The Eagles were back on the field Friday. It just wasn't a football field.
Instead, the team went on a 45-minute field trip by bus to play paintball as a team-building activity. When some players arrived at the NovaCare Complex on Friday morning, white Eagles busses were already waiting for them.
"It was a great time," Eagles tight end Zach Ertz said in an interview with CSN's Derrick Gunn that will air on Quick Slants Friday night at 6 (part of it is above). "It's the first kind of team-building we've really done since I've been here. In the four years I've been here, we've always used the OTAs on the practice field. I thought it was extremely neat to go out there as a team. We bussed out there, it was about 45 minutes to where we went. And it was fun. Some of the guys have been paintballing a long time. I've never been, so I could see why they do it. It was pretty fun."
Plenty of Eagles, including Malcolm Jenkins and Fletcher Cox, seemed to have a good time, posting photos to their various social media accounts.
The Eagles arrived back at the facility at 1:30 p.m. and players dressed in their black Eagles gear, now covered in paint blotches, unloaded from the four or five busses and walked back into the building.
Friday was the last day of OTAs before the mandatory minicamp next week, which means head coach Doug Pederson sacrificed one of his 10 voluntary practice days for a team-building exercise.
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"I think you'll see guys flying around next week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday," Ertz said. "I think guys are going to be excited. Anytime someone gives you a little pat on the back, I think you want to reward him always, but especially when he kind of goes out of his way to do something for us and guys are excited about next week already."
