Eagles A.J. Brown's Reading Material Soars To Best Seller, Nick Sirianni Defends WR

Philadelpha Eagles rfans have helped the book A.J. Brown was reading move up to No. 1 bestseller, while Brown's head coach defends his sideline reading.
Dec 29, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown (11) carries his touchdown ball back to quarterback Tanner McKee (not pictured) during the third quarter against the Dallas Cowboys at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
Dec 29, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown (11) carries his touchdown ball back to quarterback Tanner McKee (not pictured) during the third quarter against the Dallas Cowboys at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images / Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
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PHILADELPHIA – You have to hand it to Eagles fans. They saw A.J. Brown reading a book on the sideline and did something about it. They started buying the book in droves, so much so that Jim Murphy’s book, Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Purpose and the Best Possible Life, soared from obscurity on Amazon’s best seller list to very top.

Brown was captured by TV cameras during the Eagles’ 22-10 wildcard playoff win over the Green Bay Packers reading Murphy’s book on the sideline bench. Now, the author has gone from anonymity to someone everybody wants to know more about.

NBC10 Philadelphia’s Frances Wang did a fascinating interview with Murphy, who talked about his personal journey, about giving up half of his possessions, spending his life savings and spending more than two years in solitude writing and contemplating the material for his book.

The book was actually given to Moro Ojomo when Ojomo was still at the University of Texas and before the defensive lineman became a seventh-round draft pick of the Eagles in 2023, and how Penn State’s national-renowned wrestling program has picked it up and developing a training center with the book’s philosophies as its focal point.

The best part is, Brown said quickly after the game when asked about it, that he wasn’t doing it out of the frustrating of being targeted just three times in the win over the Packers. He said that he always reads that book, calling it “the recipe” to his success.

Head coach Nick Sirianni went further on his weekly guest spot with the morning team at 94WIP, when he vociferously defended Brown for reading during the game.

“I’m definitely OK with it,” he said. “The crazy thing is. He’s been reading the 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 meditate in between. A.J. reads in between. Whatever these guys need to do to put their mind in a place where they play with great detail and great effort, I fully encourage them to do that.”

Sirianni went on, and it’s easy to see why his players support him and want to play for him.

“We don’t do any research, and we jump to a conclusion of, ‘Oh, he must be disgruntled,’” said the coach. “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, A.J. Brown, is a great, great, great person. The man is the best receiver, and I’ll say, 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.”

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Ed Kracz
ED KRACZ

Ed Kracz has been covering the Eagles full-time for over a decade and has written about Philadelphia sports since 1996. He wrote about the Phillies in the 2008 and 2009 World Series, the Flyers in their 2010 Stanely Cup playoff run to the finals, and was in Minnesota when the Eagles secured their first-ever Super Bowl win in 2017. Ed has received multiple writing awards as a sports journalist, including several top-five finishes in the Associated Press Sports Editors awards.