Carson Wentz Apologized to Vikings Equipment Staff for Slamming Helmet on Sideline

Wentz was "not proud" of an emotional sideline outburst born out of immense pain.

Wentz played through a left shoulder injury in Thursday's loss to the Chargers. / Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

It was a tough night for Carson Wentz.

Already dealing with an injured left shoulder coming into Thursday night's game, Wentz seemed to aggravate the injury during the first half and played through visible pain for much of the second half in a 37-10 defeat at the hands of the Chargers. Even though it was Wentz's non-throwing shoulder, the injury seemed to bother the Vikings signal-caller, who threw for just 144 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

So naturally, there was some frustration on Wentzs' part. And he showed some of that frustration in a moment caught by the Prime Video broadcast, in which he slammed his helmet in anger on the sidelines.

Wentz caught some flak from Prime Video analyst Kirk Herbstreit for his emotional outburst, and he admitted it perhaps was not the best look while speaking to reporters after the game.

"Yeah I'm not proud of that," Wentz said. "Apologize to the equipment guys for that. But yeah, I was in a good amount of pain there."

Wentz admitted that it was "quite possibly" the most extended pain he'd been in over the course of a game, and told reporters that he wore more harnesses and wraps on his left shoulder than he ever had in an effort to stabilize the non-throwing shoulder.

Wentz refuses to use shoulder injury as an excuse for subpar play

Wentz, when asked by reporters, said he didn't believe his throwing mechanics were compromised by the shoulder injury.

"I don't think so," Wentz said. "I don't think throwing wise. That's honestly why I felt confident to go. I felt I could do my job. I thought I could throw the ball. Thankfully, you don't need your left shoulder all that much to throw the football. So mechanically, throwing wise, I felt like I could do everything I needed to do."

And Wentz refused to use the shoulder injury as an excuse for the Vikings' underwhelming offensive output.

"No I didn't," Wentz said when asked if he ever felt he needed to exit the game. "Pain is pain. I felt like I could still help this team and find a way to go down and score and all that stuff. So, we knew that coming into the game that that was going to be part of it. And that's the tough part of Thursday night games.

"Just don't quite get the chance to recover. But that's no excuse by any means. When I'm playing out there, I felt fine."

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