A.J. Brown felt like a 'paid actor' in Eagles' Super Bowl loss to Kansas City

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A.J. Brown lingered with some of his Eagles teammates outside the Los Angeles Lakers' locker room like any fan who had even a hint of a chance to hug it out with LeBron James.

Sure enough, James spotted Brown, Darius Slay and other Eagles players, threw his arm as thick as a log around Brown’s shoulder and posed for photos with the NFC champions. James knows a thing or two — four, actually — about winning championships, and the good fortune of truly rubbing shoulders with the NBA's scoring king was one the star Eagles receiver could not pass up.

“He's one of my favorite players,” Brown said. “I didn't grow up watching Michael Jordan. I grew up watching LeBron.”

Brown even ripped a page out of James' championship playbook this season when he was caught reading a book on the bench. James flipped through “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho during a shootaround in the 2018 NBA Eastern Conference Finals while Brown passed time during a game with “ Inner Excellence ” by self-help author Jim Murphy.

Brown, who studied journalism while in college at Mississippi, knows the ultimate headline in bold letters above the fold still awaits the Eagles: Super Bowl champions.

Brown and the Eagles were oh so close to hoisting the Lombardi Trophy when they lost 38-35 to the Kansas City Chiefs two years ago. Here the teams are again, ready for a rematch next weekend in New Orleans, with the Eagles still haunted by the memory of how they let their chance at winning the franchise's second Super Bowl championship slip away in the final minutes.

A play here, a play there and the Eagles could have been Super Bowl champions. Instead, most Eagles players tense up and recoil at any questions — quarterback Jalen Hurts replied “next question” when asked his most vivid memory of the Super Bowl — about that game and Brown recounted a missed opportunity for him to score a touchdown that could have swayed the outcome.

“The play really kept me up thinking about, how did I miss that and what I got confused on,” Brown said.

The play?

“I don't want to get into it because we may run it back,” he said.

Time for the Chiefs to fire up the game film.

Brown otherwise did his part that February night in Arizona, with six catches for 96 yards and a touchdown against the Chiefs. Those kind of numbers are the norm for Brown. Playing through injuries that cost him four games and an often staid passing attack, Brown still finished with 67 catches and a team-high 1,079 yards this season, the third straight year he's topped 1,000 yards receiving with the Eagles and fifth time overall in six NFL seasons.

“A.J. is the best receiver that this city has ever seen,” coach Nick Sirianni said.

Brown was rewarded last April with a three-year contract extension that included $84 million in guaranteed money. He was set to become the highest-paid wide receiver in the NFL at $32 million a season — until Minnesota's Justin Jefferson topped him later that summer — and he could earn as much as $96 million over the life of the extension.

He's paid like an elite receiver.

In the Super Bowl, Brown said, he felt like nothing but a “paid actor.”

Brown said if he had his way, the Eagles would arrive Friday in New Orleans, hold a walkthrough on Saturday and play the game Sunday. His Super Bowl experience was like something out of a movie where he played the role of football player rather than acting like he would in a regular-season lead-up to a game. He has tried to steel his emotions amid this year's Super Bowl hype.

“It's about us, but it's not about us,” he said. “We have so much we have to do for everyone else. The media, the fans. There’s only so little time that we get to focus on what’s important and that’s the game.”

The Eagles have a decided edge over the Chiefs among receivers, with Brown the head of the pack.

DeVonta Smith, who topped 1,000 yards receiving the previous two seasons, also missed four games but led the Eagles with 68 catches and had 833 yards receiving. Tight end Dallas Goedert — who threw three stiff-arms in a playoff touchdown against Green Bay — and even 2,000-yard rusher Saquon Barkley are regular threats to catch the ball.

“They take pride in the way they catch the ball. They take pride in the way they run routes,” Sirianni said. “They take pride in the way they change games with the ball in their hands. And they take pride in the way they block and help their teammates succeed.”

The Chiefs boast tight end Travis Kelce — who has lost a step but still had 97 regular-season catches — but top wide receivers DeAndre Hopkins and Juju Smith-Schuster were each held without a catch in a playoff win against Houston.

Brown said he's been turning down media requests “left and right” because when it comes to Super Bowl hype, “none of this stuff matters.”

All he cares about is winning that championship ring — just like LeBron.

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Philadelphia Eagles coach Nick Sirianni, center, is dunked by DeVonta Smith (6) and A.J. Brown (11) during the closing minutes of the second half of the NFC Championship NFL football game against the Washington Commanders, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown celebrates with the trophy after their win against the Washington Commanders in the NFC Championship NFL football game, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown holds the championship trophy after the Eagles won the NFC Championship NFL football game against the Washington Commanders, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Philadelphia Eagles' A.J. Brown speaks during an NFL football news conference in Philadelphia, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, ahead of Super Bowl LIX against the Kansas City Chiefs. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown catches a pass ahead of Washington Commanders cornerback Marshon Lattimore during the first half of the NFC Championship NFL football game, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown celebrates after a first down against the Washington Commanders during the first half of the NFC Championship NFL football game, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Philadelphia Eagles' A.J. Brown speaks during an NFL football news conference in Philadelphia, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, ahead of Super Bowl LIX against the Kansas City Chiefs. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

NEW YORK (AP) — This is not the run up to the midterm elections that Republicans wanted.

