Anderson: Carson Wentz carries football, hunting and Bible lessons to Minnesota Vikings

Carson Wentz might be the only quarterback in the NFL who tosses a football with his right arm but shoots a bow with his left.

Granted, very few archers sling a football for a living.

But the right-arm, left-arm switcheroo is a head-scratcher nevertheless, and prompts a question: Is the recently acquired Vikings backup quarterback ambidextrous?

After all, in 2021, while playing for the Colts, Wentz hurled a couple of passes with his left arm, both of which were caught — though only one by a teammate.

“I’m not ambidextrous,” Wentz said the other day. “But I am left-eye dominant, which is why I shoot a bow lefthanded.”

Wentz, 32, first drew back a bowstring about 10 years ago, when he was a senior at North Dakota State. He had come to Fargo as a standout three-sport athlete at Bismarck (N.D.) Century High School, where he was class valedictorian in 2011.

“I liked hunting when I was a kid, but I didn’t love it,” he said. “I think I went deer hunting the first time when I was 14, and that was with a rifle. I was just too busy with sports.”

During his first fall with the Bison, Wentz was invited by a friend to hunt pheasants on a rare day he had off from classes, practices and games.

The outing changed Wentz’s life.

“It was the most fun thing I’d ever done,” Wentz said. “My friend had a chocolate Lab, and following him, it was just a beautiful scene. I couldn’t hit a thing. I was horrible with a shotgun. But I came home deciding I was going to sell my Toyota Camry and buy a Ford F-150. I was going to get a dog, too, a golden retriever.

“When I decide to do something, I’m all in.”

Ducks also drew Wentz’s attention while he was at NDSU.

“We’d hunt mostly on public land, and I was trying to train my dog, who is still with [me and my family] today, one of three goldens we own,” Wentz said. “I didn’t grow up with dogs, so it was all new to me.”

Important as those hunts were, paramount as well was returning to Fargo in time for church.

Wentz’s Christian faith journey began as a freshman when senior NDSU quarterback Dante Perez asked him at practice one day if he read the Bible. Before the semester ended, Wentz had scrutinized the entire Old Testament.

Today, what Wentz has called “living life with a purpose” manifests itself in his AO1 Foundation, which Wentz and his older brother Zach started after Carson was selected second overall in the 2016 NFL draft by the Philadelphia Eagles.

AO1 stands for “Audience of One,” and Wentz has the acronym tattooed on the underside of his right wrist.

The AO1 Foundation takes kids who have life-threatening illnesses, and their families, on dream trips. It also operates a food truck that delivers free meals to underserved communities in Indianapolis. The foundation also helped build a sports complex in Haiti, where Wentz traveled on a mission trip in 2017.

“At the foundation, we want everyone to know they’re loved,’’ Wentz said. “I’ve seen how my faith and life have changed for the better, and I want to share that with people in less fortunate situations.”

So it is this NFL season when Wentz suits up for the Purple, the team he cheered for as a kid in Bismarck, he has a lot on his mind.

Foremost is supporting starting quarterback J.J. McCarthy, offering a veteran’s advice as needed, while chucking passes in practice and, if called upon, in games — but only with his right arm.

He’s saving his left arm for bow hunting.

So much so that after being drafted by the Eagles, he found some hunting land near his home in New Jersey. When he had time, he climbed into a tree and did what he thought he could never do: chill out, while waiting for a deer.

Last year, while playing for the Chiefs, he found a kindred spirit in the team’s long snapper, James Winchester, who like Wentz enjoys passing time 8 or 10 feet above ground, with a bow in his hand.

Similar outings can be seen on ”Wentz Bros Outdoors," a YouTube show Carson and Zach started about a half-dozen years ago. Big game archery hunting is the focus, along with duck hunting and land management.

The backdrop for the program, oftentimes, is a Kentucky farm the brothers steward for deer and other wildlife.

All of which is a long way from North Dakota and the life Wentz knew as a kid in Bismarck and, not that many years ago, as a national champion quarterback at NDSU.