Eagles' A.J. Brown Fined by NFL for Incident; Commanders' Lattimore Avoids Punishment
Joseph Zucker@@JosephZucker
Featured Columnist IVFebruary 1, 2025
The NFL fined Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown $11,255 as a result of his brief altercation with Washington Commanders cornerback Marshon Lattimore in the NFC championship game.
Lattimore escaped any additional punishment.
The incident occurred in the second quarter as Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts was punching the ball in at the goal line to put Philly up 20-12. Brown went to block Lattimore and things escalated from there. At one point Brown grabbed Lattimore's facemask before his helmet fell to the turf.
The referees flagged Lattimore for unnecessary roughness while declining to throw a flag on Brown.
The three-time Pro Bowl wideout addressed the sequence days later on Twitch with streamer Janky Rondo. He said that Lattimore "engaged me first," so he felt the need to respond in kind.
𝒆𝒍𝒊… @CMNDERS<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Eagles?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Eagles</a> WR AJ Brown explains his side of controversial flag on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Commanders?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Commanders</a> CB Marshon Lattimore<br><br>"He engaged me first — i'm not out there to fight but i will fight if it go there, i stopped when they [refs] said stop and he ain't stop"<br><br>(via <a href="https://twitter.com/JankyRondo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JankyRondo</a>) <a href="https://t.co/gdJodoJZA4">pic.twitter.com/gdJodoJZA4</a>
Ultimately, this didn't prove to be a big deal.
Lattimore's unnecessary roughness penalty didn't hurt Washington. The Commanders stopped Hurts short of the end zone on Philadelphia's two-point attempt.
The play was also a footnote in a 55-23 win for the Eagles, who pulled away in the second half and scored 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter.
Brown's fine, meanwhile, is a drop in the bucket when he pockets a $1.1 million base salary along with $10.7 million in bonus money for 2024.