Editor’s note: this is a guest post from Los Angeles screenwriter Max Reinhard, who has worked on Stranger Things, House of Lies, and numerous short films and commercials. He’s co-written a movie that may be coming out later this year. 

 

We find ourselves in the NFL off-season: a wasteland of boredom, free agency, and trade rumors. With no live football games to occupy my time, I’m forced to ask the big questions? Who am I? Why are we here? How long can I stare at this blank wall until the season starts?

I’m an Eagles fan. I’m still coming down from the high of a Super Bowl pummeling of the Chiefs. It was a magic season, a glorious playoff run, and I’m only now beginning to accept the cold hard truth that I was actually not even a part of the team.

While there are no games to play, I can still think of football. But let’s think deeper. Beyond the stats. The records. The rankings. The minutes on the game-clock will always hit zero and the excitement and energy of the game will fade away, but the virtues and beliefs of a great team are evergreen – make that ever(Eagles)green.


What did this Eagles season teach me? It taught me that you win by running the damn ball, that it helps when you nail the draft every year, and that defense wins championships. Those are great lessons, sure, but none is really relevant to my life as a regular quasi-geriatric millennial writer with occasional lower back pain.

When I really think about it, the Eagles’ 2024 team touched me on a personal and emotional level. I feel wiser and happier after watching this season. Perhaps that’s the result of a light head from jumping up and down after Patrick Mahomes’ sixth sack of the Super Bowl. Or perhaps it’s because, if you were paying attention, the Eagles’ 2024 season contained so many life lessons about the human condition.

Those lessons:

 

Learning from adversity, not running away from it

Head coach Nick Sirianni constantly preached this to his team. “Adversity can teach us things that ease never could,” he said, “but only if we embrace it.”

This team and its players dealt with their fair share of adversity. From a near-Super Bowl win two years ago to a brilliant start and even more horrific ending last year. Knives were out for Sirianni after he shaved his head and bickered with his own fans (during an Eagles win, no less). The team’s offense looked disjointed at times. Yes, adversity aplenty. But the team embraced the adversity. They learned from it. They were not defined by their low points. Their low points only taught them what they could do better.

So often in my own life I have felt defined by adversity, and adversity was not a kind teacher. It was a ghoul, a ghost of my future life, telling me that whatever pain or shortcomings I was dealing with at the present were ones I could never escape. When adversity spoke to me, it told me that I didn’t get what I worked towards because I was inherently a loser. I was internalizing adversity, not embracing and learning from it. It was easier to blame others for how they treated me, or what they didn’t give me, and to be a victim of my circumstances rather than learning from them.

It would’ve been easy for Jalen Hurts to blame Sirianni for the collapse last year. Or vice versa. It would have been easier for the players to keep a cold heart and live in the past. But this team did the best they could with what they had. They embraced adversity and learned from it. When the team had a middling record at the start of the season they learned from their shortcoming. The offensive line, all 7,000 pounds of them, went to their coach’s office and told Sirianni they needed to run the ball more. And Sirianni embraced this request. He learned from it, and they ran damn ball all the way to the Super Bowl.

If I can watch a team of professional athletes embrace adversity and learn from it on the biggest stage, under the brightest lights, certainly I can learn from adversity in my own life too. When the Eagles failed in 2022, they were not failures because they grew from that loss.

When I encounter adversity now, I ask, “What would Nick Sirianni do?” — wait, I mean, I ask, “What can I learn from it this adversity?”

 

Lead with Your Heart

A.J. Brown, to his great credit, has been open about his mental health struggles. He’s talked in the past about his problems with depression and anxiety and suicidal ideation. This level of openness and vulnerability from a professional athlete at the top of his game is rare. It’s almost as rare as an athlete reading a book during a game. Yet in the wild card playoff game against the Green Bay Packers, Brown was caught on camera reading Inner Excellence by Jim Murphy. It came during a time when A.J., one of the best receivers in the NFL, wasn’t getting many targets, let alone catches.

By the way the sports media reacted, you might have thought they caught him reading a book called I’m The Best Player on the Planet, Pass me the EFFIN’ Ball! as they labeled A.J. a stat-obsessed diva again.

