PHILADELPHIA -- Eagles quarterback Nick Foles had just lost a wild card playoff game to the New Orleans Saints and the first thing he did after leaving Philadelphia for the off-season was join his mother at a gym class.

"When I’m home," Foles said during an hour-long round-table discussion with the media earlier this spring. "I just really try to take advantage of it, just being able to work out with my mom. It’ll be workout classes, whether it’s cardio-kickboxing, half weights, half-whatever.

"Just crazy stuff. It’s funny, it’s a lot of women in the class, but it’s honestly very very hard. I’ve see guys go in, full grown men that work out in the gym all the time go in class and leave throwing up. And they never come back.

"So it sort of made sense to me, now I know why I don’t go, because all these women are actually crazy when they work out, and screaming, and music. But it’s fun for me. It’s very humbling."

The quarterback's Pro Bowl MVP performance capped a 27-touchdown, two-interception season and put him on the NFL map, credits his mother's influence and work ethic for shaping his career.

"My Mom, she can still kick my butt in anything," Foles admitted. "When you have your Mom kick your butt, you can't help but stay humble.

It's little surprise then that after being raised by such a strong willed, athletic woman as his mother, Foles eventually met a fellow athlete, Tori Moore, whom he met while at the University of Arizona.

Foles and Moore were married earlier this off-season.

“We didn’t date in college," Foles explained. "We were really good friends in college, and she was the first person I actually ever saw at the University of Arizona going to my physical.

"I remember walking down the stairs and thinking, ‘Wow, this might be the most gorgeous person I’ve ever seen.’"

Moore played volleyball for the wildcats and Foles credits her for pushing him even on days when he'd rather come home from practice and nurse a cold beer rather than head for a workout.

"My wife, she’s very, very athletic," Foles said "She played volleyball in college and then after it she really got into running. I’d have talks with her, ‘I can’t run eight miles with you. I can go two, but you have to do sprints with me or striders, because I can’t do that.’ But it’s been fun.

"She’s my best friend and we really get along great. She’s seriously my best friend. Sometimes when I come home, she wants to go swimming right away, so it’s good to have those women in your life that are very special."

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