The Eagles’ underappreciated greatness, Nick Castellanos’ surliness, and other thoughts...

First and final thoughts …

The most underplayed story about the Eagles has been their recent greatness. It might sound strange to say that, considering all the attention that they draw locally and all the additional attention and praise they earned by winning the Super Bowl last season.

But it’s worth taking a step back and taking in the scope of their excellence over the last 11½ months, because it might be the best stretch of that length that any Philadelphia franchise has ever enjoyed.

The Eagles have played 19 games since the end of last September. They have gone 18-1 in that span. They are, quite literally, one play away — Jayden Daniels’ touchdown pass to Jamison Crowder with six seconds left in a 36-33 loss to the Washington Commanders on Dec. 22 — from having won 19 straight games.

A quick but interesting juxtaposition: During their 2007 season, when they won their first 18 games before losing Super Bowl XLII to the New York Giants, the New England Patriots scored 655 points and gave up 323.

The average score of one of their games was Patriots 34, Opponent 17. Over their last 19 games, the Eagles have scored 566 points and given up 321. The average score of one of those games is Eagles 30, Opponent 17. Comparable. Not quite as good as what might be the best team in NFL history, but comparable.

The Flyers, of course, embarked on a 35-game unbeaten streak in 1979, still an NHL record. But that amazing run constituted less than half a season, and it didn’t include a championship; the Eagles’ run has. We’re talking about a whole NFL campaign’s worth of football here, give or take a game, in which the Eagles have been as unbeatable as an NFL team gets.

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Maybe it’s fan anxiety and worry over the Eagles’ first two games this season — nail-chewing victories in which their offense hasn’t been as dynamic as usual. Maybe it’s the nature of social media, the lens through which so many of us view and follow sports — it damages our memory, distorts our perspective, keeps everything six inches in front of our faces instead of allowing us to see the big picture.

Whatever the reason, the relative lack of appreciation for what the Eagles have accomplished lately has been striking. If you’re a fan, take my advice: Savor this. Who knows when these good times will end? And who knows if you’ll see them again?

Turns out the true diva wide receiver in Philadelphia is … Nick Castellanos.

Two reminders for pro athletes and for all of those who are cheerleaders and apologists who leap to their defense every time a player gets surly, short, or defensive in an interview, like Castellanos did on Friday night after the Phillies beat the Diamondbacks:

One, the reporters and writers who ask questions in a locker room or clubhouse “paint their narrative,” to use Castellanos’ words in a recent podcast, only in the sense that they are trying to get information and insight to deliver news and tell an accurate, compelling story.

If someone asks Castellanos what happened when, say, he struck out with two on and two out in the seventh, he’s free to say, I just swung and missed. But the point of such a question isn’t to annoy him or advance an agenda or a false narrative. It’s to create the opportunity for him to say something insightful, such as, I was anticipating a fastball in, and he gave me a slider away. Had never thrown me that pitch before. He won that battle.

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Two, when a baseball team is 30 games over .500, and its manager’s ability to communicate with his players is universally regarded as his greatest strength, and a player having a subpar season gets benched then complains that manager isn’t communicating with him, news flash: That player is going to be asked about it. In the business, this is what’s called journalism.

Robert Redford was the hero in one of the best baseball movies ever made (The Natural) and a hero in one of the best journalism movies ever made (All the President’s Men). But he also directed three of the best “family” movies ever — Ordinary People, A River Runs Through It, and Quiz Show — movies that consider deeply what it means to be a father, a son, and a brother. RIP.