Say what you want about former Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown. But you can’t say he wasn’t legit. He was far and away the best receiver the franchise has ever seen over the last four years. But the writing was on the wall. For months, perhaps years, the signs were there. Brown’s frustration was visible. His sideline conversations became talking points. His social media activity generated speculation. His occasional cryptic comments fueled debate. The visible tension between individual ambition and team success often played out in public view. Yet when A.J. Brown’s time with the Philadelphia Eagles came to an unceremonious end this week, many seemed annoyed, hurt, betrayed and angry. They shouldn’t be.
You can criticize Brown for certain moments during his four-year run in Philadelphia. You can point to occasions when his emotions appeared to get the better of him. You can argue that some of his public comments created unnecessary distractions. You can question whether he should have handled his frustrations behind closed doors instead of putting them on public display. What you cannot ever say is that Brown’s antics ever hurt his football team.
Winning vs Personal Fulfillment
The reality is that Brown spent much of his Eagles tenure wrestling with a conflict that exists in many elite athletes. The difference between winning and personal fulfillment can be found in almost all of us. Most of us wouldn’t admit that for fear of being labeled as selfish. The truth is most of us would like to have personal fulfillment that leads to winning. It’s a conflict that Brown was experiencing and impossible to miss just days after the Eagles defeated the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX when he admitted that the emotional high of becoming a Super Bowl champion faded almost immediately.
Just the Facts
During Brown’s four seasons in Philadelphia, the Eagles reached two Super Bowls, won one Lombardi Trophy, qualified for the playoffs every year, and posted one of the NFL’s best winning percentages. Individually, Brown was spectacular, averaging roughly 93 receptions, 1,380 receiving yards, and nine touchdowns per 17 games while consistently delivering in the biggest moments.
Brown’s Untimely Birds’ Finale
We obviously have to address Brown’s finale in midnight green, a 3 catch for 25 yards and two drops performance in a home Wildcard game loss to the 49ers. He had a bad game. Yeah I saw that too and that’s what I believe left the most bitter of flavors in the mouths of Eagles’ fans. It happens. Maybe it was karma or maybe it was a subconscious lack of focus on Brown’s part but if you think an elite receiver with a Texas-size ego intentionally tanked the game then you’re delusional and just trying to squeeze your narrative into your pastine-brain-sized window.
Sometimes great players have bad games in big spots just like everyone else. Wally Henry fumbled away a home Wildcard game to the Giants back in 1982. Keith Jackson dropped a touchdown in the famous “Fog Bowl” playoff game loss to the Bears in 1988 that might have changed the outcome. Ron Jaworski and Donovan McNabb each threw interceptions in their respective one-time Super Bowl appearances (heck, Jaws threw all three to the same guy, Oakland’s Rod Martin!!). Jalen Hurts, despite an epic performance in Super Bowl LVII against the Chiefs inexplicably just dropped the ball on a fourth down play in the first half that was returned for a touchdown by Kansas City’s Nick Bolton which likely changed the outcome. Alshon Jeffery let a ball go right through his hands on a potential game-winning drive that ultimately ended the Birds’ season when it wound up in the hands of New Orleans’ Marshon Lattimore in a division playoff game loss to the Saints back in 2019.
It happens and anyone who says that Brown dogged it against the Denver Broncos back in October on that double move that left him open by five yards down field past the Broncos secondary is either clueless, brainwashed or doesn’t get the wide receiver position. It’s lazy, herd-like analysis. Period.
The Uncomfortable Truth
The difficult truth for many fans is that team success does not satisfy every athlete equally. Fans care almost exclusively about the scoreboard and I get that. If the Eagles win,nothing else matters. But fans also need to get that players are different, particularly players at Brown’s position.
Wide receivers live in a world where personal performance and team success often intersect but are not always identical. Brown didn’t just want to win games. He wanted to dominate them. He wanted to be the focal point. He wanted to consistently operate at the highest level of his craft. As a fan you should want some selfishness from your players. You should want them to want the ball, especially in crunch time.
There’s nothing unusual about that mindset. In fact, it’s often what separates great players from good ones.
Another Uncomfortable Truth
The problem was that Philadelphia’s offensive identity increasingly moved away from maximizing Brown’s identity. The Eagles became one of the NFL’s most run-heavy teams. Winning justified the approach, but it didn’t necessarily satisfy Brown’s personal pursuit of excellence and that is where the disconnect existed.
Still, Brown deserves some credit for one thing. He was honest. Maybe uncomfortably honest. He admitted something many athletes, executives, entrepreneurs, and high achievers feel but rarely say aloud. Success doesn’t always fulfill the personal hunger that drives them. That doesn’t make him selfish. It makes him human. But it makes Eagles Nation angry and impetuous, led by the sports talk radio sherpas who continue to display their lack of mastery over their emotions, objectivity and intelligence which has not surprisingly spread to the fan base.
Shakespeare and the Yellow Brick Road
Now comes the fascinating part. Brown spent years searching for something more than winning. The Eagles gave him victories, playoff runs, Pro Bowl appearances, a boat load of money and a Super Bowl ring. But at the end of the day he wants to be Ja’marr Chase with some bling. Although truth be told he finished with 121 targets last year while Stephon Diggs led the Patriots in targets last season with 102 and was cut.
The turf isn’t always kelly-greener somewhere else and neither is the compensation package. We’re going to find out pretty soon what the verdant landscape at One Patriot Way looks like and so is A.J. Brown.
In the 17th century tragedy, Othello, William Shakespeare wrote:
“O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.”
The tragedy was that Othello begins chasing something impossible, absolute certainty that his wife, Desdemoma, loves and is faithful to him. The more he searches, the more suspicious he becomes. The more suspicious he becomes, the more he destroys the very thing he already possesses.
The same theme existed in The Wizard of Oz. The Dorothy gang were all searching for something they already had. It was about self-discovery and so is the situation for A.J. Brown. Just be careful what you wish for A.J. because targets are temporary but championships are forever.
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