Nick Foles says wife, Tori, is reason he’s back at Jaguars OTAs

Nick Foles says the decision to return to Jacksonville Jaguars practice just days after his wife, Tori, suffered a miscarriage was his wife’s idea.

Tori Foles revealed on Instagram late last week that the two had lost their baby boy on Sunday in the 15th week of her pregnancy. Nick stayed home from team activities for a few days but returned on Thursday.

On Friday, reporters asked Nick how he and Tori were doing. I thought the full press conference was an insightful look into his and his family’s perspective on the whole thing:

(On how he’s doing)

“I’m doing good. As you all know, my wife and I went through a lot this past week after the loss of our … she was 15 weeks pregnant, and we lost our baby boy. A lot of people have reached out. I’m grateful for that. All of the prayers and support from everyone. I know there’s a lot of people that go through this. It’s difficult. It’s really difficult. It will always be emotional. Ultimately, we trust the Lord in this process. We get home to our beautiful baby girl. We hug her even tighter. There will be a process of going through, Tori is going through a lot right now. I’m here. The team has been awesome, but when I’m done here, I’ll get home to them. That way, we can continue to heal with one another, but we continue to keep our faith and have that joy inside of us. We’re doing good and progressing.”

(On why he came back)

“Ultimately, it was my wife, talking to her, she knows I’m going to get home. She knows how important family is to me, but she also wanted me to be here with the team. After this, I’ll shower up, grab some water because it’s starting to get humid and run home, and I’ll be with my family. It’s really up to her, and she wanted me to come here and be with the team for a little bit. We have a lot of support. Her mom was in town. My mom is coming in town, helping out because there’s a healing process that she’s going through. That’s my wife.”

(On if he wanted to return to display his leadership qualities)

“I’d say the big thing is if my wife needed me at home right now, I’d be at home. That’s just me being honest. She’s the one that said, ‘go. The team needs you right now.’ She knows I’m coming home right away, so that’s her. It’s really as simple as that. If she says, ‘I need you to stay home,’ I’d call the team right now and say ‘I need to be home.’ The great thing is that the team said as long as I need, whatever I need, they understand. They’ve been wonderful. At the same time, my wife wants me to be here because we’re building something right here. I love being with the guys here. Like I said, everyone has been wonderful. Everyone has been supportive. All my family in Philly has been supportive because that’s my family too in Philly. We’ve had a lot of messages there. Once again, we’re grateful for everything.”

(On his wife, Tori)

“She’s way stronger than I’ll ever be. She’s gone through so much and people don’t realize it. Since 2013, she was an athlete in college working at Nike out of school and one day, her life changed. She was diagnosed with dysautonomia and she was bed-ridden, hospitals. She battles that every single day. We’ve gone through so much this past couple of years. We’re going through this now but she’s so strong. She’s unbelievable. The other day, she had something on her heart, the Spirit had given to her to say. She wanted to know if I wanted her to wait until I had a press conference. I said no, if that’s what you feel is on your heart, you say it, and that’s why she posted what she did. She’s an amazing writer. The way she writes is unbelievable. She’s always from the heart and she’s going to be joyful. It’s never going to be ‘poor me’ or anything because she’s never that way. She goes through something every day with a chronic illness and she’s never going to do that. She’s tough, fights through everything. Right now, she’s continuing to do what she can. She probably moves around too much right now, and I know she’s going through so many emotions. That’s something we get to go through in our relationship, and our marriage allows us to grow closer and closer together. If you talk to her older brothers, she’s a rock.”

(On if she inspires him)

“Oh yeah. She’s a big reason why I continue to play the game of football after St. Louis. She never stopped believing in me. She knew I was facing so much fear, so much struggle deep inside my heart. That’s why I wore No. 4 that season because she was No. 4. I wanted to wear her number to honor her. It’s really a blessing that the Lord brought us together, and we get to go through life together because life’s not always easy. You’re going to go through struggles, but that’s why we continue to have our faith in Jesus and continue to talk openly, to talk about the hard things. It just brings us closer and closer together. Our faith continues to increase.”

Keep sending good thoughts, prayers, vibes or whatever you do to the Foles family for their loss.