MINNEAPOLIS — A championship-starved city, clinging forever to Its Rocky dream, prays now for a Super Bowl LII miracle from Nick Foles, asks him to be St. Nick, asks him to be its savior against the Goliaths of the sport, the Evil Emperors, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, the G.O.A.T. coach and the G.O.A.T. quarterback.
There was Cassius Clay against Sonny Liston and Buster Douglas against Mike Tyson and the U.S. hockey team against the Russians in Lake Placid and Nick Foles versus Brady, Nick Foles and head coach Doug Pederson versus Belichick and defensive coordinator Matt Patricia.
Foles wasn’t supposed to be carrying the hopes and dreams of a city that hasn’t won an NFL championship since 1960, before there was a Super Bowl, Carson Wentz was. But Wentz went down, and now Foles tries to be for the Eagles what Jim Plunkett was for the Raiders, what Doug Williams was for the Redskins, what Kurt Warner was for the Rams, what Jeff Hostetler was for the Giants. What Brady was for the Patriots 16 Hall of Fame years ago when Belichick decided on him over Drew Bledsoe when they faced the Rams, The Greatest Show on Turf.
Brady has five rings and has beaten Kurt Warner, Jake Delhomme, Donovan McNabb, Russell Wilson and Matt Ryan on Super Sunday. Only Eli Manning has beaten him. Brady is the NFL MVP again, and no one expects Tom to suddenly surrender to time and play like a 40-year-old on Sunday.
As for Foles, he never had won a playoff game before this season.
SuperMan versus Cinderella Man.
“I don’t think any game’s too big for Nick Foles,” tight end Brent Celek said. “He’s just going to go out there and sling it, man.”
All of Philadelphia needs Foles to show up now as Jimmy Chitwood in the NFL version of “Hoosiers.”
“I don’t think the stage is too big for [Foles],” LeGarrette Blount said. “He does everything that he needs to do and everything that he has to do to make sure that he’s going to be prepared. We believe in him. We trust him. He’s our brother. We love him, so we’re going to have his back throughout the whole process.”
The Patriots will dare Foles to beat them. His teammates have witnessed enough of his arm, enough of his composure, enough of his courage, enough of his selflessness, to believe he can.
“Nick is one of the most even-keeled humans ever,” tight end Zach Ertz said. “He never gets too high. He never gets too low. The guy just loves playing football. Obviously the NFC Championship game was the biggest stage any of us have been on, and he goes out there and has the best game of his career.
“So the stage isn’t going to be too big for him, it’s not going to be too big for us.”
Foles torched the Vikings. These aren’t the Vikings. This isn’t the NFC Championship.
“Nick’s the kind of guy nothing’s too big for him,” Eagles offensive coordinator Frank Reich said. “He’s comfortable in his own skin, he knows who he is. He’s a very secure individual, and I just think that exudes when he steps in the huddle, I think it exudes the way he plays.”
Foles has started five games since Wentz was lost. In his two playoff games, he had a combined 77.8 completion percentage with three touchdowns and no interceptions. Brady, in his two playoff games this season, completed 67 percent of his passes with five TDs and zero INTs.
But this is the game that defines you. This is the game where legends are made. This is the game that leaves you either with euphoria or regret and misery. Bill Parcells won two Super Bowls with the Giants. He lost one with the Patriots.
“It’s not so much walking off the field,” Parcells told The Post. “That’s not when the misery sets in. The misery sets in when you’re alone in your own room. … your own kitchen, or your own bedroom by yourself, and you just have your own thoughts. And, you think back of what you could have done differently. You think back about the things that happened that made the game go the other way.”
Brady has won four Super Bowl MVPs. This will be Foles’ first Super Bowl.
“Even when everybody thought things were falling apart,” Reich said, “internally there was never a waver of doubt that Nick could take us where we wanted to go.”
And so now, 58 years after its last football championship, Philadelphia turns its lonely eyes to Nick Foles. He has a formidable running game and defense. Pederson is a terrific in-game playcaller.
“He’s a field general and he controls the huddle pretty well,” Blount said.
But Brady forces you to score touchdowns instead of field goals.
“It’s crazy how once you just start playing the game it slows down and you’re just in tune and you don’t really see the environment around you,” Foles said. “When you can get in that frame of mind, it’s a beautiful place to be where you’re just out there with the guys in the huddle playing the game you love.”
Foles cherishes this moment. He never wanted to leave the Eagles so early in his career. Lost his love for the game and almost quit. Regained that love when the Eagles brought him back. He loves Philadelphia. This is his chance to make Philadelphia love him. Forever.