Good Sundays have everyone living on Wentz Street

A steady rain fell on tiny Wentz Street in Olney on Thursday morning, but Som Kim barely noticed, beaming with pride over his beloved football team.

"It's like the team is bringing life back around here," Kim, 29, said before stepping into his Honda. "That's all I do lately is talk about the Eagles."

With the team off to an unexpected 3-0 start, everyone, it seems, is living on Wentz Street these days, thanks to that redheaded wunderkind from Bismarck, N.D.

Sporting goods stores are reporting their best months, on the strength of rookie quarterback Carson Wentz's jersey. Ticket prices are hardly blue collar. Joe Biden's on the bandwagon. ("It's our year," the VP tweeted.)

As Joe Torrance said on a South Philly street corner after buying a No. 11 shirt for himself, his wife, and even his mother-in-law:

"Good Sundays make for better Mondays around here."

None of the city's professional sports franchises casts a net as wide as the Eagles. That means an unexpected win like Sunday's 34-3 drubbing of Pittsburgh - or a defeat like 2003's NFC championship game loss to Tampa Bay - can lift or crush collective spirits.

Football is just a sport, of course, and it's also so much more. Watching it taps something deep inside furrowed brains, rewarding the bored caveman who lingers there in the dark, pounding rocks.

When we watch Carson Wentz throw a football so precisely or see Fletcher Cox crumple a quarterback like a cola can, it helps us forget about our abysmal 5K times or our beef with Frank from accounting.

Experts say there's a reason for that.

"The battle in sports is uncomplicated relative to real life, to the kind of battles we encounter in real life," said Carolyn Marvin, professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication. "Even though there are cultural heroes in sports, like Babe Ruth, and sports is a domain where there is room for individual achievement, it underlines the importance of group effort, the battles we win together."

There's a fear in putting all hopes in Wentz, who was just named the NFC's Offensive Player of the Week. Everyone cringes when he takes a hit, yelling from the couch for him to dive or take a breather and rest his perfection. We pray for his ligaments.

Joel Fish, a sports psychologist from Philadelphia, said players can feed off our positive, nervous vibes. We may be nourishing Carson Wentz with our brotherly love.

"In many ways, this team is like Rocky right now," Fish said. "It's exceeding expectations, and from a sports psychology view, that's an important point. We figured we were moderate at best, and for this team to come out of the chute this way multiplies the excitement.

"It allows us all to connect and have something in common."

Still, with their scarred hearts, Eagles fans fear Wentz will fly too close to the sun like Icarus, and his jersey will tumble from the NFL's fifth-best-selling to the 50 percent-off rack.

That's where Sam Bradford jerseys were sitting Wednesday afternoon at Fan Treasures in Runnemede, but owner Randy Benipal focused on the positive.

"This is the best September I've ever had," said Benipal, whose Camden County store has been open since 2002. "It's all Wentz. I sold 35 jerseys so far today."

On a South Philly street, not far from Lincoln Financial Field, a woman named Maria - no last name, she insisted - was hawking kelly green Wentz shirts Wednesday from a folding table for $10.

"Carson Wentz shirts! All sizes!" the 42-year-old hollered.

Many motorists beeped in approval as others beeped impatiently at the cars stopped in the middle of the street so the drivers could make a buy.

Maria didn't want to talk about Eagles fandom.

"This is the only job I got, and I ain't supposed to be out here," she said.

A few blocks away, a group of teens played touch football in a light drizzle, slipping on the grass by an on ramp at Broad and Packer Streets under the glow of the Chickie's and Pete's sign.

Gregory Tenuto, 17, threw a touchdown to Vinny Haas, 17, who taunted defenders with a celebration by some trees. Jesse Giuffrida, 18, wore a Sixers shirt, and Chris Durelli, 17, wore Eagles gear.

Their friend Zach DiDonato, 17, had a Mets shirt on and the deadpan look of someone used to hearing about it.

"He's a Colts fan, too," Giuffrida said.

The teens said they're out there often after school, running post patterns past the statue of Walt Whitman a block from where Wentz and company practice. They've only heard of Eagles championships from their fathers and uncles and grandfathers, but they're confident they'll see one and believe we'll take Wentz Street to get there.

"It's something that everybody loves," Tenuto said. "It's something all of us can get behind."

narkj@phillynews.com

215-854-5916

@jasonnark