A.J. Brown ready to put turbulence behind him. It starts with another Super Bowl chase

As morning light peeked through the curtains in A.J. Brown’s hotel room near New Orleans’ French Quarter, he woke up for the first time as a Super Bowl champion.

He’d spent that night in February 2025 partying with his Philadelphia Eagles teammates and the Lombardi Trophy. He was told repeatedly his life would never be the same. His name would forever be accompanied by the honorific of “Super Bowl champion.”

Brown checked his phone and saw that coach Nick Sirianni had worn Brown’s Starkville High School jersey to the Monday morning news conference.

But Brown couldn’t shake the idea that something felt off. He’d done everything he’d ever dreamt of doing. A kid from Mississippi who grew up aspiring to play baseball, switched gears to football, won a state championship with his high school buddies, was wooed by every prominent SEC coach, became a second-round NFL pick, was named a Pro Bowl wide receiver, earned a nine-figure contract and now had won a Super Bowl in blowout fashion — thanks in part to his touchdown reception.

This was supposed to be it. This was the culmination. In a different story, this would be the moment of satisfaction. The feeling that all those extra hills sprinted and weights lifted finally paid off.

But that’s not how Brown felt. He felt … unfulfilled.

“I was trying to feel how I thought we should feel,” Brown said. “And in that moment, I just kind of learned, it’s not the trophy, it’s not the ring. It’s the journey. It’s growing with your teammates and your teammates depending on you and your locker room convos, and the guys jumping in the pool after practice. It’s the little things. Building a team and camaraderie. It’s all those little things, not just … the destination.”

There was reason to think back then that Brown would be an Eagle for the rest of his career. One day, maybe there’d be a statue of him outside the stadium.

But Brown wasn’t focused on his legacy. The following season, the Philadelphia offense shifted. His role waned. Things grew stale. He wanted out.

That precipitated a trade to New England in June, a move the Patriots hope secured them the final piece of their next Super Bowl team.

But it leaves Brown in a strange spot. He’s not even 30, and he already has a ring — along with three All-Pro honors and six 1,000-yard seasons. What’s left for him to prove?

“I don’t have anything left to prove,” Brown said this summer.

After the trade finally happened, Brown didn’t feel first-day jitters when he joined his new team. He knows why he’s here, brought in at the costly price tag of a first-round pick to help the Patriots burst through a Super Bowl window thrust open last season by coach Mike Vrabel and quarterback Drake Maye.

Brown’s final years in Philadelphia were plagued by drama, real and imagined. Reading books on the sideline. An altercation with his coach. A strained relationship with quarterback Jalen Hurts.

But there was an eagerness from Brown when he joined the Patriots. He was getting a fresh start. A chance to write a new chapter.

He learned that a Super Bowl wouldn’t make him feel fulfilled. It’s the road to that point — and more importantly, who he’s on that road with. Now, this trade and this season give him a chance to begin that journey again.

“I know this ain’t heaven,” Brown said when he joined the Patriots, “but it’s close.”

Wide receiver A.J. Brown scored a touchdown in the Eagles’ Super Bowl LIX win over the Chiefs. But even after becoming a champion, something still felt off to Brown. (Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images)

Starkville, Miss., is a small college town two hours northeast of Jackson and 90 minutes west of Tuscaloosa, Ala. The population doubles when school is in session at Mississippi State. You can walk from the high school to the university’s campus.

Now that the cranes have been moved out following a seven-figure renovation that added dancing lights and a large video board at Starkville High’s stadium, you can see the signs touting seven state football championships.

“You’re talking about a school that prides itself on football,” said Travis Garner, Brown’s baseball coach at Starkville. “You’re talking about a place where head football coaches make more money than the principal.”

It’s a town of 24,000 that regularly packs 10,000 into the stadium for football games.

“You could rob the town on Friday nights, and no one would notice because everyone’s at the game,” Ricky Woods, the school’s former football coach, said.

This is where Brown grew up. After his parents divorced when he was a preteen, Brown lived with his dad on a large piece of land in the town’s 16th section. They had a long driveway off a dirt road.

Baseball was his first love. They made a makeshift infield in the grass, and Brown bombed pitches deep into the woods. Brown’s dream was to play in the majors. He was a slick-fielding center fielder and a leadoff hitter who could run.

“I played at the University of Alabama. I coached college baseball,” Garner said. “And he was the best defensive center fielder I’ve ever seen.”

Major League scouts flocked to see Brown play, even while football threatened to end his baseball dreams. One baseball scout told Garner his team was so interested in Brown, it was considering taking him in the second round of the draft — as long as Brown promised he would stop playing football.

It was a fanciful offer. Brown wasn’t even the best hitter on his high school team, in part because he didn’t have time for fall ball and consistent reps in the batting cage. And he was still going to be a second-round pick?

