PHILADELPHIA — Eagles coach Nick Sirianni offered a strong defense of A.J. Brown on Tuesday, saying he was “definitely OK” with the star wide receiver reading a book on the sideline in-game, and pushed back on those who speculated what was behind Brown’s actions.

Sirianni’s comments came Tuesday during a radio appearance on 94.1 WIP after Brown stirred conversation by reading “Inner Excellence” by Jim Murphy on the bench during the Eagles’ wild-card playoff win over the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.

“Some guys pray in between, some guys mediate in between. A.J. reads in between. Whatever these guys need to do to put their mind in a place where they can play with great detail and great effort, I fully encourage them to do that,” Sirianni said.

Brown had one catch on three targets in the game, leading to questions of whether he was acting out of frustration.

“We don’t do any research, and we jump to a conclusion of, ‘Oh he must be disgruntled.’ That to me is lazy,” Sirianni added. “Everyone needs to figure out why he’s doing it before they jump to judgment on the man. Because the man, A.J. Brown is a great, great, great person. The man A.J. Brown is the best receiver — and I’ll say it without hesitation — the best receiver that this city has ever seen … It’s hard for me to watch when people are getting on him without doing the proper research of who the man is and what he’s doing in the first place.”

Brown explained that he brings the book to every game and reads it because there are passages that bring him a sense of peace. And no, he wasn’t reading it because he was discontented.

“I wasn’t frustrated at all. I figured that’s what y’all probably thought,” Brown said Sunday. “Why do you always think I be frustrated? Dang. I like to read.”

Brown went on social media to further explain why reading during games works for him. “I use it to refocus and lock in despite what may transpire in the game good or bad,” he wrote on X. “People tend to create controversy when they don’t know the truth.”

All of the attention has been very good for book sales. “Inner Excellence” took the top spot on Amazon’s trending list after previously being ranked 523,497th.