A.J. Brown grabbed some headlines Thursday following his comments about the challenges of the NFL‘s Monday Night Football games and the short turnaround to the following week made the rounds on social media.
Brown’s comments came days after the Philadelphia Eagles fell 20-17 to the Seattle Seahawks on Monday night.
Brown Makes Case Based on Player Health
Brown commented on the issue Thursday in his appearance on DraftKings’ “Reignmakers” podcast. He was asked whether the physical toll of short weeks following those Monday night games outweighs the national attention those standalone games bring and agreed with the sentiment.
“It most definitely does, honestly,” he said. “Because it’s a short week and then right after the game you only have a certain amount of time just for your body to recover, and it speeds up the process, and that adds … wear and tear with practice. So it gets difficult.”
“The Monday night games, I think they shoulda took [them] out. I know it’s cool, everybody watching you on Monday night, but the turnaround after that, it’s difficult, especially if you leave the game a little banged up.”
Controversy has long swirled regarding the turnaround from Sunday games to others on atypical days, typically regarding Thursday Night Football and the challenges of playing twice in such a short period from Sunday to Thursday.
Monday night games certainly present a challenge as well due to the shortened timeframe, though perhaps not to quite the same extent as Thursday night games.
Luckily for Philadelphia, it will get a full week before its next game when it squares off with the New York Giants on Christmas Day, also a Monday. The Eagles will have a short week’s preparation for their penultimate game of the regular season, however, when they face the Arizona Cardinals on New Year’s Eve, a Sunday.
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Brown also looks to be healthy heading into Monday’s contest, as he has not been listed on the injury report throughout the week.
That’s good news for Philadelphia, which needs all hands on deck as it attempts to rebound from a now three-game skid that has quickly cooled the team off from its torrid 10-1 start to the season.
Brown has been a significant part of the Eagles’ success this season amid one of the most productive seasons of his career. He is up to a career-high 95 catches through the season’s first 14 games, tallying 1,314 yards and seven touchdowns across that span. He needs just 182 more yards over the final three games to match last season’s career-best yardage tally.
A big game from Brown would certainly go a long way toward Philadelphia’s chances of snapping its losing streak with a win on Monday.
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