Nick Foles plays with a strong sense of inner peace, saying he does not allow success or failure to define him..
“My identity is rooted in Christ, not in my accomplishments,” Foles said a day before he is to lead the Philadelphia Eagles (8-7) against the Washington Redskins (7-8) in another big game.
The Eagles would earn the National Football Conference’s final wild-card berth if they win and the Minnesota Vikings (8-6-1) lose at home against the Chicago Bears (11-4).
Foles has performed well at quarterback in high-pressure situations while filling in for Carson Wentz. He is 5-0 in must-win games and earned Super Bowl MVP honors in their win over the New England Patriots in February.
“Playing in the Super Bowl is really a big stage, but I remember staying in the moment, not worrying about the clock, not worrying about the score,” Foles said. “It was peaceful, which it shouldn’t be, but it was.”
He said he has not mastered his “stay-in-the-moment” philosophy, but he’s working on it.
“I still have to remind myself,” Foles said. “There are times you get overwhelmed, you get excited thinking about all the things you want to accomplish... I’m still learning.”
The Eagles were on the verge of playoff elimination when a back injury forced Wentz out of the lineup earlier this month, but Foles came to the rescue again.
He helped the Eagles beat the Los Angeles Rams 30-23 and set a franchise record with 471 yards passing in a 32-30 win over the Houston Texans last week.
Teammates have raved about Foles’ leadership skills.
“He’s extremely calm. He’s always exuding positivity,” tight end Zach Ertz said. “He’s playing at an extremely high level. We love playing for him.”
Elsewhere, the biggest remaining tumult is in the American Football Conference South.
The Texans lead and would take the division title by beating the Jacksonville Jaguars. However, a loss would give the winner of the game between the Indianapolis Colts and Tennessee Titans the crown, dropping Houston into a wild-card spot.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with