Carson Wentz: North Dakota rejoices as Philadelphia Eagles' QB returns
A colony of Eagles rooters dwells in Fargo thanks to Wentz, who quarterbacked local favorite North Dakota State to the 2014 and 2015 NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision titles.While the Bison had already become familiar in the college football world, Wentz gained subsequent notoriety after being chosen No. 2 overall in the 2016 NFL draft — and starring for the Eagles did something more.“There’s a buzz around town when he’s playing,” said Brent Tehven, co-owner and general manager of the Herd & Horns sports bar on the NDSU campus.<strong style="margin-right:3px;">Week 3 matchups: Can Philip Rivers jolt Chargers against Rams?<strong style="margin-right:3px;">Browns playoff bound?: Baker Mayfield gives Cleveland a reason to believe<strong style="margin-right:3px;">More: Week 3 expert NFL picksWentz, some contend, put North Dakota on the map, even though it has long sat there, sandwiched between South Dakota and Canada.“He’s the best-known North Dakotan,” said Jerry Puppe as he and friends shopped for Wentz gear at Scheels sporting goods Friday. Puppe said he played high school football against former New York Yankees home-run king Roger Maris, who was from Fargo, in the early 1950s.Puppe’s friend Jack Brown, grabbing a jersey for his grandson, did confess “It’s too bad he’s playing for the Eagles instead of the Vikings.” Fargo straddles the Minnesota border and the Vikings play about 3½ hours away in Minneapolis, where the Eagles, it just so happens, won the Super Bowl in February.But Nick Foles quarterbacked that game, earning MVP honors, and it's Wentz mania here that is quite an epidemic.“Most people around here were Vikings fans, but a lot of them have jumped on the Carson Wentz Eagles bandwagon,” said another customer, Amber Nelson, as she snared a Wentz jersey. “My boyfriend’s actually a long-time Eagles fan. That was his team, and we’re going to the Vikings game there in October.”Wentz is from Bismarck, about 200 Steve Young Authentic Jersey
miles west of Fargo, smack dab in the middle of North Dakota.At Century High, he was a standout quarterback, of course. But he was also a starting defensive back, manned the post on the state championship basketball team his senior year and was a straight-A student who was class valedictorian at graduation. He’d sprouted from 5-foot-7 as a freshman to 6-foot-5 as a senior.But he was not heavily recruited, with Central Michigan the only Football Bowl Subdivision (Division I) school reported to have shown much interest.At North Dakota State he had to bide his time behind Brock Jensen, a four-year starter. Jensen had a brief NFL stay with the Miami Dolphins and did play some games in the Canadian Football League.Wentz missed eight games his senior year with a broken wrist before returning for the FCS championship.While his physical tools as a runner and passer stood out, it was Wentz’s ability to see, think, process information and make quick decisions in a way that North Dakota State coach Chris Klieman frequently termed “uncanny” that set Wentz apart and made him so appealing to the NFL.The Eagles traded up twice to draft him No. 2 overall, then dealt expected starter Sam Bradford to Minnesota a week before the 2016 season opener and elevated Wentz to the No. 1 spot. He had his ups and downs as a rookie, but blossomed his second season in 2017. He was a top contender for league MVP honors when he tore two knee ligaments against the Los Angeles Rams in December and was done for the season.Now that he’s back, a large crowd of fans in Eagles gear will fill about half of the Herd & Horns on Sunday for the Colts-Eagles game and toast Wentz’s return, said Tehven.Tehven, a former Bison football player himself in the early 2000s, said Wentz will frequently visit the Herd & Horns on trips back to Fargo. Wentz’s popularity goes well beyond his ability to throw touchdown passes and scramble for first downs, Tehven said.“People can relate to him, first as that local kid who’s done well,” he said. “With his faith and things like that, he’s not in-your-face about it but he’ll talk to you about it if you want to hear about it."People around here go to church on Sundays https://www.sf49ersfanonline.com/authentic-navorro-bowman-jersey-sale-1_2.html
so that resonates with people. They like to go hunting, they like to go fishing. Carson likes to go hunting, likes to go fishing. He likes football. He drives a pickup truck.”Wentz is still one of them in this close-knit community, despite the riches he has earned and attention he has gained.“When he’s playing, we have two different rooms here, so one room will be on the Vikings audio and the other room will be on the Eagles audio,” Tehven said.“We’re on the border with Minnesota so the Vikings have always kinda been the hometown team, and we’ve kind of adopted Carson, adopted the Eagles, since Carson was there."When he got hurt last year it kind of took the wind out of our sails. I think people were generally happy for the Eagles [that they won the Super Bowl] but it wasn’t their team anymore.”The University of Delaware's game here Saturday at 2 p.m. inside the 18,700-seat FargoDome is North Dakota State’s homecoming and events Friday included a parade downtown.Many were dressed in the school’s ubiquitous green and gold colors, but a few donned Wentz gear, too.“I’ll tell you what,” Wentz said in the Eagles’s locker room recently. “The people of Fargo are excited any time there’s a home game, whether we’re playing a team that we’re going to beat by 50, or a rival. That place is always rocking. They’re always tailgating. It’s as good as anywhere in college football, so they’ll be excited. They’re educated fans, too. They know Delaware has got good tradition and everything.”The attention the Eagles have gained via Wentz here is certainly familiar to Delaware fans. Quarterbacks have that power.Many developed rooting interests in the Ravens after Joe Flacco, following his All-American senior season at Delaware, was drafted by Baltimore in the first round in 2008, was Super Bowl MVP after the 2012 season and remains the starter in his 11th year.It’s not unusual to see a Ravens fan wearing Flacco’s No. 5 blue and gold Delaware jersey in the stands at M&T Bank Stadium.Wentz, when asked about Delaware’s visit to Fargo, immediately mentioned Flacco.“Obviously, Delaware has got a good program, a good history,” he said. “When I was younger, back in the Flacco days, they were kind of the cream of the crop at that level. But it’ll be cool [that Delaware is playing NDSU]. Any time there are two programs with tradition at that level, that play each other, especially out of conference, it’s always pretty cool.”Wentz is hoping the Eagles’s schedule next season, which will be announced in April, permits him to attend North Dakota State’s Sept. 14, 2019 visit to Delaware. Wentz has been in Delaware — tax-free shopping? — but never to Delaware Stadium, located just 45 minutes south of Lincoln Financial Field.“We’ve got busy Saturdays around here, but hopefully it falls in line where I can get over there at least a little bit,” he said. “It would be cool.”In Fargo, everything about Wentz is cool, and the quarterback has frequently praised the folks here for being so down-to-earth and good hearted. He has brought Eagles receivers back to Fargo to train with him for those very reasons.“He’s fun to watch and he’s from the Bison, and he’s good on and off the field,” said Thomas Thureen, who lives just across the Red River in Minnesota, at Friday’s parade while wearing https://www.sf49ersfanonline.com/authentic-dwight-clark-jersey-sale-1_85.html
a black Eagles T-shirt with Wentz’s name and number on the back.Standing along Broadway, watching the bands and floats pass, was Fargo resident Robin Berg, whose son Reise was sporting his Wentz Eagles jersey.“They know the Bison because of Carson Wentz,” she said of the national recognition Wentz’s NFL status has brought NDSU.Berg also was pleased her son had chosen such a perfect role model. During a recent family trip to Florida, she was amazed at how well-known this personable young https://www.sf49ersfanonline.com/authentic-steve-young-jersey-sale-1_117.html
quarterback had become, and how it cast such a positive glow upon her home state.  “Carson speaks a lot to the Dwight Clark White Elite Jersey
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