PHILADELPHIA – A.J. Brown doesn’t have a Goodreads account or belong to a book club. The Philadelphia Eagles wideout does enjoy flipping pages for pleasure, however.
He also wants everybody to know something about his habit, which FOX broadcast cameras captured in the second half of his team’s 22-10 victory Sunday over the Green Bay Packers in the NFC wild-card round: It’s genuine, and Brown isn’t doing it for attention or to send any sort of negative subliminal message.
That required some explanation given the title of the book he was reading, “INNER EXCELLENCE: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life” and the under-the-surface drama that’s brewed all season long regarding an inefficient Eagles passing attack.
“I like to read a lot,” Brown said after the game. “My teammates see me reading a lot. I try to read two books a month.”
Author Jim Murphy released the book in 2020 and is a mental skills coach who has worked with baseball players, Olympic athletes and top-level golfers, according to his Amazon author page.
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The pages of Brown’s book are worn, with highlights and underlines for passages he enjoys revisiting.
“You will find as you take this journey with me,” one annotated passage from Murphy reads, “that your best moments will always come from a clear mind.”
Moro Ojomo, the Eagles’ second-year defensive lineman, recommended the tome to him at the beginning of this season.
“That’s a book that I bring every single game. My teammates call it ‘the recipe,’” Brown said. “That’s the first time y’all got me on camera. It’s got a lot of points in there. It’s a lot of mental parts about it. I mean, the game’s mental.”
Brown took to social media to make sure everybody else understood.
“This game is 90% mental and 10% physical for me,” he wrote on X. “I bring it to every game and I read it between each drive. I use it to refocus and lock in despite what may transpire in the game, good or bad. People tend to create controversy when they don’t know the truth.”
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Brown said he likes to think of himself as somebody who can do everything and anything, and the book helps him center himself at the height of his performance. He goes back to the book every drive, he said, whether he catches a touchdown or drops a pass.
Some of the book’s messages, per Brown, include:
If you have a clear mind, then nothing else matters, negative or positive.
Be willing to take risks.
If you are humble, you can’t be a “bear” to others.
“So no matter what happens,” Brown said, :”like in the game or whatever happens, just stay free.”
Wide receiver Jahan Dotson, who caught the game’s first touchdown, told USA TODAY Sports that he sees Brown reading in the locker room after every game. Quarterback Jalen Hurts, however, disputed that notion.
“I’ve never seen him read,” Hurts said. “I’ve seen the book in his hands. Everybody has a different thing and finds their flow in different ways. That’s how he chooses to do it.”
But left tackle Jordan Mailata backed up Brown’s claim that he brings the book with him to the bench every time he took the field this season.
“He does that every game. … It’s a mindset book,” Mailata said.
“Y’all just don’t see it,” Brown said with a smile without revealing how the book returned to his locker after the game if he didn’t bring it back himself (an Eagles equipment staffer takes care of that for him).
The books Brown typically thumbs through are mindfulness and self-help books, he said.
“I’m not really into fiction,” he said.
Never one to hide his feelings but typically good-natured, Mailata had a theory for why this was suddenly a postgame topic among the media gathered in the Eagles’ locker room.
“It’s because there’s nothing else to report, there’s nothing else to report about,” Mailata said. “Now we’re talking about him reading a book on the sidelines. He’s been doing it all year. Let’s not start drama.”
Brown made it clear that was not his intent. He wasn’t frustrated by the fact he had one catch on three targets for 10 yards. The second-team All-Pro, despite missing four games in 2024, said he would have to watch the tape for his evaluation of the passing game in Hurts’ return from a concussion that cost the quarterback most of the final three games of the regular season. The offense played well at times, Brown said, but could be better.
In December, veteran defensive end Brandon Graham caused a stir by giving his interpretation about the relationship between Hurts and Brown. But after beating the Pittsburgh Steelers on Dec. 15, both said it was overblown and that the two – friends from their youth – were solid.
Brown, the former Tennessee Titans standout who was acquired by the Eagles prior to the 2022 season, has been nursing a nagging knee injury over the past few weeks and didn’t practice Thursday before returning fully Friday. Brown said he wanted to be out there Sunday for his teammates and feels that he’s turning a corner health-wise.
“In the pursuit of extraordinary performance, it’s easy to succumb to anxiety or pressure, because so much is out of your control,” Murphy writes in “Inner Excellence.”
Perhaps that’s why Brown has it highlighted.