Wentz will be good for his wishful words
QB donating to charity of Elliott’s choice
Almost everyone had seen the video of Carson Wentz, miked-up and pacing the sideline vowing to give his game check to Jake Elliott if the rookie split the uprights this past Sunday.
Everyone except Elliott, the kicker who said he got a text from the Eagles’ quarterback with a link to the video celebrating the walk-off winner from 61 yards out. It was accompanied by a bail-me-out message.
“It was kind of an emoji just freaking out,” Elliott said after practice Wednesday “and a ‘I made a mistake there.’”
Sideline talk like that hap-
pens in the NFL. Friendly wagers are made. Money might even be exchanged, judging by the stories.
Eagles veteran linebacker Najee Goode, who lifted Elliott into the air after the winner, remembers in Tampa Bay a couple of teammates personally challenging each other over what turned out to be a game-saving interception. Let’s just say a donation was made by the would-be interceptor to the guy who actually intercepted the pass.
Wentz, however, isn’t giving his $31,765 game check to Elliott. He’s making a donation to a charity of Elliott’s choice, something the kicker might think about on the long flight to the West Coast to take on the Los Angeles Chargers this Sunday.
“He said I should just kind of pick a charity of my choice, something that hits close to me and we’ll figure something out going forward,” Elliot said Wednesday. “We don’t know how much or exactly where it’s going to go yet.”
To be sure, Wentz knew he was hooked up to a microphone. He said he had veto rights over his part in the video but still wanted it released.
“It blew up a lot more than we thought it would,” Wentz said. “It’s really cool how it captured that whole moment. You don’t see 61-yard game-winners very often. I just happened to be miked-up and saying some random things. I thought it showed the overall moment from my perspective, from my teammates as we were standing there.
“I don’t really lose sleep over that.”
Elliott enjoyed a relatively quiet Sunday night with family and his girlfriend, not going bar to bar and getting free drinks, which radio pundits insisted ad nauseam, would be his right forever. Also, that was his stepfather with his mother in the video. Elliott said his Chicago-based father couldn’t make it to Philly for the game.
“I’ve got to give a shoutout to my dad,” Elliott said. “My dad was back home watching on TV. His car broke down right before he was about to leave so he couldn’t make it. He was watching and screaming at the TV back home.”
Wentz’s emotion still was a subject of conversation in the locker room Wednesday.
Veteran safety Malcolm Jenkins, speaking of Wentz and the game check, said “I’ve got to hold him to that, too. He’s got to give it directly to him. I would’ve wanted that money in my bank account.”
Told that Wentz would donate money to a charity, Jenkins was asked for a worthy cause.
“I know one,” Jenkins said. “My daughter’s college fund.”
Eagles linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill, who teamed with Mychal Kendricks to carry Elliott off the field, gave Wentz a flier.
“It was cool, he was joking around,” Grugier-Hill said. “That’s all for fun. I don’t think anyone really expected (Wentz) to pay him. He was just kind of saying he’ll be so happy for him.”
The Eagles couldn’t hide the emotion they still felt from the win over the Giants, giving them a 2-1 overall record, and a 2-0 mark in the NFC East.
Head coach Doug Pederson, the photo of Grugier-Hill and Kendricks carrying Elliott off in victory still fresh, cautioned the players that the Chargers (0-3), quarterbacked by Philip Rivers, aren’t a bad team.
The Eagles are onepoint underdogs.
“Any time you win and you win in the fashion that we did, it is emotional,” Pederson said. “It was a physical football game, No. 1. It was an emotional football game, No. 2. And then to win it, No. 3, it’s keeping the guys grounded a little bit. I think sometimes wins can mask a little bit of the ‘we need to get better’ mentality. We’ve got to continue to get better and show improvement. And so that’s the challenge this week.
“I don’t want them to read a lot of their press clippings because there can be a lot of praise. But at the same time, we understand that we have to get better.”