan slinger. "I never thought that. I thought, 'Of course I'm going to make it.'"
Who thought Foles would be fighting it out in a Super Bowl when he was the No. 3 QB at Michigan State. And who knew Foles would be the last man standing?
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