Philadelphia Eagles' A.J. Brown pauses while speaking during a news conference at the team's training facility on Jan. 22, in Philadelphia.Matt Slocum/The Associated Press
It’s been a wild ride in the NFL playoffs, featuring controversial calls and spectacular plays. None of these, however, have come close to triggering the consternation caused January 16 when Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown rolled up to Lincoln Financial Field for the NFC Divisional round playoff game in a Honda Civic (misidentified in a post on X as an Accord). Social media went full “social media.” One reporter joked that “The Eagles star arrived in whatever the opposite of style is.”
How could a star athlete who signed a $96-million contract extension in the off-season and has earned more than $60-million so far in his NFL career drive such an unassuming vehicle that starts in Canada at about $24,000?
Where’s his sense of judgment?
Mercifully, much of the commentary was positive. Brown, 27, was praised for his frugal, commonsense approach. One X user wrote, “Smart man. Fly under the radar. Ain’t no one going to mess with you driving to the stadium in that wonderfully average mileage car.” Some rationalized Brown’s decision to drive a meagre Honda by determining that he must own many other luxury vehicles and simply opted to leave them at home. It was snowing that day, perhaps Brown didn’t want to expose his Bugatti Veyron (or similar) to the elements.
To others, however, Brown’s economical choice demonstrated a lack of noblesse oblige, the belief that those with power and influence should use their social position to help others. In this case, “helping others” means driving the kind of expensive sports car those of us who didn’t sign $96-million contracts last year would drive if we had.
What was left unsaid but could be found screaming in the social media subtext is that we all, whether we admit it or not, judge people by the cars they drive. The supportive outpouring is encouraging. It’s the fact that his choice to drive a Honda registered at all (in what’s passing for a collective conscience) that’s depressing.
If you don’t judge people by the cars they drive, it’s not necessary to tell everyone you don’t judge people by the cars they drive. It should go without saying. It’s the same reason I don’t trust people who tell me “I like to treat people the way I would like to be treated” because it implies that they considered treating people in another way than they would like to be treated. To a decent human being, treating others differently should not be on the menu.
The viral sensation Brown’s Honda stirred shows that for people who swear they don’t judge others by the vehicles they drive, we sure are very interested.
There are few practices more human than evaluating others worth according to what they own. We’re a strange superficial species. What other animal travels in packs and habitually preys on its own kind? Sadly, it’s the car enthusiast, gearhead community that is most likely to evaluate someone’s worth by their car. It’s unbecoming.
Car lovers are passionate because automobiles aren’t just modes of transit to them. To the car lover, they’re philosophical states of being, expressions of how a driver sees the world and their place in it. Visit any online car community – be it for Ford F-150, Volvo, Toyota or BMW – and you’ll find drivers putting down other drivers for their choice of car. That’s the way of the world. Little things occupy little minds for little periods of time. It’s not all bad, of course. You’ll also find drivers sharing their enthusiasm, bonding over shared passions, encouraging each other and treating one another in exactly the way they would like to be treated.
While it’s crass to judge someone by the car they drive, it’s admirable to develop a “automobile palate.” Just as a diner can develop a taste for the nuances in cuisine, a driver can develop a taste for the subtleties of the automobile. Here, I swear by the philosophy laid out by American journalist A.J. Liebling in his 1959 memoir Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris, who wrote, “If the first requisite for writing well about food is a good appetite, the second is to put in your apprenticeship as a feeder when you have enough money to pay the check but not enough to produce indifference of the total.” Liebling argues that a rich man chooses the most expensive item on the menu while the poor man takes what he can.
The same goes for automobiles. If you’ve got all the money in the world (or at least a $96-million contract) you just buy one of the most expensive rides available. As someone who for much of his life fell under the “takes what he can,” I can attest that those with limited funds do just that. When you are in between, you must choose between qualities. Do you prize fuel efficiency or performance? Do you need a roomy interior or something compact? It’s in these decisions that you can develop a “appetite for automobiles.”
Having money doesn’t mean you want to blow it on cars. Warren Buffett drives a Cadillac. Mark Zuckerberg drives a black Acura TSX. In 2017, NFL quarterback Kirk Cousins drove a dented GMC Savana passenger van.
As for A.J. Brown, he may not care about the car he drives because he was almost run over by one in 2023 when cycling in the Eagles Autism Challenge charity bike ride. If anything takes the shine off the glamour of the automobile, that’s it.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article misidentified A.J. Brown's vehicle as a Honda Accord. Editors have confirmed it is a Civic. This version has been updated.