When the Wild Card Weekend cameras captured AJ Brown reading the book Inner Excellence on the sidelines during the Philadelphia Eagles win over the Green Bay Packers, it made certified Philly haters lose their darn minds.
Some just knew it was a response to only catching one pass for 10 yards, others took it as a burn on the Packers for not even being worth looking into, and others still went to Amazon to purchase the book, which has become an overnight best-seller as a result.
Asked if he was okay with the Eagles Pro Bowl receiver reading on the sidelines instead of engaging with the game on WIP’s Morning Show, Nick Sirianni said yeah, he was, trashing any haters who used the video to slander Brown or his program as a whole.
“I’m definitely okay with it. The crazy thing is, he’s been reading this book on the sideline for a long time. It just so happened a camera saw it this week. Some guys pray in between, some guys mediate in between. AJ reads in between. Whatever these guys need to do to put their mind in a place where they can play with great detail and great effort, I fully encourage them to do that. I love AJ. He’s such a great teammate. I saw Jahan Dotson said something defending AJ and I thought that was awesome too. Another example of our teammates defending each other,” Sirianni declared via WIP.
“We don’t do any research, and we jump to a conclusion of, ‘Oh, he must be disgruntled.’ That, to me, is lazy. Everyone needs to figure out why he’s doing it before they jump to judgment on the man. Because the man, AJ Brown, is a great, great, great person. The man AJ Brown is the best receiver—and I’ll say it without hesitation—the best receiver that this city has ever seen… It’s hard for me to watch when people are getting on him without doing the proper research of who the man is and what he’s doing in the first place.”
While some might say that Sirianni is simply pandering, that he’s looking to avoid any further outbursts from Brown after he caused more than his fair share of negative headlines earlier in the season for comments about his usage, frankly, that feels unlikely. All season long, Sirianni has been preaching unity, going to bat for his guys, and putting over pretty much any Eagles player who did anything good, even if that was nothing more than being a good teammate. Even as opposing fanbases mock their favorite trade for Brown, including more than a few coming from New England, it’s clear Sirianni has his wide receiver’s back when it counts, even if that doesn’t always result in the double-digit target games the former Pro Bowler would like a steady diet of.