But I dug deeper. I read Inner Excellence. Okay, I lie; I listened (much easier than reading!) to the audiobook version of Inner Excellence. It’s a beautiful, honest book about letting go of your ego, your expectations, and your desire to control the outcome. Murphy talks about controlling what you can control, letting go of your monkey mind and your inner critic, and leading with your heart. Showing up, doing your best, and being okay with whatever the results are – these things aren’t easy, but they are worth it.

I can tell myself to do them often, but I need the constant reminder. It’s easy to go through life feeling like I’ve got it figured out. But if I don’t constantly remind myself of the principles, steps, and practices that can lead to peace, my monkey mind can take over. I can be become an emotional diva, which is way worse than any wide receiver screaming for the ball. When I see A.J. Brown reading a book about mental health and personal improvement on the sideline, I see him leading with his heart. Being vulnerable, going through a tough time, but not letting that drag him down into the muck and the mire of life.

What’s my version of pulling out a copy of Inner Excellence? Is it a positive affirmation I say to myself to prevent spiraling downward? A prayer of thanks I say to God in the morning before my feet hit the ground? We all need a reminder to set our ego aside and lead with our heart.

Leading with your heart was not limited to A.J. Brown. Sirianni, the hothead coach screaming at his own fans with a recently shaved head? He’s the same guy who wrote personal letters to his players, telling them how much he believed in them, appreciating their greatness, and forming a genuine bond with them. The players love him. There is another side to the guy jawing with fans on the sideline. There’s his big damn heart. That doesn’t show up in the box score, but it does win championships.

Saquon Barkley’s heart led him all the way from New York to Philadelphia. He had the opportunity to get revenge on the Giants, a team that gave him his walking papers, in week seven in New York. These Giants fans need to learn a thing or two about brotherly love, because they were booing Saquon every time he touched the ball. Maybe because they missed him. Maybe because he was torching them.

Saquon was sitting on the bench, a few yards away from his single-game all-time-high rushing record. Sirianni asked if he wanted to reenter the game and set his record. But it was a blow out. Rather than showboat and pad his stats, Saquon told Sirianni he didn’t need the record and he would remain out. “I’d rather see the young boys eat,” he said.  Saquon opted to share the love. The backups stayed in. He saw his teammates succeed rather than fan the flames of his ego. That’s a quality person. That’s a good teammate.

He’s had many opportunities to stick it to the Giants, but always took the high road, appreciating where he came from and what that organization did for him. Sirianni embraced Saquon as they were winning the Super Bowl and said, “I don’t even care about the player you are, you’re a special person.” Do you know how good of a person you must be for people to be focused on that instead of a backwards hurdle?

I can’t jump over a person backwards; I have been mistaken for a hermit crab when getting up at night to go to the bathroom. But I can lead with my heart as I take the high road and let others share in the wealth. Another person’s success doesn’t take away from my greatness.

I know you’ve got places to be and people to see, and your own lessons you took away, so I’ll wrap it up. Quickly, a sampler platter of mini lessons from this past season:

 

“Comparison is the thief of joy”

So often our team was criticized for what it wasn’t, instead of appreciated for what it was. It was compared. Jalen was compared to other QBs with gaudier stats. Sirianni was compared to other coaches that didn’t have mental breakdowns during games. This team, its players, myself, and you – perhaps we are all enough as is. Right now. And should be appreciated as such. Not compared. Comparison is the true C-word.

 

“I can’t be great without the greatness of others”

Another Sirianni quote that his team thrived by. They played for each other. I have tried to apply this to my own life. Appreciating others, trying to help others on others help me on their journeys . Gaining strength from their stories and giving strength to them through mine. In this ever-isolating world, coming together with the help of others leads to greatness. As Coach Sirianni has said (probably more than a few times), “Sometimes me, sometimes, you, always together.”

 

“Keep the main thing the main thing.”

If I’ve heard Jalen Hurts say this once, I’ve heard him say it a million times. Winning is the main thing. Everything else is secondary. Cut the distractions. Cut the bullshit. Cut the empty calories of gossip and triviality, and get to work.

And that’s it, as far as lessons go.  Perhaps the main lesson is to look deeper and reflect when watching sports. To contemplate the lessons behind the greatness. We look to sports to entertain and excite. But there is always more emotion beneath the popcorn, highlights, and frivolity, more than even the wins and the losses. In the end, the virtues that pushed a great team to a Super Bowl win will never fade.

Go Birds. Fly Eagles Fly.