Philadelphia Eagles WR A.J. Brown Feels Fan Frustration: 'We Want to Do It For Y’all'
PHILADELPHIA - A.J. Brown was frustrated after a third consecutive Philadelphia Eagles loss ended with Jalen Hurts trying to allow his star receiver to make a big play down the field.
Instead, Seattle safety Julian Love showed impressive range to race from center field to intercept an underthrow and secure a 20-17 Seahawks triumph.
In typical X/Twitter fashion, many took to the social media platform to express their anger at everyone from head coach Nick Sirianni, offensive coordinator Brian Johnson, Hurts, and Brown himself.
And A.J. wasn’t having it.
On Friday, SI.com’s Eagles Today caught up with Brown and asked him about how he handled the admittedly ill-informed criticism.
Brown, who will enter a Christmas Day matchup with the New York Giants with 95 receptions for 1,314 yards and seven touchdowns, offered up a passionate response.
“I didn’t handle that correctly. And I’m man enough to say that,” Brown said.
There has been far more good than bad for A.J. Brown this season.
USA Today
Brown often demands the football and when big moments go south he understands criticism will follow.
“I pride myself on being the best,” he said. “When the game is on the line, throw me the ball. So when things don’t go my way, it’s OK, sure, put the blame on me. I accept that. To much is given, much is required.”
It ended up as a cathartic moment for the All-Pro:
“So I had to sit down and really think to myself, like, ‘Yeah, if they do put the blame on me, sure, I asked for that. I asked to be in that chair.’ Who cares? So what?
“That don’t define me. None of that stuff defines me.”
What Browns does want fans to know is how hard he and his teammates are working to halt a three-game skid and return to a potential Super Bowl trajectory.
“I know for a fact that we’re working our tails off. Like, me personally, I know I’m working my tail off, and trying to do whatever I can to help this team win,” he said. “So that’s why you see that little frustration that comes in, and stuff like that, because I know I dedicated my life for this.
“I sacrificed time with my own family for this game, to be with my teammates to win games. So it means a lot to me. It means the world to me.”
So much so that Brown admitted he was still broken up after returning to the Pacific Northwest in the early morning hours on Tuesday.
“I told (people) on the way home, we got home at 7 in the morning, and I’m damn near crying on the way home,” Brown said. “It means a lot to me. We feel the frustration from this city. We feel that. We want to do it for y’all.
“Most importantly, we want to do it for our teammates, our brothers that we go to war with. We’re working hard. We’re giving blood, sweat and tears to this game. So, fans, I don’t want them to think that we don’t care, that we’re not trying our best. But we got a standard, we gotta uphold the standard. We don’t want no excuses either. We’re 10 times harder on ourselves than anybody can be on us.”
