On a day when quarterback Carson Wentz continued to shine with his ramped-up practice involvement and the Eagles enjoyed a crisp workout in Phase 3 of their Organized Team Activities, the scene in the locker room after practice was the big story. There weren't a whole lot of juicy sound bites for the media, all of them, so many of them, to dig their teeth into. Rather, the players accomplished something routinely extraordinary, something that we've become accustomed to but something the national media saw for the first time: A team that is mature, extremely unified, and very much intent on not allowing the Non-Trip-to-the-White-House story to become anything more than a blip on the radar screen.

"We had a great day of work today and that's what was important to us," defensive end Chris Long, surrounded by cameras and reporters. "We're a very close team. We showed that last year. Nothing is going to come between us, so I think that's kind of a takeaway for me. This is not a distraction for us. Today's goal was to have a good practice and we did that. Really, that's kind of the end of the story."

Long wasn't planning to attend any sort of celebration at the White House, anyway, as he made clear long ago. He's focused instead on football and on giving back to the community, as he's shown many times in his brief tenure with the Eagles. A leader on the team and as respected as any man in the NFL, Long last season was named the Players' Association recipient of the Byron "Whizzer" White Award for community service. He needs to apologize to no one, nor does he need to legitimize his community and off-the-field endeavors.

Nobody on this team needs to that. The Eagles have long been one of the most philanthropic organizations in all of sports, so there's that. And besides, we're getting off track here. The moral of the story is this: The Eagles are galvanized, in the all-for-one, one-for-all kind of way that marks a championship team.

"I don't think this is a locker room that is going to let anything take away from the unity and the character of this team. The thing that made us special last year was the unity and the bond we had as brothers in this locker room," tight end Zach Ertz said. "I don't think anything could separate the bond and love we have for each other."