JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jaguars quarterback Nick Foles said Friday that he would not have returned to the team so soon after his wife had a miscarriage had she not been OK with him attending organized team activities.
“If my wife needed me at home right now, I’d be at home. That’s just me being honest,” Foles said. “She’s the one who said, ‘Go, the team needs you right now.’ She knows I’m coming home right away [after practice]. So that’s her. It really is as simple as that.
“If she says, ‘I need you to stay home,’ I’m going to call the team right now and just say I need to be home. The great thing is the team said as long as I need, whatever I need, they understand. They’ve been wonderful. But at the same time, my wife also knows; she wants me to be here because we’re building something right here.”
Foles said during an April news conference that the couple were expecting their second child, but Tori Foles announced Wednesday night on Instagram that she had gone into early labor on Sunday morning at only 15 weeks and was hospitalized.
“The emotions go back and forth from immense and overwhelming sadness, confusion and anger to a firm belief that God has this fully in his hands and will use this for good,” Tori Foles wrote. “We cannot always understand or explain, but we know that is true.”
Foles did not attend the Jaguars’ organized team activity Tuesday, but he was back in the building Thursday morning. He said he returns home after practice to be with his wife and daughter. Foles also said his mother-in-law has been in town and his mother is arriving soon, so there’s plenty of family around to support his wife when he’s at the team facility.
Foles said he’s amazed at how his wife, who was a volleyball player at Arizona, has handled the recent tragedy, especially since she’s already battling the chronic disease POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome). It’s a condition that affects blood circulation and can cause lightheadedness, fainting and a rapid increase in heartbeat.
“She’s way stronger than I’ll ever be,” Foles said. “She’s gone through so much, and people don’t realize it. … She was bedridden, 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.”