Different states. Different stakes. Different teams. It feels like a long time since Tom Brady and Nick Foles shared a football field as they will Thursday when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers face the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field.
It will be 977 days since the last time the quarterbacks met. That was a doozy of a game in Super Bowl LII at U.S. Bank Stadium when the Foles and the Philadelphia Eagles stunned Brady and the New England Patriots, 41-33.
You remember the game that saw Foles throw for 373 yards and three touchdowns. Oh, he also caught a touchdown pass from Trey Burton on the famed “Philly Special.”
Here’s a reminder:
The score with 34 seconds left in the first half — on fourth down — turned a 15-12 lead for the Eagles into a 22-12 advantage at the break.
Brady, who threw for 505 yards on 28-of-48 and three touchdowns, was not done. He found Rob Gronkowski from four yards with 9:22 left to give New England a 33-32 lead after the PAT.
The Magic Man, Foles, then took over and led Philadelphia to its first Super Bowl victory.
With 2:21 left he connected with tight end Zach Ertz on an 11-yard TD pass that put Philly ahead 38-33 after it was reviewed. Jake Elliott added a field goal for the final score.
Foles, who was playing because starting quarterback Carson Wentz has been injured in the regular season, was named Super Bowl MVP.
So how did we get to the quarterbacks meeting at Soldier Field? Foles left Philadelphia for Jacksonville as a free agent. That didn’t work out and he was traded to the Bears in March for a compensatory fourth-round pick.
Brady won another Super Bowl with New England and left as a free agent, signing with the Bucs in 2020.
And that is how they will both wind up on the same field against, 977 days later.