Those were the words of former Philadelphia Eagles signal-caller Carson Wentz as he was introduced to members of the Indianapolis media and reintroduced to some of the best football writers that the City of Brotherly Love has to offer.
11, or shall we say ‘Number 2’ spoke for about 30 minutes about his split from the only NFL franchise he’s ever played for, some of the struggles he faced over the course of the last couple of years, and of course, his appreciation for everyone from Frank Reich to Howie Roseman to Doug Pederson.
Let’s not waste a ton of time here, but let’s also be honest. It’s almost impossible not to have some thoughts about this if you’ve been watching much of what this guy has done for five seasons right?
If you missed the presser, here it is in its entirety. Thank the Indianapolis Colts’ YouTube channel for the clip.
Here are three immediate reactions most Philadelphia Eagles fans can share.
1.This is going to take some getting used to.
Carson Wentz in a Colts-colored blazer huh? We’ve known for quite some time that the Eagles would look much different in 2021 than they did in the past two seasons. Jalen Mills is gone. As is Wentz, DeSean Jackson, and Alshon Jeffery. Zach Ertz will soon follow.
There are some familiar faces, Jason Kelce for example, but it’s going to be interesting to see a bunch of new faces running around, Nick Sirianni on the sideline instead of Doug Pederson, and Jalen Hurts on the field leading this team for 16 games instead of Wentz. No matter how you slice it, that’s the truth.
2.This can play out several ways.
By now, we’ve all probably resigned ourselves to the fact that Carson Wentz will have more immediate success than the Philadelphia Eagles will because he’s in a better-run organization. Let’s be ‘Frank’ though (pun intended). Get it? Frank Reich?
If you’re Frank, you know this team was a playoff team without Carson Wentz. Now, ‘Number 2’ can lead this team past the Wild Card Round, somewhere Reich and company haven’t been since January of 2019, but if this team is 5-7 after 12 games, an area Wentz has been hovering around for quite some time, Coach Reich and company have some serious questions to answer (and so do the Wentz apologists).
3. We all have some growing up to do.
At the end of the day, the football fan in some of us may harbor some hostility, but the human in us has to want to see this guy do well, right? Did Carson do everything appropriately? No, he didn’t, but that’s okay. As he stated, he isn’t perfect.
At the end of the day, there apparently was some credence to what Alshon Jeffery said, allegedly. Carson Wentz has been described as a bad teammate more times than any good man should be, and it appears that his teammates aren’t building a shrine in his locker as they did for Nick Foles. Still, at his core, this is really a good guy that needs to grow up in a few areas.
That’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with that. We all needed to grow up when we were a few months away from our 29th birthdays, and if you aren’t there yet, you will need to do the same thing.
The difference between Wentz and the rest of us is this. We’re watching Carson Wentz grow up on television. Thank goodness there were no cameras there for some of our growth processes. Now, that would have been embarrassing. Well, here’s to watching a few more Colts games in 2021.