A.J. Brown, Where Are You? Eagles All-Pro Erases Social Media, Misses Playoff Practice

A.J. Brown, Where Are You? Philadelphia Eagles All-Pro Erases Social Media, Misses Playoff Practice

At a moment in Philadelphia Eagles time when the biggest voices and the best players need to step up and show up ... A.J. Brown just went invisible.

Philadelphia's late-season collapse left the defending NFC champs at 11-6, a disappointment. Yet on Monday the Eagles take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in an NFC Wild Card Round matchup in which they are favored. It is an opportunity ...

And at this moment, it does not seem as though A.J. Brown - who on Friday deservedly got named a second-team All-Pro - is striding into that opportunity.

Brown has spent the week dealing with a knee injury ... and maybe with some wounded pride as well. He is not at practice on Friday and maybe rehabbing the ailment is a simple explanation.

But that does not explain why the usually social-media-friendly star (who this year caught 106 passes for 1,456 yards and seven touchdowns) just deleted his X/Twitter while also wiped his Instagram page of any team-related content.

That is often - juvenile as it seems - how NFL players make announcements about their disgruntlement with their team. And given that the Eagles closed the regular season losing five of their final six games, with backstabbing and finger-pointing and "misery'' engulfing them?

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Disgruntlement might be understandable. But ...

Unhappy though any player may be, there is a job to do here. And it is therefore hoped that Brown's real motivation is actually the opposite of what is suspected: He's not pissed ... he's just so focused that he doesn't want to be distracted by social media.

And maybe he doesn't want to be distracted by practicing, either?