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Eagles WR A.J. Brown Money Motivation: What's Inside His Shoulder Pads?

Receiver AJ Brown, who became a member of the Philadelphia Eagles last year in a draft night trade, tapes $100 bills under his shoulder pads.
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PHILADELPHIA - A.J. Brown has the most expensive pair of shoulder pads in the National Football League.

This past year they were worth $1,100. Actually, $1,200 if you count the touchdown catch he snared in Super Bowl LVII.

Why so expensive?

Well, the Philadelphia Eagles star receiver would tape a $100 bill under his shoulder pads for each touchdown catch he made this season.

“It just inspires me to keep stacking,” Brown tweeted over the weekend.

At the end of the season, he donates the money to charity.

It’s an idea that probably wouldn’t have worked for, say, now-retired defensive end Michael Bennett.

Bennett played 11 seasons in the NFL, with his next-to-last one coming with the Eagles. He wore shoulder pads that looked like something you would see in middle school. Or on a kicker, because they were a kicker’s pads.

And they looked humorous on a player who stood 6-4 and 270 pounds.

Brown, though, wears shoulder pads that fit him well.

Of course, it’s been one year since he arrived last year on the opening night of the draft in a trade that sent him from the Tennessee Titans to Philadelphia.

He would probably be in the poor house if he taped a cool hundred under his pads for all the yards he collected. Brown had 1,496 of those last year, an Eagles franchise record.

Do the math on the yards and Brown would be donating $149,600 to charity.

No matter how big his shoulder pads are, however, there’s no way he could tape 1,496 one-hundred dollar bills inside them.


Ed Kracz covers the Philadelphia Eagles for SI's EaglesToday.

Please follow him and our Eagles coverage on Twitter at @kracze.

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