Rocky is arguably the greatest film of all time. The film was inspired by a true story, the story of Chuck Wepner, the “real” Rocky. But while Wepner’s life could be considered a spiritual prequel, a spiritual sequel is happening right now: The story of Nick Foles.

The similarities between Nick Foles career and the plot of the movie Rocky are staggering.

Let’s breakdown the story of Rocky, the story of Nick Foles.

“You had the talent to be a good fighter quarterback!”

The story of Rocky Balboa begins in Philadelphia with a 30 year old fighter who never took the next step beyond “promising amateur”, and as Rocky starts we’re watching the window close for him to be what he wants to be.

Just like Rocky, Nick Foles also showed a ton of promise in Philly to start his career.

In his rookie year Foles led a game winning drive on the road against the Buccaneers, giving the Eagles one of their just four wins in 2012.

In 2013, under new coaching, Foles took the NFL by storm. He started his season by throwing 19 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. He threw 7 touchdowns in one game. He set the highest touchdown/interception ratio in NFL history with 27/2. He posted the second highest single season quarterback rating ever. He led the Eagles to an 8-2 record as a starter, and gave them an NFC East title by beating the Cowboys in Dallas in week 17.

But Nick Foles never took the next step beyond “system quarterback”

Like Balboa, it was downhill. Injuries, bad luck, and rough play plagued him in 2014, and in the 2015 off season, Nick Foles lost his locker to Sam “Dipper” Bradford. Not only did the Eagles want Bradford over Foles, but they wanted him so much they also gave up a second round pick along with Foles to the Rams to get him.

After being traded to the Rams Bradford was given a two year, $24 million extension.

Foles struggled quite a bit during his Rams days, as did the whole team. Foles threw 7 touchdowns and 10 picks in his eleven starts and was eventually benched for Case Keenum. During an awful stretch where the Rams put up 50 total points over the course of four games.

Worse, after the benching Case Keenum went on to perform better than Foles had.

Foles got paid, but being the backup for one of the smallest markets in the NFL on a team that went 7-9 is a far cry from his days as “Hero Of Philly” that had been just 18 months ago, but felt like a lifetime. As was his movie counterpart, Foles was making a living, but not doing what he loved.

“What about my prime?”

Foles was released in 2016, and went to his old coach Andy Reid. Similar to Rocky, Foles showed a ton of promise in his limited game time in 2016.

In two games as the Chiefs starter in place for an injured Alex Smith, Foles completed 65% of his passes, threw 3 touchdowns and no interceptions, and gave the Chiefs two wins. But again, the wins were dismissed, just like Rockys. Whereas Rocky beat an aging Spider Rico, Foles beat an 8-8 Colts team and a 3-13 Jacksonville Jaguars team.

Spider Rico wasn’t a bad boxer, and those two teams weren’t bad teams(especially seeing as roughly the same Jaguars team went to the AFC Championship game this year). All the same, the bouts did little towards putting Foles nor Balboa on track for the heavyweight fight.

Apollo Creed Vs Mac Lee Green

As we said, we began the 2017 season watching Nick Foles window close. Just three seasons prior Foles was the guy in Philadelphia. Foles was now 28(and turned 29 during the season), and he was relegated to backup to the new guy in Philadelphia: Carson Wentz.

While Tom Brady/The Patriots are undoubtedly the Apollo Creed of Foles story, Wentz is Mac Lee Green. Green was never the favorite to beat Apollo, but he was the #1 contender.

All year long, Foles watched as a guy the Eagles went all in on dominate opponents. Across the country in Minnesota Foles had to watch the other two men who replaced him(Sam Bradford and Case Keenum) fight to be the starter of a Super Bowl contender.

Wentz set the Eagles single season touchdown record, despite only playing 13 games. He was on highlight reel after highlight reel. He was likely going to be MVP, or at least a strong contender for it.

Tom Brady was his usual self, as were the Patriots. The Patriots raced out to a 13-3 record, behind one of Brady’s best seasons. What is there to be said about Apollo Creed? He is the best.

The final week before Wentz was injured, the Pats and Eagles were #1 and #2 respectively in the ESPN power rankings.

But Creed-Green wasn’t meant to be.

A shot at the heavyweight title

With three weeks to go in the regular season, Carson Wentz tore his ACL. His season was done. Over.

There is a scene in Rocky where Balboa goes to Mickey after Mickey seeks him out. Mickey tells Balboa that a Creed representative was looking for him, and both think that he must be looking for a sparring partner, little dreaming of how amazing of an opportunity is ahead of them. The exchange is a tense one, and Mickey asks if Rocky has considered retirement. While we can’t tell whether Rocky had considered retirement, we know that Nick Foles had.

All of a sudden Nick Foles was again the man in Philadelphia. An unranked boxer had the shot at a heavyweight title, and a backup QB had a shot to be a Super Bowl winning starter.

People often refer to peak performance as “mid season form”, meaning a guy has played at least 7 and closer to 8 or 9 games. The Super Bowl will be Foles 6th start of the year. Is it merely coincidence that Rocky had 5 weeks to get in shape for Creed and that Foles had 5 games? Or is it destiny?

