Eagles' A.J. Brown Finishes 'Uncomfortable Conversations' With a Gatorade Bath

NEW ORLEANS—The Eagles won Super Bowl LIX Sunday night with a dominating 40-22 win over Kansas City.

Part of that success can be traced back to the moment that caught everyone's attention in A.J. Brown's media session following the Eagles-Carolina Panthers game in Week 14 and one simple word: "passing."

The Eagles' star receiver was lamenting another underwhelming performance through the air of an offense too talented to finish 29th in the league.

Brown believed his answer was common sense and supported by other stars on the team like Jordan Mailata, Lane Johnson, DeVonta Smith, and even Jalen Hurts. However, the second-team All-Pro took the heat.

"I'm OK with being whatever bad guy I have to be for the city, the town, whatever the case may be to hold everybody accountable, be accountable, and to get better," Brown later said. "If I'm that guy I will be that guy, gladly."

"Uncomfortable" conversations followed according to many of the team's leaders and all of a sudden the passing game started to show when needed, including a standout performance against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

An NFC Championship Game rout over Washington also featured promising signs and Sunday's 40-22 Super Bowl rout over Kansas City featured an MVP performance from Jalen Hurts, including 17 of 22 passing for 221 yards and touchdowns to Brown and Smith.

“He played incredible. He did amazing. I know I’m throwing adjectives at you, but he played really well," Brown said of Hurts. "He was poised the whole game, he was in control, he made checks and he threw dimes. He just gave us opportunities, and when we were covered a little bit, he took off running – he used his legs.”

The Eagles needed all of it too because about the only thing the Chiefs did accomplish was limiting Saquon Barkley to the tune of 57 yards on 25 carries, just 2.3 yards per clip.

“Offense, we came out. Had a game plan. We knew that the focus would be on the run game and we took advantage of it. We took advantage of it in the pass game. Jalen [Hurts] came out, played big and it took a team effort," Barkley said. "Coaches, everyone in the Eagles organization, it takes all of us.”

And it took Brown to kickstart an effort to get the passing game on track.

Early in the game, Brown looked like he made the first big play, a 32-yard gain down to the Kansas City 18-yard line but it was called back for offensive pass interference.

“'It’s going to be a long game,’" Brown said when asked what he thought of the call. "I knew it wasn’t a PI, but it is what it is, I guess that’s where the inner excellence comes in – staying locked in, staying poised. No matter what happens in the game, just staying focused. But, that’s a good corner [Trent McDuffie)] I didn’t get that many opportunities, but I tried to make the most of them. Our defense played really well, so it definitely could’ve been an even bigger day.”

It was a big enough say to end with a Gatorade bath for head coach Nick Sirianni administred bt Brown.

“We did it last game, so we just did it again. Our coach enjoyed it," Brown smiled.

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