Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is pushing back against the notion that there’s bad blood between him and teammate A.J. Brown after he missed the wide receiver’s wedding earlier this month.
The topic arose on Wednesday, May 27, when Hurts, 27, met with the media following the Eagles’ practice. A reporter asked the NFL star about the trade rumors surrounding Brown, 28, right as Hurts took a sip of his water, leading to an awkward pause.
“Picked the right question to sip on, huh?” Hurts joked.
When the reporter followed up, Hurts expanded on his relationship with the former Pro Bowler, who is likely to be traded in the coming weeks.
“Nothing’s changed since we last spoke at the end of the season,” he said. “We’re really good, and I saw how beautiful the pictures came out at his wedding. I’m very happy for him, and his wife and his family, and it’s a beautiful thing to step into the Covenant.”
Hurts added, “So I was very excited and congratulatory towards that.”
Hurts and Brown have been friends since high school and the quarterback is even the godfather to Brown’s daughter, making his absence at Brown’s wedding noticeable, especially with trade rumors flying.
“I think sometimes, when it’s a work relationship and where friends outside a work relationship are not delivering on the field, maybe because of his fault (or the others’), the relationship might get affected,” former Eagles star LeSean McCoy suggested during a May 18 appearance on the “Speakeasy” podcast. “And I think this is the problem we have right here. … Now there’s a little bit of friction there.”
Former NFL Athletic insider Dianna Russini also reported last October that there was a rift between the two.
“A former teammate once described them as ‘an old married couple,’ but I’m told they’re not that close these days,” she wrote. “Like any friendship, life happens. Family responsibilities, the grind of being pros, shifting priorities.”
Her report came around the same time as reports emerged of Hurts’ teammates being frustrated with him on the field. The former Super Bowl MVP brushed off the chatter, saying he is “not surprised by anything.”
“This is kind of the nature of the position,” Hurts told reporters at the time. “But I put my energy and my focus on trying to go out there and do my best and trying to learn, trying to build, trying to take in the things that I can to try and improve.”
