A.J. Brown should be embarrassed with himself. He needs to put on his big boy pants and grow up because this is getting out of hand. His antics have been shameless all season, but nothing was worse than his behavior on Jan. 12 during the Eagles’ NFL wild card game against the Green Bay Packers. After Jan. 12, I honestly wouldn’t want this guy on my team anymore — I don’t care how good he is at catching the ball or how many consecutive 1000-yard seasons he has.
In the 4th quarter of the Philadelphia Eagles’ 22-10 win over the Packers, Brown did the unthinkable — or at least something most people would have considered weird to do — in the middle of a professional sports game. Brown went to his seat on the bench and reached over to grab a book. He grabbed his edition of Inner Excellence, by former baseball player Jim Murphy and began to read. It was an odd sight — so much so that the national TV broadcast spotted it and had a few comments about it. Brown knew what the elephant in the room was as soon as the postgame began, and he addressed it.
“Man, it gives me a sense of peace,” Brown told reporters after the game. “That’s a book that I bring to every single game. My teammates call it, ‘the recipe.’ … For me, this game is mental. I know physically I can do anything and everything. But I gotta make sure my mental’s good, too.”
We all know the real reason Brown was reading a book in the middle of a playoff game — and it wasn’t to find inner excellence. It was just another way for him to throw a temper tantrum, another way to show that he was unhappy with the team and another way to silently protest against the team. He wasn’t happy with his QB Jalen Hurts, who was out the previous three weeks with a concussion. He wasn’t happy with his own health as he was dealing with a slight knee injury himself. And he wasn’t happy with how the game turned out because, even though they were winning, he only had one reception for 10 yards. So, he chose to highlight his intelligence by reading, when it only highlighted his selfishness.
Winning fixes everything except Brown’s attitude. We saw this earlier in the season when Brown was caught arguing with Hurts on the broadcast, despite the team winning the match. Everybody downplayed it except Brown, who added fuel to the fire by publicly stating that he wasn’t being used enough. The media coddled him, and the Eagles did as well, wedging him in the next game. We saw a similar situation on Jan. 12; the only difference is that, instead of arguing for the world to see, he chose to pretend to read a book.
Instead of the media relentlessly getting on Brown for his selfish behavior, he is being lightly trolled by his own city’s media and helping the book skyrocket to No. 1 on the charts. It’s all sunshine and smiles now, but it won’t be for the rest of the playoff run. The Eagles will face a much tougher opponent in the divisional round, and what will happen is Brown doesn’t get his targets again?
Will he start eating this time or maybe resort to arguing with Hurts again? Either way, the Eagles are walking a fine tightrope with Brown and his behavior — and it won’t work out for them. It’s only a matter of time before Hurts, Coach Nick Siriani and the rest of the Eagles organization decide Brown isn’t worth the weekly headache. I believe it will come this postseason. Whether it’s next round, or the NFC Championship — heck, maybe even the Super Bowl. The Eagles will lose a playoff game, and they won’t be in the mood for Brown’s diva antics after that. Brown will lose the Eagles a championship because of his selfish behavior this postseason — and then he’ll lose his spot on the team afterward.
