Nick Foles' post-Super Bowl gem called 'one of the all-time great sports quotes'
When you think of the all-time most inspirational quotes in sports, there are probably a few that come to mind.
“It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.” — Vince Lombardi.
“There may be people that have more talent than you but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do.” — Derek Jeter.
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” — Michael Jordan.
“You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.” — Wayne Gretzky.
But now a new one is moving up the ranks, with Sports Illustrated calling it “one of the all-time great sports quotes.”
Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles told the media during his post-Super Bowl interview:
“Without failure, who would you be?”
What a great quote to encourage people of all ages.
Without failure, Foles would not be where he is today. If he were successful with the Chiefs or the Rams, odds are that Foles would not have ended up as a backup quarterback for the Eagles.
“I wouldn’t be up here if I hadn’t fallen thousands of times, made mistakes,” Foles said.
“I think when you look at a struggle in your life, just know that that’s just an opportunity for your character to grow,” he said.
Perfect
— Lucas (@LucasMcStacy) February 7, 2018
The hardships that Foles faced almost took him away from the game completely, as he considered retirement in 2015.
“A lot of people don’t know this — I’m going to share this right now, because I think it’s important. After my time with a certain NFL team, I wanted to retire,” Foles said on the YouTube channel for YouVersion, a Bible app.
“This was a year ago. I wanted to retire from the NFL, and I really struggled,” he said. “I couldn’t pick up a football for about eight months. I had no love for the game, and it was tough.”
Foles revealed that if it hadn’t been for prayer, he would have given up on football.
“At that moment, through that prayer, He said, ‘Hey, just take a step of faith. You’re either going to stop playing the game of football and you’re going to go onto a different area of your life and I’m going to be with you, I’m going to be the most important thing in your life, or you’re going to step back into football and you’re going to continue to play and I’m going to be with you every step of the way and you’re going to play to glorify me.’”
If it wasn’t for his faith through the hardships, Foles wouldn’t have made it to the grand stage he is on after leading his team over the favored New England Patriots in the Super Bowl.
The hardships in Foles’ life have given him the character that he has now, to not let the success get to his head, but instead to use it to spread the Gospel.
He recently revealed his plan to become a pastor helping young people after his NFL journey is over.
“When I speak to [students], that’s such a time of young men and young women’s lives that there’s a lot of things that are thrown at them,” Foles said. “So much temptation in this world, so much going on with social media and the internet that you want to talk to them and address it and share all the weaknesses I have, because I’ve fallen many times.
“It’s something I want to do. I can’t play football forever. I’ve been blessed with an amazing platform and it’s just a door God has opened, but I still have a lot of school left and a long journey.”
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