The Philadelphia Eagles were at the top of the football world in late November, sitting at 10–1 after coming just a few plays shy of winning the Super Bowl against the Kansas City Chiefs a season earlier. After an overtime win over the Buffalo Bills on Nov. 26, the Eagles lost five of their last six regular season games, falling to the No. 5 seed in the NFC, and were drubbed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the wild-card round of the playoffs, 32–9.
Star wide receiver A.J. Brown thrived early in the year for Philadelphia, posting an NFL record six-game streak of at least 125 yards from Weeks 3 through 8. However, when the losing stretch began, Brown drew significant attention for what he described as sideline “flare-ups,” which some characterized as him being frustrated about a lack of targets from quarterback Jalen Hurts. He also opted to stop speaking to the media, drawing more criticism.
Just weeks into the offseason, Brown has been the subject of trade rumors. On Friday, he hopped on the 94WIP Afternoons radio show with Ike Reese and Jack Fritz to try to set the record straight. From the top, he made it clear that he wants to remain with the Eagles.
“I have no problem, I want to be here,” Brown said. “Simple as that. I love where I’m at, simple as that.”
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Some of the sideline blow-ups called into question Brown’s close relationship with Hurts. He was quick to reject that notion, stating that no one questioned the pair before the team hit its losing skid.
“I think that’s total b.s.,” Brown said. “I’m not going to get into me and his relationship on the air. But it’s total b.s. It wasn’t a problem when I was on my six-game streak, they wasn’t talking about that then. They only started talking about it when we started losing. So of course, you see friction from everybody. From coaches, from players, from everybody.
“The locker room is fine. Like I said earlier… players wasn’t executing. That’s what it came down to. I think the media kinda ran with it’s the coaches’ fault. The coaches didn’t prepare us, this and that. I never blamed the coaches… I’m not trying to blame anyone.”
Brown said that even during the 10–1 start, the team was “scratching out” wins and wasn’t playing like the best team in the league. When the losses started coming, he said it turned into a “domino effect” and the team “couldn’t stop the bleeding.”
Even so, he never stopped being happy with his situation in Philadelphia and pointed to offseason rumors as evidence for why he stopped speaking to the media late in the season.
“I mean, you wonder why,” Brown said of the decision. “You see what the media’s doing right now. … No matter what I say, you guys are going to make a story anyway and pinpoint it however you want to pinpoint it. It was turned into, ‘A.J.’s upset at the Eagles,’ not, ‘the Eagles are upset.’ It was always that narrative and I didn’t want to do my teammates like that. So yeah, I thought at the time that not talking was the best thing for the team, because I didn’t want to compound a negative with a negative. You guys see what was going on, we were all frustrated.”
Turning his attention to the moments of frustration on the sideline, Brown said they stemmed from his role as a team leader and one of its hardest-working players.
“I just truly feel like I’m misunderstood as a player and as a person. And you know it gets frustrating because anything I say, anything I do, it gets magnified times-10,” he said. “I’m classified as a diva, I want the ball… When honestly, it’s the other way around. When you see me get upset on the sideline, you automatically think it’s about targets. What if I’m holding my players accountable? What if I’m the guy that pushes everybody in the locker room and makes people uncomfortable to try and better themselves for the team? What if I’m that guy?
“You don’t see it as much from Jalen because that’s not his personality. I’m the person that you need on the team because I’m willing to hold people accountable, make people around me better, but nobody sees that. All you see is little flare-ups and stuff like that. And you see the flare-ups because nobody in that room works harder than me, nobody in the building prepares harder than me, and I can honestly say that.”
At the end of the nearly 20-minute interview, Brown made sure to reiterate that, despite a frustrating 2023 and his clearly contentious relationship with Philadelphia’s media environment, he still loves the team and the city.
“I just want to let Philly to know that I love ’em, and anybody who’s making those rumors, you need to find another job, man.”
