Originally Posted by
pucknut9
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Injured Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz hasn’t been forgotten
By Ed Kracz / Correspondent
January 24, 2018
Every now and then during the playoffs, a television camera caught quarterback Carson Wentz on the Eagles’ sideline. There were times he looked somewhat sad but mostly he was smiling and supporting his teammates. He was shown walking with crutches in his first games after surgery to repair the ACL he tore Dec. 10 in Los Angeles. Recently, he’s been seen with a cane. So that’s a good sign that Wentz’s rehab is progressing quite nicely and maybe he will be able to return to start the first game of the 2018 season.
Fans still shout MVP at him whenever he hobbles to midfield as a game captain or wanders over to the lower section of fans to celebrate with good friend and Major League Baseball star Mike Trout, the way he did Sunday night after the Eagles rolled over the Minnesota Vikings to qualify for Super Bowl LII. Nobody, however, has heard publicly from the Eagles’ injured quarterback since he suffered the injury.
He’s made some comments on Twitter, such as this one before the Eagles played the Atlanta Falcons: “Not the same being on the sidelines, but I’m still gonna enjoy every bit of the energy and passion the Linc brings today! We need all of it Eagles fans. Let’s do this! #FlyEaglesFly”
Then there was this one after the Eagles advanced to the Super Bowl: “How bout that Eagles Nation?! Super Bowl here we come!!!! #FlyEaglesFly”
Yes, the Eagles are flying without Wentz, and doing it with his backup, Nick Foles. But for all the jubilation and euphoria of making it to the ultimate game, the fact that Wentz cannot be on the field lends a slight tinge of sadness to what is going on.
Wentz was in the conversation for the league MVP honors. As it is, he has still been nominated for the FedEx Air & Ground Player of the Year, along with fellow quarterbacks Alex Smith and Tom Brady. He is one of five finalists for the Castrol Clutch Performer of the Year for his performance in Week 7 against Washington when he threw four touchdowns. Not that awards matter much at this point.
What matters to Wentz is remaining part of the team, and that means showing up at every quarterback meeting and working elbow to elbow with Foles on the game plans head coach Doug Pederson and his staff stitch together each week.
“Carson and I have worked together this entire year and he’s a huge reason why we’re in this position,” Foles said. “It’s been awesome just being around him. He’s handled this thing amazingly and he continues to be such a great leader in our locker room. When we go through game film and we go through everything, he’s an extremely intelligent player so I listen to everything that he says. In that moment, you just embrace. It’s been a crazy year and we work together every single day for long hours. You don’t really need to say anything. A hug goes a long way.”
“He’s been outstanding,” offensive coordinator Frank Reich said when he met with the media Tuesday. “I even said to him in the fourth quarter of that game, once the game was in hand and we knew the game was over, just kind of reminding him of obviously the incredibly important role that he’s played in everything, most particularly the fact that that game was played on our turf.
“And even shared a moment with him about how special it is that he and Nick, about how — to me, one of the greatest things about a person that you can say is when you see him celebrating somebody else’s success. Even when you know it’s at the same position. I don’t care, human nature tells you that’s hard to do, and it’s been fun to see those two do that. It’s fun to see Carson have the maturity to truly celebrate Nick’s success and understanding how he’s helping this team, and also with the frustration knowing that he wants to be in there.”
Re: Carson Wentz
