A.J. Brown breaks silence, explains frustration and more

For the past two weeks, Eagles captain A.J. Brown did not speak to the media. After a post on X Tuesday, he broke his silence Wednesday afternoon.

Brown has declined interview requests since Christmas Day after the bedraggled win over the New York Giants.

In a longer interview on Wednesday, Brown explained his silence, his frustration in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Arizona Cardinals, why he apologized to his teammates, and his relationship with head coach Nick Sirianni, among other things. However, before he spoke that, he made an apology to his team.

“I apologized to my teammates today because they shouldn’t have to answer questions on my behalf,” the 26-year-old star receiver said. “I’m a man. I can speak for myself.”

Brown then got into it.

“Honestly, the reason why I didn’t speak to the media after the game (was) because I didn’t want to be negative,” Brown said. “I had already transitioned to the mindset where we were going through a tough time and so me personally, the person I am, who just know I just have to go back to work. Ain’t nothing I can do about it. Like I said after the (Giants) game, how I was raised, if I had nothing nice to say, I’m not going to say nothing at all I’m not about to compound the negative with the negative so you guys can write more negative stuff. You guys watched the game too so you guys already know. So that’s why I was like, there’s nothing more that I can say. I’m not trying to make it worse than what it is. And then on top of that, everything that I do, if I say something, if I do anything, I’m classified as a monster. Honestly. And it’s honestly the opposite.”

After a 3rd-and-19 screen attempt to Kenneth Gainwell took a turn for the worse in the fourth quarter in Sunday’s loss, Brown was caught by a FOX camera shaking his head in frustration. Without hearing from him, there were ideas that Brown’s frustration came from his displeasure with the play call or the lack of targets he got on that series and late in the game.

“You saw my frustration on the field,” Brown said. “It wasn’t about the play call, it wasn’t about none of that. It was about my guy getting banged up. We’re going to need, I’m going to need Smitty moving forward. But that was it.”

Brown said he was upset because DeVonta Smith got his ankle rolled up on the play. Brown acknowledged that some people will not buy it, but he does not care.

Brown also desired to clear up any discussion about him and Sirianni, as Brown expressed they have a strong relationship.

“People say I’m beefing with Nick. I’m not mad at Nick,” Brown said. “I’m not mad at nobody. We have a great relationship. I’ve got a ton of respect for Nick because he takes up for us when it be us.”

Something Brown did not deny on Wednesday is that he is frustrated. Of course, he is. Who is not?

“Yeah, because I want to win. I want to win,” Brown said. “And I’m trying to do everything in my power to win. I wake up before the sun come up, I go home hours after the sun goes down. This is our life. We dedicate our whole entire life to this s***. But it’s serious to us. It comes with frustration.”