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PHILADELPHIA — The Eagles won the Super Bowl and management supplied everything necessary for the memories to last.

There were banners hoisted and souvenirs overpriced, signage added and stadium exhibits freshened. There were books authorized, videos filmed and diamond rings presented.

There was even a statue riveted to the ground, never to be disturbed.

What there wasn’t – and it had to take some willpower – was unconditional, long-term roster loyalty to anyone who’d made it happen, not the quarterback who was the Super Bowl MVP, even the coach, not many pass-catchers, pass-blockers or pass-interceptors. No, that continued attachment to the franchise would have to be earned. And because that’s how Howie Roseman decided it should happen, only a few of the most recent Eagles champions will head to Arizona next week to try it again. There will be Jason Kelce and Lane Johnson. There will be Fletcher Cox and Brandon Graham. Jake Elliott is still the kicker. Derek Barnett is still around, though injured.

Don’t let the door …

“I’m definitely blessed,” Graham was saying Thursday. “It took me eight years to get to my first Super Bowl. I’m just trying to enjoy these last two weeks of the season and try to put my best foot forward.”

He did that in the 2017-18 Super Bowl, charging into the backfield to strip-sack Tom Brady with 2:21 to play. Barnett recovered, the Eagles held on, and at that moment few demanded or expected much more. But the quiet genius behind how Roseman assembled an All-Star team five years later was that it would include just enough of those remaining champions to demonstrate how it could be done, but none just to stand around to entertain the nostalgia-addicted.

So, those holdovers proved they were not just kept around as glorified franchise ambassadors. Kelce and Johnson were voted into the Pro Bow. Cox and Graham were chosen as alternates. Elliott was typically dependable  And while all their quarterback-hurries and pancake blocks and automatic PATs helped the Eagles win the NFC, it’s what they will continue to contribute off the field that could help them be champions again.

“They are definitely guys that we can lean on from their experiences,” Jalen Hurts said. “I think experience is the biggest teacher, so you have to go through it yourself to learn the most from it. But having those guys is definitely beneficial. There’s a lot of familiar faces who have been there. So as a team, we have to lean on one another.”

None of that makes the Eagles special, and it hardly makes them more prepared than Kansas City, whose quarterback and head coach both have won Super Bowls with the Chiefs. The significance is that Roseman did not allow emotion to interfere with progress, and was careful to sprinkle his roster not just with great players from the Super Bowl championship team, but solid leaders.

“I think we have a great locker room,” Kelce said. “Howie and the front office and all of those guys do a phenomenal job at trying to figure out which pieces fit, as well as taking in the coach’s perspective. I think the thing that is very similar between this year and that one is that all of the guys we have brought in are very important pieces and they are all playing the best football they have played.

“To make all of those acquisitions, on top of a team that ended the regular season last year on a high note, was important. We have really compounded on it this year.”

The Eagles from the last Super Bowl team have helped the newcomers, and vice versa. If A.J. Brown and Darius Slay and Landon Dickerson and James Bradberry and Miles Sanders and the others continue to play as they have, it will only boost the robust arguments for Kelce and Johnson as Hall of Fame players. And if the Eagles win their second Super Bowl, the remaining contributors to the other one will be the first pro athletes to ride in two Philadelphia championship parades since the core of the 1975 Flyers.

“I always believed I would get to one Super Bowl,” Graham said. “But two now? Whew.”

He will make sure the newer Eagles benefit from his experience.

“I told those guys, ‘Make sure you have fun when it’s time to have it,’” Graham said. “But when we’re in between those lines, we have to go about doing what we do well to carry out the game plan. We didn’t come all this way to get embarrassed. We didn’t come this far to start playing around now. Keep it consistent. That’s what we’ve been doing.

“There’s going to be a lot of things going on. I’m not saying you can’t indulge in it or have fun with it. Just make sure you respond.”

If so, a handful may be asked to hang around long enough to try it all again. If not, they can always enjoy the new banner.

Contact Jack McCaffery at jmccaffery@delcotimes.com

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