Nick Foles dismisses Philly Mag story

Nick Foles shuffled to the microphone in flip-flops and a black baseball cap. A crowd of reporters and cameras formed a semicircle around the Eagles quarterback and each time he was asked a question by someone on the outer edges, Foles would turn and face him.

It had been over a month since Foles last publicly spoke. In the intervening time, as the Phillies sank into nonrelevancy, the local sports media vacuum had been filled by a  Philadelphia  magazine profile of Foles that questioned whether he had enough ego to be a successful NFL quarterback.

Somehow this topic dominated radio airwaves for the last week despite the one-sidedness of the argument. The author - Buzz Bissinger - held this opinion of Foles. Nowhere in the 5,000-word piece did anyone he interview support this claim.

If Foles had agreed to be interviewed for the story, he would not have agreed, either. Of course, if he had met with Bissinger, it's unlikely the spurned author of Friday Night Lights would have come to that conclusion.

"I don't agree with it because I think a quarterback and a leader - it's not necessarily what you do in the limelight," Foles said Friday when asked about the general premise of Bissinger's profile. "Obviously, handling yourself in the appropriate manner is very important for the organization and for teammates. I've always believed you need to be who you are.

"If you are a guy who loves to go out and be at everything and do that and you can be a great leader and a great player, as well, that's awesome because that's naturally what you're great at. . . . See, if I were to go and do all that stuff, that's sort of out of my norm."

But Foles has stretched himself since becoming the de facto starting quarterback, especially this offseason. He sat down with Eagles beat reporters for a one-hour interview in June. He was made available several times from the start of offseason workouts in late April to the end of minicamp in mid-June.

Bissinger never attended any of the Eagles' open practices this spring, and as far as one could ascertain, had never met Foles.

Eagles players reported to the NovaCare Complex on Friday for the start of training camp (the first practice is Saturday) and it was Foles who first spoke with reporters.

He was, as usual, predictable with his responses. He still has that "Gee, golly" way of answering questions. "I'm so excited," he said of camp, "I didn't even sleep last night." And he continued to deflect attention toward the team - the reason, Foles said, he declined to participate in the Philly Mag article.

"I just didn't really want to put that much time on me," Foles said. "It's not really about me. I can't go out there by myself and win these games."

Successful NFL quarterbacks must be many things, but egotistic is not one of them. They should be supremely confident in their abilities, however, but that doesn't mean they need to trumpet their accomplishments.

Foles may be vanilla, but he is not unsure of himself. When Chip Kelly chose Michael Vick to start after last year's quarterback competition, Foles didn't cow and said that he was confident enough to believe that he should start.

And he was right.

Bissinger, in calling Foles "chickens-" toward the end of his story, claimed that he needed to have that one percent dangerous edge to guide the Eagles to the Super Bowl. There may end up being several reasons why Foles isn't capable of winning a title, or even of becoming the Eagles' quarterback of the future.

But when you think about all the traits he does have to be a successful NFL quarterback, does it really matter that he may not have one that may or may not have any bearing on excelling at the position?

"I think it just varies on who the person is," Eagles wide receiver Jeremy Maclin said. "I think when you talk about Nick, I don't think ego and Nick even go in the same paragraph . . . and he's still a tremendous quarterback."

Imagine if Foles publicly responded to criticism, Alpha male-style, as two of his teammates (Maclin and reserve quarterback Matt Barkley) recently did? Imagine if, even worse, he allowed that criticism to affect his performance?

Wouldn't that be far worse than shunning the spotlight?

"If I worried about every single article out there," Foles said, "I wouldn't be able to play the game of football."

Thankfully, football starts Saturday.

@Jeff_McLane