PHILLY SPECIAL
City shows its brotherly love as Wentz makes return
PHILADELPHIA gets its adopted son back on Sunday. And Carson Wentz gets his team back. A love affair so rudely interrupted by a devastating ACL and LCL nightmare resumes Sunday at the Linc, when Wentz runs back into the warm, sweet embrace of a passionate fan base still glowing over its first Super Bowl championship and hungry for a repeat.
The football gods owed Wentz this recovery from the shattered dream that left him a spectator on the historic night in Minneapolis, when it was Nick Foles who stepped in and delivered the Lombardi Trophy to the city.
They were certain Wentz would be the one, then fate struck him and his MVP candidacy down in early December. Just like that, he was Phil Simms helplessly watching Jeff Hostetler, he was Trent Green helplessly watching Kurt Warner, he was Drew Bledsoe helplessly watching Tom Brady. A cheerleader, rooting as hard as he can for his teammates, smiling on the outside but a part of him crying on the inside. His close friendship with Foles, the Super Bowl MVP that magical night, helped make it somewhat easier. And now ... Wentzadelphia again. His turn to run Philly Special.
His chance to give Philadelphia the first repeat Super Bowl champion since the 2003-04 Patriots.
Smokin’ Joe Frazier was Philadelphia. Charles Barkley was Philadelphia. Bobby Clarke was Philadelphia. Allen Iverson was Philadelphia. Chase Utley was Philadelphia. Carson Wentz is Philadelphia. “He plays with a ‘ Rocky’ mentality that he’s not gonna back down,” Sean McGranaghan, the manager at popular Chickie’s and Pete’s restaurant, said by phone. “He’s gonna keep getting up. He’s gonna keep trying. He’s never gonna give up. He’s got that mentality that the city has. For years the city was just kind of just dying to have somebody come along with that mentality.”
Wentz has that swagger, that fearlessness that Philadelphia adores. He plays to win.
“Carson Wentz I think just has Philadelphia’s heart,” Frank Olivieri said by phone.
Olivieri is the owner of Pat’s King of Steaks on East Passyunk Avenue, which means that he knows about having Philadelphia’s heart.
“My heart’s in my mouth every time I watch him play,” Olivieri said.
Olivieri hardly will be the only one. The Eagles wouldn’t play Wentz if they didn’t think he wasn’t ready. But there are no guarantees, even waiting as they did until Week 3 to give him back the ball.
“There’s definitely some people that are split,” McGranaghan said, “and are hoping we’re not bringing him back too soon, but there’s also a high level of excitement that, ‘Hey, we need to do something with this offense.’”
Indeed, Foles has not picked up where he left off once he put down his Super Bowl MVP and Lombardi Trophy. And remember, it
was love at first sight once the city saw who Wentz was as a rookie and what he could and did become last season when he stalked the MVP trophy.
“He’s a guy who came in and did it,” McGranahan said. “For years here, we kind of went through all these different names of people who had potential, never always reached their potential, we kind of wanted ’em to. Donovan McNabb had a great career here, but he was never the guy that said, ‘Get on my shoulders, I’ll take you there,’ and that’s really who Carson was. Carson, from the minute he started, he was a strong leader in the locker room, he was a strong leader in the community. He’s an upstanding guy. There’s not really too much you can say bad about him.”
To Eagles fans, Carson Wentz is too good to be true — a humble, blue-collar man of faith from Bismarck, N.D.
“Carson Wentz is definitely a cut above, where he definitely almost makes us want to be better people,” bartender Ashley Braccia said by phone.
It is part of the reason why they mourned for him when his season was cut short on a third-quarter endzone dive Dec. 10 at the L.A. Coliseum. Adding insult to injury, the touchdown was nullified on a Lane Johnson hold.
“Pain in my stomach,” McGranaghan said. “I hate to say it, but there was almost a mentality we put the whole entire city on his shoulders, and when we saw him go down, it was tough to see.”
You might hear a collective sigh of relief if and when Wentz survives that critical first hit on that left knee. He will be wearing a brace.
“We’re nervous, of course,” Olivieri said. “We’re placing everything in him now. We’re placing our hopes in him, and we’re just hoping that he’ll take us to the promised land again.”
There is certain to be electricity in the huddle. Wentz fully expects to be himself. It’s how he is wired — though he will be missing WRs Alshon Jeffery and Mike Wallace, and RBs Jay Ajayi and Darren Sproles.
“All he has to do is just be Carson Wentz,” Johnson told the team’s website. “You don’t have to be Superman.”
Except to Philadelphia, he already is.