Ertz talks about baring his 'tight end' in ESPN's Body Issue

Zach Ertz and his wife, the former Julie Johnston, a Team USA soccer star, were featured in ESPN The Magazine's Body Issue this year, posing together and separately. In the accompanying interview they discussed their admiration for each other's, ah, glutes.

"My wife really wanted to do it. I did not necessarily want to do it," Ertz, an Eagles tight end, said this week.

Ertz said the photo shoot occurred back in February, in San Diego. He said they saw all the photos and approved them before publication.

Ertz said his wife has been a fan of ESPN's artsy poses of naked athletes ever since the debut of the concept.

"We were sophomores or juniors in college … It came out and she was like, 'What do you think about it?' I was like, "I don't know if I'd really like to do it.' She was like, 'I don't think I would want to do it individually, but if we ever got the opportunity to do it together, I think it would be really cool.'

"At the time I was like, 'Yeah, sure, that's never going to happen, that opportunity's never going to come up.' "

Alas, it did. ESPN inquired.

"She was like, 'Remember the time you said you could do it?' " Ertz said. "It was good. I thought everything turned out great. They were really respectful about everything."

 Celebration time

NFL officials met with Eagles players and coaches Friday night to go over rules changes and points of emphasis in the league this season.

The owners voted in March to relax some of the restrictions on scoring celebrations.

"The celebration rule is going to be relaxed a little bit,'' said Ron Marinucci, a veteran NFL line judge who was one of the officials who met with the Eagles. "We're going to let them have group celebrations. But not to the point where it's directed toward an opponent. If they direct a celebration toward an opponent, it's going to be a foul.

"We've left the door open for what's enough and what's still too much. We're going to give them a couple of seconds. But we're not going to turn it into a circus. If they do stupid things, it's still going to be a penalty.''

Marinucci, a Philadelphia native and a graduate of what is now Rowan University, said one Eagles player asked if it was OK to mimic shooting a gun. Marinucci informed him it would be a penalty.

The league also is going to a centralized replay system this season, a la the NHL. All replay challenges will be reviewed and ruled on by officials in New York rather than the on-field referee.

Training cramps

We're far enough into camp now for injuries to start surfacing. Backup quarterback Nick Foles was an observer for Saturday's workout after suffering what a source close to the situation called a flexor tendon strain and inflamed nerve in his throwing elbow. That doesn't seem like too big a setback.

Second-year defensive end Alex McCalister sat out with a hamstring pull. During Saturday's practice, wideout Alshon Jeffery went down hard and got up favoring his shoulder. Jeffery sat out briefly, then returned and seemed fine afterward.

Sixth-round rookie defensive tackle Elijah Qualls left practice with what seemed to be a groin or leg injury suffered in a pass rush drill. Qualls was limping slightly in the locker room afterward, but said he was fine.

Birdseed

A group of visiting NFL Network reporters and analysts saw an incredibly sharp Carson Wentz in Saturday's practice, originally scheduled for Lincoln Financial Field. (That free public workout was rescheduled for Sunday at 10 am because of weather). "He was out there spinnin' it," Alshon Jeffery said, when asked about Wentz … Lane Johnson is getting his money's worth out of that blond wig he bought on Amazon; it made its second appearance in a row Saturday, peeking out from under Johnson's helmet for the entire two-hour practice.