Carson Wentz refuted multiple details in a story critical of him published last month by Philly Voice but did not dismiss the story outright, acknowledging that he could have been a better teammate as he navigated a trying year professionally.
Eagles Players Call Carson Wentz "Selfish" and "Egotistical" https://t.co/pjevVWUwgg
— SportsGossip.com (@sportsgossip) January 22, 2019
“I know who I am, first of all. I know how I carry myself. I know I’m not perfect. I know I have flaws,” he said during a sit-down interview with a small group of reporters at the Eagles’ practice facility recently. “So I’m not going to sit here and say it was inaccurate and completely made up. I’m not going to do that. But at the end of the day, I will say our locker room is really close. If there were guys that had issues, in hindsight, I wish we could have just talked about them. But, again, I don’t know how that all happened and everything with that.”
Wentz said he was caught off guard by the report.
“It kind of came out of nowhere,” he said. “I was literally eating breakfast with my wife, and [a member of the Eagles media relations staff] texted me. Literally, we do, like, quiet time in the morning. We eat breakfast and then I go sit on the couch. So I’m about to go read my Bible and then I get that text and now I’m reading this.”
Wentz said he didn’t really sense the friction internally described in the piece, but he didn’t dismiss the notion out of hand.
“It’s never fun to read, but to an extent, you look at it and be like, ‘Well, if someone did have this perception of me, why? What have I done wrong? What can I get better at?'” he said. “I realize I have my shortcomings. Yes, I can be selfish. I think we all have selfishness inside of us. There’s human elements to that, that I really look at and say, ‘Well, I can get better.'”
Wentz initially tried to “play detective” to figure out who may have contributed to the story before deciding it ultimately didn’t matter.
“I’ll learn from it and we’ll all learn that A, things shouldn’t kind of come out the way it did, and B, the pieces that I can learn from it and be a better teammate and player and all that stuff I will grow from,” he said. “But other than that, just turn the page.”
Wentz admits he’s not going to change anytime soon.
“I’m 26 years old; my personality, to some extent, ain’t going to change,” he said. “What’s gotten me here, what’s gotten me successful, I’m not going to say, ‘Oh, now I’m going to have this free-spirited, Cali-guy vibe.’ That’s just not going to change.
“Any time you’re a Type A guy, there’s a fine line between being pushy and shove-y and humble and humility and walking that line. Definitely learning to navigate that always and never trying to look down on anybody or make it seem like I’m better than anybody. But at the same time, as a Type A, so to speak, confident person that’s confident in off-the-field things and then on the field with what we like, that’s not going to change. That’s not going to go anywhere. I think that’s something that is a positive if used correctly.”
Without Carson, Eagles don’t get home field advantage last year and win the Super Bowl. He gives 100% and showed no jealously about Foles being the talk of the town.
Now only if he could stay healthy.
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