Carson Wentz Is Fueling Eagles’ Hype. Not That He’s Noticed.

PHILADELPHIA — Carson Wentz ate lunch last year with the former N.F.L. quarterback Matt Hasselbeck. As they talked, Hasselbeck, now an analyst for ESPN, wondered whether Wentz knew everything he had said about him — good or bad — on television.

Then Wentz asked Hasselbeck what he’d been doing since retiring.

“I tell him, and then he goes, ‘What channel is that?’ ” Hasselbeck said. “ ‘Oh, ESPN,’ I say. And then I’m like, ‘He really doesn’t know.’ ”

Hasselbeck recounted that story over the phone last week, a few days before Wentz guided the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday to their sixth consecutive victory, to emphasize what he considers Wentz’s finest quality, one that is becoming ever more relevant.

The Eagles, at 7-1, have the best record in the league, and also their best through eight games since 2004, when they last reached the Super Bowl.

Even though it has been a while since they actually won the Super Bowl — as in, never — fans have reacted to the Eagles’ success with nothing but restraint and levelheaded calm.

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