A year and a half after winning the White House by promising to lower costs and end wars, Donald Trump is a wartime president overseeing surging energy costs and an escalating overseas conflict that many in his own party do not like.

He offered little clarity to a nation eager for answers this week during a prime-time address from the White House, his first since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran more than a month ago, simultaneously suggesting that the war was ending and expanding.

“Thanks to the progress we’ve made, I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly, very shortly,” Trump said. “We’re going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks.”

Trump's comments come roughly six months before voters across the nation begin to cast ballots in elections that will decide control of Congress and key governorships for Trump’s final two years in office. For now, Republicans, who control all branches of government in Washington, are bracing for a painful political backlash.

“You’re looking at an ugly November,” warned veteran Republican pollster Neil Newhouse. “At a point in time when we need every break possible to hold the House and Senate, our edge is being chipped away.”

It’s hard to overstate how dramatically the political landscape has shifted.

At this time last year, many Republican leaders believed there was a path to preserve their narrow House majority and easily hold the Senate. Now they privately concede that the House is all but lost and Democrats have a realistic shot at taking the Senate.

Republicans are also struggling to coalesce around a clear midterm message on Iran.

The Republican National Committee has largely avoided the war in talking points issued to surrogates over the last month. The leaders of the party's campaign committees responsible for the House and Senate declined interview requests. Many vulnerable Republican candidates sidestep the issue, unwilling to defend or challenge Trump publicly.

The president remains deeply popular with Republican voters, and he has vocal supporters like Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

“That was the best speech I could’ve hoped for,” he wrote on social media after Trump's address on Wednesday evening. Graham said Trump “gave the American people a clear and coherent pathway forward.”

Trump made little effort to sell the conflict to Americans before the initial attack. Five weeks later, at least 13 U.S. service members have been killed and hundreds more injured. Thousands more troops have converged on the region, and the Pentagon requested $200 billion in new funding.

The Strait of Hormuz, a key passage for a fifth of the world’s oil, remains closed. The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. was $4.08 on Thursday, according to AAA, almost a full dollar higher than on President Joe Biden's last day in office.

On Wednesday, Trump insisted that gas prices would fall quickly once the war concluded but offered no solution for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Instead, he invited skeptical U.S. allies to do it themselves.

He insisted that the war would be worth it.

“This is a true investment in your grandchildren and your grandchildren’s future,” Trump said. “When it’s all over, the United States will be safer, stronger, more prosperous and greater than it has ever been before.”

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican who was once among Trump's most vocal allies in Congress, lashed out against his Iran policy.

“I wanted so much for President Trump to put America First. That’s what I believed he would do. All I heard from his speech tonight was WAR WAR WAR,” she wrote on social media. “Nothing to lower the cost of living for Americans.”

About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say the U.S. military action in Iran has “gone too far,” according to AP-NORC polling from March. Roughly a third approve of how he’s handling Iran overall.

The possibility of sending U.S. forces into Iran also appears politically unpalatable.

About 6 in 10 adults are “strongly” or “somewhat” opposed to deploying U.S. troops on the ground to fight Iran. That includes about half of Republicans. Only about 1 in 10 favor deploying troops.

At the same time, Trump’s approval ratings have remained consistently weak. About 4 in 10 Americans approve of how he’s handling the presidency, roughly in line with how it’s been throughout his second term.

Republican strategist Ari Fleischer, a senior aide in former President George W. Bush’s administration, acknowledged that Trump has not received the polling bump in this war that Bush got after invading Iraq.

Bush, of course, worked to build public backing for the Iraq War before going in. Immediately after the 2003 invasion, Bush's popularity soared, as did the stock market.

Public sentiment and the economy soured only after the conflict stretched on. It ultimately spanned more than eight years, spawning a generation of anti-war Republicans — and sowing the seeds of Trump's “America First” foreign policy.

“My hope is that the Trump experience is the exact opposite of the Bush experience,” Fleischer said.

He said Trump must win the war decisively and quickly to avoid a further backlash, saying there could be a “very significant political upside if things end well, oil comes down and markets rally.”

Fleischer added that Trump's actions will matter much more than his words.

“Ultimately, he is not going to get judged on his persuasion or his explanations or his assertions, he’s going to get judged on results,” he said.

Associated Press writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.

In this image made with a long exposure, President Donald Trump speaks about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)