Should the Philadelphia Eagles retire Nick Foles’ number?
While Nick Foles never plans on wearing the number nine outside the City of Brotherly Love, should the Philadelphia Eagles feel the same way and retire it?
Is there a more popular player in the City of Brotherly Love than Nick Foles?
Sure, he may no longer be a member of the Philadelphia Eagles – much to the chagrin of many pro-Foles fans – but it’s hard to imagine any player having an easier time getting a free drink in our fair city than Saint Nick.
I mean he already has a statue outside of the Linc for goodness sake, how many other active players can say that?
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But just because Foles has committed to never wearing the number nine again outside of Philadelphia ever again (more on that here) should the Eagles organization feel the same obligation?
As things presently stand, the Eagles have retired nine (spooky coincidence) jerseys in their 86 years as a franchise: Donovan McNabb, Steve Van Buren, Brian Dawkins, Tom Brookshier, Pete Retzlaff, Chuck Bednarik, Al Wistert, Reggie White, and Jerome Brown.
For those who aren’t particularly up to date on their Eagles history, said list includes two defensive backs, two defensive linemen, two offensive linemen, two running backs, and just one quarterback in McNabb – who also just so happens to be the player on the list who played in the NFL most recently (2009).
Of those players, Brown tragically holds the record for the least games played before having his number retired at 79 – though that number would have been much, much higher had he not tragically passed away in June of 1992.
Foles, on the other hand, has only appeared in 46 games for the Birds over his two tenures with the organization, 40 in the regular season and six in the postseason.
That number ranks Foles behind prominent players like Ron Jaworski (149), Randall Cunningham (129), and even his former teammate Michael Vick, who appeared in 10 more games over his five-year tenure in the City of Brotherly Love.
However, Foles has one thing that none of these players do (at least as a member of the Eagles): a Super Bowl ring.
For better or worse, Nick Foles will go down in history as the first Eagles quarterback to win a Super Bowl in club history, and the first QB to bring home a championship since Norm Van Brocklin wore the then-Kelly Green. While one could argue that the lion’s share of the Eagles success in 2017 was directly predicated on the foundation set by Carson Wentz in his borderline MVP-season, Foles brought things home in arguably the most important single game in franchise history; outpacing Tom Brady in a knockdown shoot-out.
Are 60 minutes of action enough to enshrine a player in the annals of team history for the rest of time? In the hearts of Eagles fans, I think we already know the answer: Yes.
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While it would undoubtedly be unconventional to retire a player’s jersey after only 46 games, Nick Foles’ path to stardom has been nothing but unconventional, so in a weird way, it would feel kind of right to see his jersey hanging in the rafters of Lincoln Financial Field moving forward: A constant reminder of the Philadelphia Eagles historic run in 2017.