John Runyan Jr., who played left guard during his first season with the Giants, has a photo on his phone of himself as a younger man wearing a smaller version of his father's No. 69 Eagles jersey. .
In the photo, Runyan is standing outside the player entrance at Lincoln Financial Field, with Michael Strahan hugging him from behind and making a fake horrified face.
Huh?
Is Strahan hugging the son of his football adversary?
Yeah.
It was an unusual friendship between Strahan, the Giants' all-time sack leader, and Runyan, who played nine of his 14 years as an NFL offensive tackle for the Eagles.
“As a kid, I always thought Michael and my dad were friends,” Runyan Jr. said. “Every year after the games they played, Michael would come out on the bus and talk to my dad about it.”
The younger Runyan was, naturally, an avid Eagles fan.
He was often in the locker room with his father, along with Terrell Owens, Brian Westbrook, Brian Dawkins, Donovan McNabb and other Eagles luminaries.
Runyan, 27, played every snap on offense in the first six games.
He spent his first four NFL seasons with the Packers, and Sunday will give him his first taste of the Giants-Eagles rivalry from the Giants' perspective.
He said about 20 friends and family members will be at MetLife Stadium, and perhaps a few more supporters will be in the seats.
Most of them are Eagles fans, but to get tickets, Runyan laid down the law.
“They're all going to be wearing Giants gear, otherwise they won't be allowed to be anywhere near us,” Runyan said. “This is a big deal. Of course, I grew up a huge Eagles fan since I was a kid, but work took me elsewhere. Now I'm the No. 1 Giants fan in the world. ”
The Eagles will not start LT Jordan Mailata, who injured his hamstring in last week's win over the Browns.
Fred Johnson, who has started nine games in six NFL seasons, is expected to be his replacement.
TE Dallas Goedert (hamstring) is also out.
Through the first four games of his NFL career, rookie TE Theo Johnson was targeted just eight times and had just three receptions.
In the past two games, with fellow 2024 draftee Malik Nabors not on the field, Johnson had eight targets and made a catch each time.
“Being involved in the passing game is definitely something every tight end wants,” Johnson, a fourth-round pick out of Penn State, told the Post. “The unique thing about the tight end position is that we are asked to do a lot and it can be dramatically different from week to week depending on the game plan and what we get from the defense. That's how we did things in the early days, but now we're starting to get a little more involved and we're hoping to build on that.”
