Eagles notebook: Ready to be more focused at this Super Bowl originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
NEW ORLEANS — A.J. Brown is more prepared this time around.
After the NFC Championship Game, Brown said during his first Super Bowl experience in 2023, he felt more like a paid actor with all the added media demands on players in the week leading up to the big game.
Last week, Brown expounded on what he meant by that.
“It’s about us, but it’s not about us in that way,” Brown said. “We have so much we have to do for everyone else. The media, the fans and there’s only so little time that we get to focus on what’s important and that’s the game. We have to do a really good job of staying locked in and staying focused.
“When I said a paid actor, even the game, there’s so many commercials and everything, you can’t ever really get in a rhythm. The whole week is just really different. You’ve just got to try to stick within your routine as much as you can and not get carried away with everything.”
Brown was a journalism major at Ole Miss, so he has a unique perspective on the media chaos of Super Bowl week. He stopped short of Alshon Jeffery’s comments in 2018, but it’s clear Brown isn’t a fan of all the hoopla.
The good news is that he thinks he’ll be able to share his experience with some of his younger teammates who haven’t been to the big game before. The veterans will work to keep everyone as focused as possible amid the distractions in New Orleans.
“None of this stuff matters. These are just words,” Brown said. “Regardless of whatever anybody get up and say, you gotta go out and play your best. And you know what we’re playing for.”
A closer team than ever
Jordan Mailata this week was asked about some of the sacrifices of the Eagles’ key skill position players and offered a general thought about the 2024 Eagles.
“I think it’s a pretty special team this year,” Mailata said. “I’ll get ahead of it if any of you ask this question. I think this team is more close or more special than the last team that went to the Super Bowl.”
What makes this team more special?
“Relationships on the personal level are much more closer,” Mailata said, “and it carries over to the field, the professional side.”
One of Nick Sirianni’s core values is connection so that will probably make the head coach happy to hear. Fellow veteran offensive tackle Lane Johnson said all of the Super Bowl teams he’s been on (2017, 2022, 2024) have been close but this year he thinks the offense and defense interact more than before.
Johnson also had one more theory about why this team is so close.
“I think adversity brings people closer,” Johnson said. “We had some last season. I don’t know. I just feel like we’re all really close.”
One more year
Lane Johnson is 34 and will turn 35 before the start of the 2025 season. But the Eagles great has at least one more season in him.
“I’m definitely not retiring after this game, win or lose,” Johnson said on Saturday. “I’m definitely playing next year. It’s really how you take it when you get up in age. You take it one year at a time.
“Physically, man, I feel a lot better than I have in the past couple of years. I feel really good. For being this late in the year, it’s not usually like that. I’m thankful and we got a good team here to help us out with all that.”
In addition to his role as the best right tackle in the NFL, Johnson has also become a mentor for the younger offensive linemen on the team. He looks back to the early portion of his career and credits guys like Jason Peters, Todd Herremans, Evan Mathis, Allen Barbre, Matt Tobin and even Jason Kelce for helping him. In recent years, he has taken on that role for the newcomers in the locker room.
When the Eagles drafted Johnson in the first round of the 2013 draft, the plan was for him to replace Peters. But Peters kept playing at a high level and the Eagles kept Johnson at right tackle for his entire career. Johnson admired Peters for his longevity and now he’s pulling it off too.
Credit to Smash
There was plenty of confusion during the NFC Championship Game when head referee Shawn Hochuli warned the Commanders that he could award the Eagles with a touchdown if they kept getting penalties on the goal line as the Eagles ran their Tush Push.
Many players on both sidelines didn’t know the rule but Eagles coach Nick Sirianni did. In fact, Sirianni said he even brought up the rule to the official on the sideline.
How did Sirianni know the rule? He gave credit to former Chargers staff member Dan Shamash and thought back to a conversation they had in San Diego.
“I remember him telling me, ‘If you do that enough times in a row, the referee can award them a touchdown,’” Sirianni said. “I remember saying to Smash, ‘That’s not a rule. Are you out of your mind?’ I remember saying that to him. ‘That’s not a rule.’
“I remember him being very emphatic with me because he knows the rules really well and telling me it was. I texted him after the game. I’m like, Smash, you were right.”
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