“And the scout told me this,” Garner said. “‘He could go play center field in the big leagues today. Worst-case scenario, we have an elite defensive center fielder. And if anything else comes with it, I look like a genius.’”

In Brown’s telling, he probably would’ve become a baseball player if not for a visit from Nick Saban. When the legendary coach came to recruit Brown before his junior year, that’s when he realized where football could take him.

“That’s when I felt I could really do this,” Brown said. “I still wasn’t thinking about the NFL, but if Nick Saban is coming here, I think I could (play college football).”

From that point on, Brown’s recruitment became a circus. Ole Miss sent every coach on its staff to visit him. LSU landed a helicopter at the high school during one of his games.

That high school team was loaded. Willie Gay, who is entering his seventh NFL season with the Miami Dolphins, was on defense. Brown dominated on offense. They cruised to the state championship game.

Before that game, Brown visited Woods, his coach. He asked if Woods was nervous.

“I said, ‘A.J., are you getting on the bus?’ He said, ‘Yes sir.’ I said, ‘Then, no, I’m not really nervous,’” Woods said.

Brown caught 10 passes and scored a touchdown as Starkville cruised to an easy win and the state title.

Brown would go on to star at Ole Miss despite being recruited by his hometown school, Mississippi State. (Butch Dill / Getty Images)

After a standout career at Ole Miss, Brown threw a party with friends and family to watch the NFL Draft and see if he’d sneak into the first round.

“I wouldn’t even say ‘sneak in,’” Brown said. “I thought I was going in the first round.”

Brown wasn’t picked until the 51st selection, taken the night after his party by Vrabel and the Tennessee Titans. Brown had grown up a Patriots fan, always played with them in Madden, and knew Vrabel as a former player.

But Vrabel’s style clashed with Brown at first. Vrabel gives everyone a hard time. He pushes. It doesn’t matter if you’re a high draft pick. He got on Brown frequently for missed assignments.

“It was so tough,” Brown said. “I didn’t like him at all. He was so tough on me, and I didn’t really understand it. Honestly, it didn’t really register to me until I left what he was doing and how he was pushing me.”

Brown starred on Vrabel’s 2019 Titans team that went to the AFC Championship Game. After their third season together, Brown was hoping to get paid by the team that drafted him. Instead, the Titans traded Brown to the Eagles.

“I was hurt,” Brown said. “I didn’t handle that the best way. I felt like I deserved to get paid in Tennessee, and I wanted to stay in Tennessee.”

Of course, the years in Philadelphia were fruitful. A Super Bowl appearance in his first season. A Super Bowl victory two years later.

But after four years, things grew stale. The magic that once led to his head coach rocking his high school jersey dissipated. Same for his relationship with Hurts. He wanted a clean slate.

A trade right after last season would’ve been ideal. But because of the way his contract was structured, the Eagles weren’t going to move him until June 1. So Brown sat around and waited. When the first day of June finally arrived and the deal to the Patriots became official, he was ready.

“It was: My bags are packed, and I’m ready to go,” Brown said. “And not that I was in a hurry to leave, but I was just so eager to move to the next step.”

Brown has been all business since joining the Patriots on June 1. (Billie Weiss / Getty Images)

Brown stood on the Patriots practice field in mid-August with his family beside him. The 29-year-old is married now. His son was running around. His wife, Kelsey, has another on the way.

Brown took a minute to process how things had changed, and how they’d worked out. “I’m still in awe,” he said.

Memories of the past were all around him. He had just finished a joint practice against the Eagles. So much had been made of the reveal that he hadn’t spoken with Hurts since the trade, so he ran over and gave him a handshake and a hug.

Brown was at peace with his split from the Eagles and ecstatic with his landing spot. And he was back with his first NFL coach who used to drive him nuts. But his perspective is changing.

“It’s really cool,” he said of his relationship with Vrabel. “Because I’m more mature now, and I know where he’s coming from, and that it’s coming from a place of love. He just wants his players to be great.”

Of course, he knows the pressure that awaits. The Patriots reached the Super Bowl last year. They traded for Brown to help get them over the hump.

The Patriots start their season with a Super Bowl rematch on Wednesday, a trip to face the Seattle Seahawks. Might they fare differently against the defending champs now that they have Brown?

Two weeks before the opener, Vrabel took his team to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. They looked at replica Super Bowl rings and the busts of former greats. Patriots legend Andre Tippett showed them around.

Brown took a moment to himself. The Hall of Fame houses the coming season’s Lombardi Trophy, holding it until it’s awarded in February.

Brown stood there alone and eyed the trophy. A lot has happened since February 2025, when Brown became a Super Bowl champ and determined a trophy wasn’t going to change who he was. What really mattered, he had decided, was the path to that point.

And he was ready to begin a new journey.