Hours after Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady told reporters he had no beef with Nick Foles, the Bears quarterback smiled when asked about one of the greatest players ever.
Brady famously left the field, rather than shake Foles’ hand, after the Eagles’ Super Bowl LII win against the Patriots two-and-a-half years ago. He did the same earlier this month, when Foles beat him at Soldier Field.
‘You know, it’s happened a few times,” Foles said Thursday. “I’m sure that some day Tom and I will have a great conversation about it and probably just laugh at it.
“There’s obviously history there from a big game we both played in once and then other day on Thursday night. But it is what it is, and I think he’s a tremendous player.
“Someday we’ll have a good conversation.”
Both quarterbacks smiled awkwardly Thursday when discussing each other. The two have spoken before — they chatted at midfield after a preseason game in August 2018 — but they’re not close.
Foles referenced a joke that quarterback great Peyton Manning made in May when he played against Brady on a nationally televised golf special. Manning was asked then who he could have brought as a caddie, and he named two players who had beaten Brady in the Super Bowl: his brother Eli and Foles. The latter went 29-for-43 for 373 yards, three touchdown passes and one touchdown catch to beat the Patriots 41-33 on Feb. 4, 2018.
“I know, thinking back to the golf, Peyton was getting under [his] skin and when he brought my name up, it got to him,” Foles said. “I don’t know why that is. We never had that conversation. But I think he’s a great player and obviously one of the greatest of all time.”
Foles was asked, tongue-in-cheek, how long it took him to recover from the perceived slight — on national television — after the Bears’ 20-19 win on Oct. 8.
“It wasn’t the first time it happened,” he said. ‘I just sort of laughed it off and sort of moved on with my life, and I’m sure he’s doing the same thing.”
Brady was quizzed about Foles earlier in the day, perhaps because the handshake — or lack thereof — had been mentioned on NFL Network. Wearing a ballcap with his own TB12 logo on the front, Brady laughed when a reporter said there were “some folks wondering” about why he didn’t chat with Foles the same way he did other quarterbacks this season.
“I think Nick Foles is a hell of a player and a Super Bowl champ and I don’t know one reason or another why I wouldn’t do that,” he said. “Sometimes I’ve run off of the field, sometimes I haven’t.”
Brady, though, has spoken to quarterbacks from the Saints, Chargers and Packers —and others — during the Buccaneers’ 4-2 season.
“Sometimes if I have a personal relationship like I have with [the Saints’] Drew [Brees] and [the Chargers’] Justin [Herbert] and [the Packers’] Aaron [Rodgers] over the years…“ Brady told reporters. “I don’t know. I don’t think it’s anything in particular.
“But I have great admiration for Nick and I think that he’s a hell of a player. They’re off to a great start.”
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