Eagles Celek Staying Positive Despite 1-2 Start
By Matt Leon
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – After opening the 2013 season with three games in 11 days, Eagles tight end Brent Celek says he welcomed a few days off after Thursday's loss to the Chiefs.
"Yeah, I kind of needed a few days to rest from that (start to the season)," Celek tells KYW Newsradio. "It was physically demanding, but that's no excuse, we've got to come out a little bit better than we did. But it was nice to get a few days off."
The Eagles sit at 1-2 after those first three games. An encouraging season opening win at Washington was followed by disappointing home losses to San Diego and the Chiefs.
"It's been tough," Celek says. "Just for the fact that we know we're so good and we work so hard. We know it's not going to come easy, but it's something that we've got to do in the future. We can't make mistakes and give up five turnovers (vs. Kansas City), just something you can't do and win. We've got to fix that stuff, but other than that, we know we're a great football team."
Celek has caught four passes this season for 74 yards and a touchdown. He says life isn't that much different for him this year as a tight end in Chip Kelly's offense.
"You pretty much have the same concepts in every offense," Celek says. "It's a little bit more demanding in the amount of plays that we run, but we as tight ends rotate a little bit and are able to switch in and out and we've got a lot of good ones here. So it hasn't been too bad."
Brent Celek Interview
Of course any discussion of the Eagles offense leads to discussion of its pace, but Celek says it really isn't too big a deal at this point.
"At the very beginning it's a little bit tougher," Celek says. "But now that you've learned to adjust, it's just natural. When you go at the normal pace it feels slow. So it's definitely different, something that you never expect or thought could happen, but it's pretty cool that is has."
Next up for the Eagles, a visit to Denver on Sunday to battle the Broncos.
"They are a great football team," Celek says. "Obviously any team that has (quarterback) Peyton Manning, they are going to be tough to go against. That guy is one of, if not the greatest, players of all time. We've got to be on our game. We've got to stick to fundamentals and play our football."
Now Celek is also keeping busy off the field these days with his Take Flight Foundation.
"Our main goal is to help physically ill and sick children," Celek says of the foundation. "What we do is we have lockers at the children's hospitals around the area and these lockers have Playstations, X-Boxes, basically anything to entertain the kids and kind of keep their mind off of what they are doing."
As a fundraiser, the foundation will hold its fourth annual Celebrity Waiter Night on Thursday night, October 3rd, at 7:00pm. It will be held at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel. For information on tickets, go to BrentCelek.org.
You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.
