Sideline Breakthrough: How A.J. Brown’s Game Time Reading Sparked a Book’s Rise to Fame
As sports fans, we have become almost desensitized to crazy sideline antics from players—whether it’s destroying equipment or getting into verbal or even physical altercations with coaches and teammates. People often see these moments as part of the game and excuse them as emotions in the heat of battle. The next day, it may make headlines, but it quickly fades away. However, when the Philadelphia Eagles faced off against the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Wild Card game, star Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown, set the internet ablaze by reading a book on the sideline mid-game. Brown was caught on camera sitting on the bench reading Inner Excellence by author Jim Murphy. While many fans initially raged about his lackluster in-game performance, that viral moment has had far-reaching effects, far beyond the game.
Jim Murphy’s Quest for Inner Excellence
AJ Brown is reading a book on the sideline? 📚😂
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) January 13, 2025
📺 FOX pic.twitter.com/jQGv8smD9N
Inner Excellence’s five-year journey to the sideline at Lincoln Financial Field began in Arizona, specifically the Sonoran Desert. After playing baseball for the Cubs organization, Murphy sold half of everything he owned and moved to Arizona to work at a baseball clinic. While in the desert, he became obsessed with the mindset of Olympic athletes and how they could find peace after competing in events they had been training for their entire lives. To understand this, he interviewed countless experts and spent nine years compiling his findings into Inner Excellence. During that time, Murphy also served as a coach for the South African Olympic team and worked with golfers on the PGA Tour, sharing his tools and tactics on how to perform under pressure and get the most from oneself, both mentally and physically.
Impact
While Brown drew some criticism from fans for reading a book after only having one catch for ten yards in a must-win game. Brown maintains that he wasn’t reading the book out of anger or disinterest in the game.
“I’m just using it for football, to have my peak performance and be my best self out there on the field,” he told ESPN.
Head coach Nick Sirianni explained that this was something Brown had been doing all season; the cameras just happened to capture it for the first time.
Since that day, Inner Excellence has been flying off the shelves. Book sales increased by 53 million percent, and the book reached #1 on the Amazon Best Sellers list.
Takeaways
So, what can we take away from this book’s incredible rise to stardom? The book took almost a decade for Murphy to write. During that time, he went into considerable debt, and when the book was finally published, it was ranked in the 500,000s on Amazon’s best-seller list. Jim Murphy had to wait five years to see any results from his work. Sometimes, it just takes one moment for a breakthrough. Keep the faith and don’t give up.
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