It almost seemed like destiny that Nick Foles would end up playing for the Chicago Bears. Their head coach Matt Nagy had worked with him two different times in Philadelphia and Kansas City. Offensive coordinator Bill Lazor and quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo also spent time with him on different occasions. With Mitch Trubisky struggling and the team in need of a solution, Foles was the obvious choice.
What many might not know is the weird ties go deeper. Foles revealed in his first interview after being traded from Jacksonville that the motto of his college team at Arizona was, “Bear Down.” If that weren’t enough, a video resurfaced of the quarterback being interviewed back in 2012 by Raiders head coach Jon Gruden, who was then an ESPN analyst.
In the middle of talking about Foles’ time down in Arizona where he enjoyed the constant warm weather, a clearly jealous Gruden seemed to almost prophecize the quarterback ending up in Chicago.
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Gruden called his shot on Nick Foles
It’s fascinating how Gruden chose the Bears in that scenario. He easily could’ve gone with other cold weather teams like the Packers, Steelers, Bills, Broncos, Browns, or even the one that eventually did draft him in the Eagles. Nope. He went with the Bears. Did the football gods seem to channel their will into him saying that? It’s impossible to know for sure. Yet looking back it seems the old coach felt karma would catch up to the kid from Texas at some point. Especially after he left Michigan State after one season.
Destiny talk aside, most experts seem to believe Foles has the inside track to win the upcoming competition for the Bears QB job. His history of success which includes a Super Bowl ring, lots of experience in the system, and having the trust of the coaching means he’d likely have to look really bad in training camp and the preseason to not supplant Trubisky. Maybe he has a little magic left he can bring Chicago.