Philadelphia Eagles

‘Inner Excellence' author reacts to A.J. Brown helping his book reach No. 1

In an interview with NBC Philadelphia's Frances Wang, "Inner Excellence" author Jim Murphy reacts to A.J. Brown and Eagles fans helping his book reach No. 1 on Amazon's best sellers list

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Jim Murphy’s book “Inner Excellence” hit number one on the Amazon best sellers list after Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown was caught on camera reading it during Sunday’s wild card game against the Green Bay Packers. NBC10’s Frances Wang spoke with Murphy about his reaction to the book’s overnight success.

After A.J. Brown helped his book reach No. 1 on Amazon’s best sellers list, “Inner Excellence” author Jim Murphy spoke with NBC10 about how it came to be and how it caught the attention of the Eagles superstar in the first place.

In an interview with NBC10's Frances Wang Monday night, Murphy said “Inner Excellence” was inspired by his own personal journey after getting rid of over half of his possessions.

“Two and a half years in the desert. First New Year’s I went to live a life of solitude and my first New Year’s I didn’t know what day it was. I hear noise. I’m in my room alone and empty house on New Year’s Eve journaling. I hear a noise, I go outside and I see fireworks,” Murphy said. “And that’s when I found out it was December 31. And so, it was a very solitary, lonely time and five years of working on it, I spent my life savings and was $90,000 in debt. And I didn’t know if anyone besides my mom would ever read it. So, it was lonely, scary. Yeah.”

Murphy said that fear helped him develop the book’s main theme.  

“The thesis for ‘Inner Excellence’ is that self-centeredness is the greatest challenge that we face in performance and in life. It leads to fear. And selflessness is fearless,” he said. “The essence of ‘Inner Excellence’ is how do you develop the habits every day of thought and action around the person that you want to become and what’s most important to you and how can you be fully engaged, heart, mind and body, in the moment and unattached to your results that are always temporary and always in the past and future.”

Murphy said his book eventually caught the attention of DJ Giaritelli, a theological consultant with ties to the University of Texas at Austin, where Eagles defensive tackle Moro Ojomo played college football.

“He gave the book to Moro Ojomo. And Moro went to the Eagles and Moro gave it to A.J.,” Murphy said.

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Murphy said that even before Sunday’s wild card game against the Packers, he was aware that A.J. Brown was reading his book.

“I knew that he was reading the book and he had the book,” Murphy said. “I saw it on the sideline recently so I thought, ‘Oh, that’s really cool.’ I didn’t know he was bringing it to every game and reading it after every drive. So that’s really neat.”

Eagles fans everywhere watched as Brown was captured on camera during Sunday's game reading the book. After the game, while in the locker room, Brown said the book gives him a “sense of peace.” That inspired Eagles fans to find the book on Amazon and flood it with five-star reviews, catapulting it to No. 1 on the best sellers list.

“I’m super excited for the Eagles fans to get it and for people all around America to learn the same things that I’m working on, he’s working on,” Murphy said.

Murphy told NBC10 he was an Eagles fan even before Brown helped his book reach new heights.

“I am an Eagles fan. For sure. What’s interesting is I have a connection to Philadelphia now in the last year that I didn’t have before. A group of Penn State wrestling alumni reached out to me,” Murphy said. “They’re building a multimillion-dollar leadership training center in Lititz, it’s an hour and a half west of Philly and they want to use “Inner Excellence” as their leadership training program. And asked if I would be interested and I said, not only would I be interested but I’d be interested in making it an “Inner Excellence” headquarters. And so I could be in Philly quite a bit going forward.”

Murphy also has a new book he just finished in November of last year. It’s called “The Best Possible Life.”

“It’s like a summary of ‘Inner Excellence’ which is based on the Bible,” Murphy said.

Eagles fans are certainly living their best possible life as the Birds continue to tap into their inner excellence during their playoff run.

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