On the previous Championship Sunday, the Philadelphia Eagles punched their ticket to the Superbowl after a dominating 55-23 victory over their division rivals, the Washington Commanders. That division rival hate couldn’t have been better displayed then the brawl between Eagles wide receiver AJ Brown and Commanders cornerback Marshon Lattimore. This is not the first time these two have gotten into it. It all started when the Commanders made a swing on to acquire Marshon Lattimore via trade from the New Orleans Saints. At first, this looked like a great move for Washington bolstering their young secondary group with a veteran presence in Lattimore and his skillset. However, the trade has not panned out well for Washington. His worst outing of the regular season came in his second game with the Commanders he was tasked to guard AJ Brown and mightily struggled. He committed three defensive penalties and gave up two big plays; they also had mild exchanges of trash-talking throughout the game. To be fair, Lattimore was still battling with a hamstring injury and his health has not been 100%.
Fast-forward to the NFC Championship game at Philly it all turned into a train wreck. Brown and Lattimore were matched up throughout the game and in the beginning it looked like Lattimore had the edge on Brown with an early forced incompletion. Now comes the second quarter and the downfall of both Washington’s defense and Lattimore. It was a 14-12 game, Washington forced a 4th and 5 on Philadelphia’s offense. However, they went for it and AJ Brown made a 31-yard catch with Marshon Lattimore in press coverage. AJ Brown then stared down at Lattimore in spite of taunting but that was that so far. Eagles were marching down in the red zone until the Commanders forced a long 3rd and 13, this time Lattimore was on AJ’s teammate Devonta Smith. The Eagles targeted Smith in the endzone until Lattimore broke up the pass, celebrating before realizing he just committed pass-interference. AJ Brown then walked over to Lattimore pointing the flag on ground letting him know he was penalized. Initially, Lattimore looked like he was just gonna ignore it until he came back and started exchanging words with Brown. The penalty Lattimore created then gave the Eagles the ball at the one yard-line calling a tush push touchdown with Jalen Hurts. Both AJ Brown and Marshon Lattimore weren’t involved in the play, instead they had a shoving match forcing a big fight between the two. Lattimore shoved first out of frustration then AJ Brown shoved back in retaliation. The two got tangled up in their helmets to eventually Brown knocking off Lattimore’s helmet. Shawn Hochuli’s officiating crew then flagged Lattimore for unnecessary roughness and rewarded the Eagles with an extra yard gain for a two point conversion attempt. So in that drive alone: Lattimore gave up a big play to AJ Brown, committed pass-interference on Devonta Smith (setting up the touchdown), got into a shoving match with Brown out of frustration, and penalized for unnecessary roughness.
It makes a lot of sense that it was specifically these two that were getting into it. AJ Brown is known as one of the most competitive and fiery wide receivers in the league and he’s not afraid to stand up for himself. While Marshon Lattimore has had a history of fights with opposing wide receivers. Prime example of Lattimore’s beef is his former division rival Mike Evans with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, when not played up to his standards Lattimore gets flustered too easily and that’s exactly what has happened during his time with Washington. He had a rematch with his arch nemesis Mike Evans in the wildcard round. Mike Evans had 6 catches and a touchdown with Lattimore as the primary defender. The Commanders beat the Bucs that game but that didn’t translate to the Philly game. This time, Lattimore lost his matchup and his team lost, his bad play and annoyance of Brown made him lose his cool. From Brown’s perspective it seemed like he was irritated with Marshon’s tactics and retaliated after Marshon pushed him first. In the end, AJ Brown left the game with a trip and victory to the Super Bowl while Lattimore left the game with his future with the Commanders in question. I do think that part of Lattimore’s struggles is due to his hamstring and his absence made him lose a step in his game. Regardless, if Lattimore is still a Commander or not, he just made a new enemy in AJ Brown in future battles.
