Is Joe Santoliquito Vindicated?

Marcus Hayes believes so.

Today the Inquirer columnist spoke again with the local freelancer who recently published via Philly Voice a story titled, Exclusive: Sources inside Eagles paint Carson Wentz as ‘selfish,’ ‘uncompromising’ and ‘playing favorites’. You know the story. You probably read it and listened to sports radio dissect everything about it over the past two weeks.

Wentz spoke Thursday with a half-dozen Eagles beat writers to offer a response to the article, a 23-minute sit down interview that was held under embargo until this morning.

In that response, Wentz admitted this:

“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?’ 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.’ I always say I can be better on the field, off the field, how I carry myself.”

That was just one quote, but in other parts of the interview, he directly pushed back against some of the claims made via Santoliquito’s sources, such as the idea that he “bullied” offensive coordinator Mike Groh or did not want to run plays that Nick Foles preferred.

I’m not sure about you, but I thought Carson came across as thoughtful and reasonable in the way he responded to the piece. The quotes struck me as contemplative on paper, but of course we’d have to be sitting in the room to hear how he sounded or observe his tone and body language. Only Sheil Kapadia, Tim McManus, Jeff McLane, Zach Berman, Dave Zangaro, and Reuben Frank would be able to comment properly on that.

The truth, like most things, is probably somewhere in the middle. Sure, it sounded like Carson was certainly “uncompromising” in some areas while not exactly being a locker room cancer in others. A lot of people were quick to dismiss the story while others gave it thought.

Hayes believes that Wentz’s responses now “vindicate” Santoliquito, as written in today’s column.

Hayes reveals that somebody left dog shit inside Joe’s mailbox, damaged his back door, and smashed his neighbor’s windshield.

Writes Marcus:

Today, though, the sun shone bright in Santoliquito’s world for the first time since he published a piece for PhillyVoice on Jan. 21 that used anonymous sources to paint Carson Wentz as a selfish bully who played favorites this season. Why?

Because Wentz admitted in an interview published Monday morning that the sources weren’t wrong: “I’m not going to sit here and say it was inaccurate and completely made up. … I can be selfish. … Maybe wasn’t the greatest teammate at times.”

Wentz stopped short of agreeing that his shortcomings short-circuited the offense, and he downplayed the depiction of conflict between him and his teammates and coaches. Nevertheless, the tenor of the interview was that Wentz realized that, as the face of the franchise and the most important player, he at least needs to be more inclusive.

Santoliquito is relieved.

“I feel like my credibility is back. I feel validated,” Santoliquito said Monday morning.