Having quarterbacked the Philadelphia to a league-best 9-1 record in just his second year, 24-year-old Carson Wentz is being hailed as a conquering hero in the most fickle sports town in America.
The stats back up that frenzied passion: Wentz threw 23 touchdown passes in his first nine games of this season, third ever behind Dan Marino and Kurt Warner among quarterbacks in the first nine games of their first or second seasons. That has earned him his own ESPN the Magazine profile.
The gunslinger from North Dakota has pierced the normal fatalism of a fandom that hasn’t seen an NFL championship since 1960, none in the Super Bowl era, and hasn’t seen a Super Bowl appearance since… well, since the last Eagles phenom was behind center.
As ESPN’s Hallie Grossman writes:
“Therein lies the nagging twinge of trepidation in Philadelphia’s Wentz-infused mania. These fans have felt sure they had the divine person in the divine place at the divine time before. Once upon a time, there was a second-year star who led the Eagles to unforeseen heights ahead of schedule. Who won the town over in the winds of a pretty magical season. Who dazzled them early on with visions of Super Bowls and trophies and parades down Broad Street.
“His name was Donovan McNabb.”
But right from the beginning, McNabb was not embraced by Eagles fans with the fervor that Wentz is experiencing. Booed by fans at the NFL Draft in 1999 when he was selected by the team, his relationship with them never fully recovered even after taking the team to a Super Bowl berth five years later. “(Racism) has been a part,” McNabb told Philadelphia Magazine in 2013. “What percentage, I don’t know. Do I care? No. But it’s been a part.”
Some fans, however, would argue that McNabb always seemed to distance himself from the blue-collar supporters in the stands.
Whatever the reason, there are a lot more No. 11 Wentz jerseys in the stands than there ever were No. 5s.
Wentz, though, is winning over his teammates, coaches and the fans with the same work ethic that led the North Dakota State Bison to FCS national championships in 2014 and 2015. Then there are the less tangible factors.
The Eagles’ unofficial historian Ray Didinger noticed it on the day Wentz was drafted in April 2016. “The first thing I thought of was the fact that the Eagles have won the NFL championship just three times in their history,” he told ESPN, referring to Tommy Thompson (1948 and ’49) and Norm Van Brocklin (1960). “And each time they won it, the quarterback wore No. 11.”
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