Eagles tight end Celek confident in new NFL CBA

Brent Celek thinks we have nothing to worry about, that a collective bargaining agreement eventually will emerge from those federally mediated NFL negotiating sessions down in Washington.

"I know it's going to get done in time. There's too much at stake for both sides," Celek said yesterday. "They'll probably just keep extending" the deadline, currently set for Friday. "We'll see. I don't see there being a lockout. If there is, I'll be really surprised."

Celek isn't claiming any elaborate inside knowledge. He said like most of us, he is following the talks mostly on Twitter, waiting for the league to be released from the limbo it entered when the talks were extended by a week last Friday, just as the players' union prepared to decertify and the owners prepared to lock out. Teams can't add or release players right now.

The Eagles tight end isn't spending this uncertain time sitting around and fretting, though. Yesterday he was at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, in Hunting Park, unveiling the "Take Flight Zone," a $10,000 entertainment center full of games - iPads, PlayStation portables, Kinect games, Nintendo DS portables and regular Nintendo DS systems - available to hospitalized children and their families, who Celek notes often have little to occupy their time when a loved one is hospitalized. Celek last summer created the Take Flight Foundation, which aims to help children.

"We'd like to get the Take Flight zones, those lockers, in all the children's hospitals [in the Philadelphia area]. That's our goal - to impact 2 million kids and their families by 2013," Celek said.

Celek, 25, and his wife, Susie, are Ohio natives, but Celek said he feels strong ties to the city where he has played all 4 years of his pro career, since arriving as a fifth-round draft pick out of Cincinnati.

"Anytime I can make a kid smile, I'm gonna do it. I feel like the Philadelphia community has given me so much, I have to give back. It's my duty," Celek said. "I've always done a bunch of stuff with a bunch of different charities in the area. I kind of decided I'd like to go my own direction, do my own thing. I'm still going to help all the charities I've been helping, but I want to kind of focus my efforts on children, children's hospitals.

"When I'm done playing football, I don't want to ever regret anything. I don't want to sit back and say, 'Darn, I could have helped so many kids, I could have done this, I could have done that.' I want to experience everything, help people the way that I've been helped. That's just the way I've lived; even in football, anytime I have an opportunity to work, get better, I'm going to do it because I don't ever want to sit at home and regret it."

Celek said his viewpoint was formed by his parents, who run three hair salons in the Cincinnati area.

"My parents work extremely hard, and it's never failed," Celek said. "I kinda brought that here, I think."

Celek said he hopes to live in the area after he's finished playing.

"I love this city. It's a fun city to live in," Celek said, as a few feet away, a toddler named Andre, hospitalized for asthma problems, chanted "E-A-G-L-E-S."

"The people are great. They love the Eagles. When people are so warm to you, no matter how you feel about the area, it becomes your home."

Celek and Eagles left guard Todd Herremans are in the process of fixing up a sports bar and club they are calling 879, to incorporate their uniform numbers, in Old City, at 110 Chestnut, the site of the former Crocodile Philly. Celek said he doesn't want to say too much about it until the grand opening is scheduled.

Susie Celek was in the news recently for winning a three-round boxing match.

"I get more nervous for her than I do for my own football games," Celek said.

The Eagles' athletic training staff, offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg and wideout Jason Avant were among those honored last night at the Ed Block Courage Award banquet in Baltimore. Avant's teammates voted him the Eagles' Block award winner, Mornhinweg won assistant coach of the year from Pro Football Weekly, and the trainers were named the Professional Football Athletic Trainers Society's Athletic Training Staff of the Year for 2010, in voting by their peers.

For more Eagles coverage and opinion, read the Daily News' Eagles blog, Eagletarian, at www.eagletarian.com.