As Jergens says, no one with such a short amount of time can be expected to give a good performance. But Foles isn’t everyone.

As Rocky beat on frozen meat, Foles beat on the Giants.

Foles came off the bench to throw four touchdowns against the Eagles hated rival. While it wasn’t in a freezer, it was a cold day in East Rutherford.

The rest of the NFL was forced to take notice. Foles may not be Wentz. But what if he was just as dangerous?

Balboa wasn’t meant to last 3 rounds, and while the bout between Foles and Brady has yet to take place, Foles run up to it has been worthy of a movie itself.

No one expected Rocky to beat Creed. That wasn’t the point, the point was to prove he could hang with Creed and that he wouldn’t embarrass himself. He wouldn’t be a bum.

Nick Foles proved that this year. He has gone fourteen rounds. After being the first underdog #1 seed in history, Foles and the Eagles won a playoff game. Not only did they win a playoff game, but Foles outperformed reigning MVP Matt Ryan in a dogfight. The underdog Eagles upset a red-hot Falcons team that were the reigning NFC Champs. It was a microcosm of Foles career.

His first pass was an awful air ball the sailed over the receivers head, the corners head, and the safety’s head. But the pass got a 41 yard penalty call for PI that put the Eagles into position. In quarter one it was difficult to picture the Eagles winning any games with Foles. In quarter two it was difficult to imagine how the Eagles could lose any game with Foles. In the end, Foles put up only 15 points. But the Falcons put up just 10.

The next week after being the underdogs to the Minnesota Vikings Foles had the game of his life, which is saying something as Foles has tied the record for most single game touchdowns in NFL history.

The Vikings defense was #1 in the league, and had the leagues best pass rush. There were numerous jokes that the game would end 7-6, as Minnesota’s own back-up QB turned hero might struggle also. But Nick Foles isn’t a back-up caliber QB. He is a good QB, who had to deal with some very bad luck.

Then the game happened. The Vikings defense had allowed just 13 touchdowns through the air all season. Nick Foles threw three. They allowed an average of 189 passing yards per game. Foles threw for 352. They allowed an average of 15.75 Points-Per-Game. Foles offense scored 38.

All of this came with the assistance of his own Mickey, Eagles coach Doug Pederson who has built a winning team with Quarterbacks have nearly opposite play styles. Rocky was a southpaw who had a great talent for body-wearing punches, and Mickey helped devise a game plan that ended up cracking Apollo Creeds ribs. Pederson performed an even more impressive feat and figured out Foles strength(Run-Pass Options) and utilized them, and they ended up cracking the Minnesota defense.

Or perhaps Mickey is Eagles GM Howie Roseman, who was in Philly when Foles was drafted, wasn’t in charge of trading him, and then brought him back when given the opportunity.

While there are plenty of Mickey’s in this story, there is only one Rocky.

The 15th Round

The Eagles aren’t favorites in Super Bowl LII. There is a good chance they won’t win. But that’s what made Rocky the best of the series. Rocky didn’t knock Creed out. He hung with him, and was one or two rounds away from being a World Champion. But he didn’t. But he proved to himself what he was capable of and he laid the ground work for his career down the road. He put himself on the map.

That’s all Nick Foles could have hoped for. While finally getting Philadelphia a Lombardi will make him a living legend, he is already one of the best stories in Philadelphia sports history.

While Creed didn’t study Rocky and that proved to be his near downfall, Bill Belichick will do the opposite. From a technical standpoint, Belichick will know or currently does know Nick Foles better than Foles does. There are going to be 11 Patriots and a whole staff of coaches working to exploit every minor flaw Nick Foles has. Every tendency. Every pattern.

The Eagles(and Foles) won’t win this game because they’re a better or more sound football team(though they might be). They’ll win because they’re an underdog that plays every game with heart, and that’s going to start with Foles.

Ironically enough, this is likely his last game in a Philly uniform, as the Eagles team that took a chance on him likely won’t retain him as Nick Foles has played his way out of back up status. Teams will go after him hard, and the Eagles will surely find plenty of the offers tempting, as will Foles.

What do you do when you find yourself in a situation where even if your miracle, once in a lifetime run ends in a World Championship, you won’t be the starter next year?

Well in Foles case the answer is “Perform”.

“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! Now if you know what you’re worth then go out and get what you’re worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain’t you!”

No matter how hard Nick Foles gets hit, he always gets up.

The winner, and new heavy weight champion of the world…

Philadelphia entered the season thinking that they might finally have the QB to lead them to the promise land. They were right.

Nick Foles isn’t just playing in the Super Bowl. He is getting the opportunity to actually live out the thoughts everyone has about missed opportunities. “If I could just get one more playoff game”, or “one chance to do things over”, or ” if I had asked that girl out”. This is Foles shot to correct what went wrong.

Foles is going to have a game for the ages. The Eagles winning will only be a byproduct of that.

That’s why I’m taking the Eagles 28-23.