Kelce throws tantrum at practice
That feeling you get when you accidentally bang yourself with the hammer you’re using to pound a nail in. Yeah, what the +&#$@#$!
That’s what Eagles center Jason Kelce felt Thursday before he spiked his helmet, yelled at teammate Chance Warmack, kicked a huge plastic recycling bin into oblivion and exited the team’s practice inside the bubble.
While teammates and reporters wondered what was up, Kelce returned a few minutes later, resuming his place at practice,
“What happened is I’m an idiot,” Kelce said after practice. “You’d think at 30 years old I’d be able to control myself a little better than that. I got cleated in a drill upside the ankle sprain I had a few weeks ago. The best way I can describe it is … you hit your thumb with a hammer and you throw the hammer halfway across the yard after it.
“Nothing serious. It was just a
stupid reaction.”
Kelce had a huge open wound on his left shin. Just when the left ankle finally was feeling well, a couple of weeks after it hobbled Kelce, the shin was an issue — at least temporarily.
Eagles offensive linemen sympathized with Kelce.
“That’s happened to me before,” Lane Johnson said. “You get stepped on. That stuff hurts. It’s probably one of the most infuriating things to happen to you, getting cleated. It feels like you’re getting hit with a bat that has spikes on it.”
Kelce didn’t remember the entire chronology of the flareup. He was seeing red.
“I wish I had a good excuse or a reason but I don’t,” Kelce said. “It was a little bit of a temper tantrum there.
“It hurts like a bleep in the moment. That’s about it, guys. Sorry I’ve got nothing else for you and it’s not a better story.”
The Eagle cannot afford another casualty on the offensive line, as they’re already fighting through the season-ending injury to left tackle Jason Peters.
Stefen Wisniewski isn’t 100 percent, as his ankle is giving him trouble. He’s the backup pivot, and he was limited at practice.
Isaac Seumalo has struggled at guard. Inserting him at center would be close to a desperation measure.
The good news for Kelce is the ankle is coming around.
“It’s a lot better,” Kelce said. “This is the best it’s felt since it happened a couple of weeks ago.”
••• Elsewhere on the injury front for the Eagles, wide receiver Alshon Jeffery and defensive end Steven Means didn’t practice due to illness. For the Giants, wide receiver Roger Lewis (ankle) and guard Justin Pugh (back) didn’t practice Thursday.
Limited at practice were safeites Nat Berhe (hamstring) and Landon Collins (ankle), cornerback Brandon Dixon (heel, hamstring), tight end Rhett Ellison (finger), linebacker B.J. Goodson (ankle), defensive tackle Damon Harrison (not injury related), and wide receivers Travis Rudolph (hamstring) and Sterling Shepard (hamstring).
••• Referee Brad Allen and his crew work the Eagles-Giants game.
The home teams are 9-3 in games worked by Allen this season, the Eagles (at Washington), Ravens (Oakland) and Vikings (Atlanta), the only road winners.
The Giants are one of the home winners with Allen this season, as they defeated the Chiefs, 12-9.