After the Philadelphia Eagles won Super Bowl LIX, A.J. Brown took the microphone at the parade and said, “They said I was a diva. They said all I cared about was stats. If you gonna get all those things wrong about me, there’s one thing you can get right: I’m a f*****g champion.” That was only partially true.
The only person who really knows how much stats matter to him is him … But it’s undeniable that he’s a champion, and it’s also undeniable that he’s a diva. That’s not a negative thing. It’s just a thing. And now, that’s a thing that the Patriots have to handle.
The curious case of A.J. Brown’s happiness
Typically, the people who are the best in the world at what they do are really weird people, on a human level: Kobe Bryant was a psychopath, Steve Jobs was crazy, and Tom Brady is a sociopath. But because those guys were so good at their jobs, it’s totally fine that they were nuts.
A.J. Brown is no different. At his best, he’s a top-three wide receiver in the world, and at his worst, he’s in the top-15 … So it’s not a problem that he’s a diva, which is how his weirdness manifests.
The thing is, when Brown was in Philadelphia, it took a few years for that diva cat to get out of the bag. Now that it’s out, it ain’t going back in.
The 2025 season was obviously the year that his issues hit the limelight. He was saying that he didn’t like the way he was being used; he went on a live stream with a guy named Janky Rondo and told everyone to drop him in fantasy, and his body language on the field was straight-up foul.
But those frustrations didn’t just come out of nowhere … They were just stewing under the surface in 2024. The Eagles were one of the least-pass-heavy teams in the NFL, which obviously means that there were waaaay fewer opportunities for Brown to actually catch the ball. However, he couldn’t really say much because Saquon Barkley was having a 2,000-yard season and the offense was vibing.
That didn’t stop the whole “Inner Excellence” thing from happening. I don’t care if he reads on the sideline, and neither should you … But you should care about what the book he was reading says.
It’s not just a normal self-help book about finding worth. It’s written primarily for athletes, and the general theme is that it wants you to separate yourself from what you do and focus on trying to be excellent instead of trying to be perfect.
That all falls right in line with A.J. Brown. He’s a diva wide receiver, but not a diva person. And it turns out, winning isn’t everything for him.
A.J. Bown has made it clear what brings him joy
After the Super Bowl, he made an Instagram post where he said, “After a few days, I’ve had time to reflect on being a champion. I tried to feel how everyone made it seem to be a champion, and unfortunately it was short lived… two days to be exact lol. I’ve never been a champion at the highest level before but I thought my hard work would be justified by winning it all. It wasn’t. My thrill for this game comes when i dominate. It’s the Hunt that does it for me. It’s when the Db drops his head and surrender because he can’t F with me. The Intense battles. Early mornings. Late nights. Sacrifices. I love putting smiles on peoples faces, don’t get me wrong but it just wasn’t what I thought it would be. It’s the journey that I love the most. BACK 2 Work!”
It’s a real square-rectangle situation: it’s abundantly clear that the dude gets his happiness from working hard, crushing people, and being the best he can be. When that happens (and this is important), typically his team wins. However, when his team wins but he doesn’t crush people and/or he gets underutilized, he’s not happy.
That’s where you start to get the real cryptic tweet.
Us Eagles fans? We know that about him, and that’s where there are some issues. Every year is a Super Bowl or Bust season, and the only thing that matters is the Eagles playing winning football rather than individual guys getting their numbers. That’s why we love Jalen Hurts.
If there’s a guy who’s not about that and more focused on themselves, the fan base starts to turn.
I cannot, will not, and refuse to try to walk a mile in a Boston fan’s shoes. I don’t know if they care about the team over the players, but based on the Drake Maye for MVP stuff last year and looking at that world from the outside, it sure looks like it’s a players-over-team thing.
Drake Maye might be in for a rude awakening with A.J. Brown
This might be a match made in heaven; A.J. Brown loves New England, and on paper, New England should love A.J. Brown’s mentality. The issue is that we’ve seen what happens when he’s not happy. That’s where he becomes disconnected, and you can see his rightfully perceived discontent manifest itself on the field.
So how do you keep your receivers happy? Well, Drake Maye was asked that question, and he answered: “I think the best for that is winning. Nobody really tries to complain when you win games. I think nobody’s really that prideful in this sport about personal stats when you’re winning games … My job isn’t to try to make everybody happy. I think my job is to have the offense move up and down the field, and score points.” (4:19 in the video below)
Man … That’s just the polar opposite of what we know about A.J. Brown. Maybe this will all work out, and Brown getting new scenery will help curb some amount of his disappointment … How long will that last?
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