AJ Brown says he and Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts grew apart before trade to Patriots
The Philadelphia Eagles traded wide receiver A.J. Brown to the New England Patriots on Monday, and the wide receiver said his relationship with star quarterback Jalen Hurts grew distant.
Brown, 28, said that while there’s no bad blood with his now-former quarterback, the two grew apart.
"Not as close as we once were," Brown said during an appearance on "7PM in Brooklyn."
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"I believe that’s fine. It’s like, there’s no bad blood. There’s actually still a lot of love, I love him to death. I want him to succeed and accomplish all the things that he wants to accomplish."
The three-time Pro Bowler said that nothing happened and both parties accepted that they were drifting apart. Hurts recently made news for not attending Brown's wedding in May.
"Nothing happened. People just grow apart. Nothing happened between me and him, or our families, our wives, anything. Nothing like that ever happened," Brown said. "But life happens and you just look up sometimes and you find yourself drifting away. And that’s fine. And I think both parties accepted that."
The former Ole Miss star said he was confused as to why their friendship became such a talking point among the public.
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"I didn’t truly understand why our friendship became the center of everybody’s attention when it came to football because looking back on it we haven’t been as close as we were for a couple of years now, that didn’t stop anything," Brown said.
"We still competed, we still pushed each other, we still led the team. It’s kind of strange, people just got so fixated on our relationship."
Hurts and Brown helped lead the Eagles to a Super Bowl victory two seasons ago. In four seasons in Philadelphia, Brown caught 339 passes for 5,034 yards and 32 touchdowns.
Despite the success, the Eagles moved on from Brown on Monday after it became more advantageous to trade him on June 1 due to salary cap implications.
The Eagles went from possibly carrying a $43.4 million dead-money charge for the trade to shrinking that to $16.3 million based on NFL June 1 salary cap rules. The team acquired a 2028 first-round pick and a 2027 fifth-round selection from the Patriots for Brown.
Now in New England, Brown has nothing but love for Hurts.
"Nothing but love for him, I want him to do well and accomplish everything his heart desires."
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