PHILADELPHIA - The Philadelphia Eagles honored former quarterback Nick Foles, who last month chose to retire with the team he led to their first Super Bowl.
Foles, 35, signed a contract to retire as an Eagle and will serve as honorary captain for the team's Monday Night Football game against the Atlanta Falcons.
On Monday evening, Foles sat in front of the media and loved ones and gave a lengthy, heartfelt speech recapping his entire NFL career and his stints as an Eagle.
At the beginning of his speech, Foles said he went into the retirement presser ‘calm, cool and collected,’ until former Philadelphia Eagle Jason Kelce prompted a surprise pregame that got him ready.
"I get a text message from Jason Kelce saying like, 'Hey, man, will you come over and join me at the Countdown? I got a dog mask," Foles said. "We go over there, Fletcher Cox is there,..before I know it we're jumping on stage at Xfinity Live wearing two dog masks ripping them off cheering up the crowd."
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Foles then explained his gratitude for playing for the city and the team in green.
"There was just something different about wearing midnight green," Foles said during the presser. "I always felt something different in this city, in this stadium."
Foles became a Philadelphia legend when he stepped in for the injured Carson Wentz in the 2017 season and led the Eagles on an improbable Super Bowl run.
"I was just meant to play here and I'm so grateful to have been a part of these teams and I'm grateful to be a part of the history here," Foles said at the presser.. "It's made me a better person playing here."
"I think about what it meant to the city to win that Super Bowl and do it the way we did it against all odds," Foles, who won the Super Bowl LII MVP Award, told PhiladelphiaEagles.com. "I think it resonates with the City of Philadelphia so well, and it will forever."
It was Foles' second tenure in Philadelphia, where he spent the first three seasons of his career after being drafted by the Eagles in the third round of the 2012 draft.
"To end it this way is the right way, and it means a lot to me," Foles said.
Foles, who last played for the Indianapolis Colts in the 2022 season, said Monday will be the first NFL game he has attended as a non-player.
"I've dreamed of going out of that tunnel at least once more and being there with the crowd and seeing them cheering on the Eagles, cheering on this team – it's a new team each and every year – and I really don't know what the emotions will be like," Foles said.