Jon Runyan Jr., the left guard in his first season with the Giants, has a picture stored in his cell phone showing himself as a youngster, dressed in a smaller version of his father’s No. 69 Eagles jersey.
Runyan in the photo is standing outside the players’ entrance at Lincoln Financial Field, and, from behind, Michael Strahan is giving him a hug and making a fake fearsome face.
Huh?
Strahan hugging the son of one of his football adversaries?
Yup.
It was an unusual friendship that developed 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.
“Growing up, I always thought Michael and my dad were friends,’’ Runyan Jr. said. “After the game they played, every year, Michael would come out to the buses, and he and my dad would chat it up.”
The younger Runyan, naturally, was an avid Eagles fan.
He would frequent the locker room, hanging with his father — along with Terrell Owens, Brian Westbrook, Brian Dawkins, Donovan McNabb and all the other Eagles luminaries.
Runyan, 27, has played every snap on offense in the first six games.
He spent his first four NFL seasons with the Packers, and Sunday he gets his first taste of the Giants-Eagles rivalry from the Giants’ perspective.
He said he will have about 20 friends and family at MetLife Stadium, and likely several more supporters in the seats.
Most of them are Eagles fans, but in order to get a ticket, Runyan laid down the law.
“They’re all going to be in Giants gear or else they’re not allowed to be around us,” Runyan said. “This is a big one. Obviously, when I was a little kid, I grew up as a huge Eagles fan, but work took me elsewhere. Now I’m the biggest Giants fan in the world.”
The Eagles will be without starting LT Jordan Mailata, who sustained a hamstring injury in last week’s victory over the Browns.
Fred Johnson, with nine starts in six NFL seasons, is expected to be the fill-in starter.
TE Dallas Goedert (hamstring) is also out.
In the first four games of his NFL career, rookie TE Theo Johnson was targeted just eight times and had three receptions.
In the past two games, without 2024 draft classmate Malik Nabers on the field, Johnson had eight targets and came up with the catch every time.
“That’s definitely something every tight end wants, to be involved in the pass game,’’ Johnson, a fourth-round pick from Penn State, told The Post. “The unique thing about the tight end position is we’re asked to do so much and it can look drastically different week to week, depending on game plan and what we’re getting from the defense. Early on that’s kind of how we were rolling with things, and we’re starting to get a little more involved now and hopefully we can keep building off that.’’
