Antonio Brown and A. J. Brown are both star American footballer players that have been in the public eye for decades and have had relatively successful careers throughout their time on the field. However, the interesting question is, are the two of them related?
Antonio Brown and A. J. Brown are not related to each other. AJ was born in Mississippi, where he started his football career in high school. On the other hand, Antonio was born eleven years earlier in Miami.
While sharing the last surname, the two footballers are not related but play for separate teams and have even faced off on each other on the pitch throughout the years. However, today we’re going to look into both their lives to see where each player came from.
The World of Antonio Brown
Antonio was born July 10th, 1988, in Liberty City, Miami. He attended school here, both at the Norland High School, where he was introduced to track and football sports, which he loved. He then moved up to Central Michigan University, where he played college football.
It was here he was picked up by the Pittsburgh Steelers and was able to amass more receptions than any other player in the entire league through the years 2010 to 2018. Even within his first season, he helped the Steelers rise all the way to the Super Bowl XLV, but they were unfortunately beaten by the Green Bay Packers.
Moving onto his second season, Antonio became the first NFL player ever to have topped the 1,000 yards mark for both returning and receiving within the same season. That’s an awe-inspiring feat, to say the least. However, his list of achievements was not going to stop there.
As of 2013, he became the first and only NFL player to record 50 yards in every single game of his entire NFL season and recorded five receptions in every single game. This level continues throughout 2014, 2015, 2017, and his number of receiving touchdowns in 2019.
He remained with the Steelers until 2019, when he was traded to the Oakland Raiders that then made him the highest-earning player in the entire NFL league, placing his OTC around $2.4 million.
However, Brown didn’t last at Oakland for too long, after some disagreements with the team’s general manager, and was finally released from the team without actually playing a single regular game. He was then picked up by the New England Patriots but was also cut after performing in just one game due to sexual assault claims made against him.
While it’s unsure what the future for Antonio Brown holds and what he’s going to do next, here’s a clip of him performing at his best, which is sure to leave a lasting legacy on the NFL for many years to come.
Damn, we still get shivers watching his plays back now—a truly impressive sportsman who performed amazingly.
The World of A. J. Brown
While Antonio is a bit of a legend throughout the decades, A. J. Brown is what some may call ‘new blood.’Born on June 30, 1997, Brown grew up in Mississippi, where he was also introduced to football and track events, as well as being a fan of baseball.
He attended Starkville High School, and while a senior at the school, his football career really started to take off. He recorded an incredible 83 catches at 1,371 yards and a nice 13 touchdowns, which led him and the team to the 6A state championships.
His success wasn’t going unnoticed. He was rightly named the first-team All-State all by The Clarion -Ledgers, The Mississippi Association of Coaches, and even USA Today. Wow. Of course, getting this kind of attention means you’re going to get picked up by the big leagues, which is why he was ranked so highly by recruitment drives.
For example, Scout ranked him 45th, 24Sports ranked him 47, and ESPN ranked him 66, all of which are fairly high. Both Scout and 247Sports even ranked him the second-best player in the state!
Eventually, he was drafted by the San Diego Padres in 2016, which was his first collegiate career. He did rather well in most of his seasons, including Freshman season, where he finished fourth, his Sophomore season, where he was given the Conerly Trophy for being the best football player in Mississippi his Junior season, where he was named first-team All-SEC.
With so much success, he decided he would drop his senior college year and would instead enter the 2019 NFL draft where he was since by the Tennessee Titans.
Perhaps the surname ‘Brown’ is a bit of an indicator for solid NFL football success, and if you have the surname yourself, maybe it’s something you should think about for your own children. However, with different parents from different parts of the US, A. J. and Antonio Brown are not related.