Padres scout Stephen Moritz remembers NFL's A.J. Brown

SAN DIEGO -- Padres area scout Stephen Moritz, a lifelong and die-hard Chiefs fan, is feeling cautiously optimistic about his team's chances to win a third straight Super Bowl.

But, man, would he feel a whole lot better about those chances if that 19th-round pick he signed in 2016 were still roaming the outfield.

Instead, A.J. Brown is one of the NFL's best wide receivers, lining up for the Eagles against Moritz's Chiefs in Super Bowl 59. Moritz always figured this was the likelier path for Brown, a two-sport star at Starkville High in Mississippi. But Brown's upside as a baseball player was too tantalizing to pass on, particularly so late in the Draft.

So the Padres selected Brown 564th overall, and Moritz later signed him. Brown eventually chose football, and now, nearly a decade later, Moritz is set to watch him try to dethrone his beloved Chiefs on Sunday. Moritz is conflicted -- but, really, only slightly conflicted.

"There's nothing that would make me happier than for the Chiefs to go ahead and three-peat, but A.J. goes off for 10 [catches], 120 [yards] and two scores," Moritz said last week. "That would be great."

Moritz first scouted Brown in 2015, and it didn't take long for him to realize the type of athlete he was watching. Two plays stand out. There was the time Brown went first-to-home on a gapper, smoothly moving around the bases with those long, powerful strides. Then, there was the up-and-in fastball that Brown somehow squared up and muscled over the left-center-field wall.

At the time, Brown was committed to play college football for Ole Miss. But Moritz wants to make one thing clear: Brown wasn't a football player, dabbling in baseball on the side. In 2015, Brown took part in the All-America Game in both football and baseball, becoming only the second player to do so, after Kyler Murray.

"He was elite at both sports," Moritz said, recounting the Padres' Draft day strategy. "So, yeah, you want to go play college football? No problem. We're going to sign you. It's not going to hurt us that much, and if it works out and we hit on a Lorenzo Cain? That's what we were thinking. ... You might have an All-Star center fielder on a championship team. So that was the thought process: Hey, there's way high upside here. It's going to be relatively cheap. Why not take a chance?"

By drafting and signing Brown, the Padres retained his rights in the event he opted to play baseball. It also meant Brown could train at the team's facilities -- and he did exactly that after his freshman and sophomore years in college. When spring ball was done, Brown traveled to Peoria and joined the team's prospects at extended Spring Training. He never saw game action. But he took batting practice and fly balls.

Throughout his NFL career, Brown has been vocal about his love for baseball. In 2022, he even touted his plan to become the next Bo Jackson. That plan hasn't materialized. (Yet.) But Brown's skill set was clearly honed by his years roaming the outfield in Mississippi.

"You catch the ball with your eyes," Brown told ESPN in a story from 2020. "Baseball really helped me out with that for football. When you're tracking a ball, especially a deep ball, it helped me a lot. I played center field in baseball. On a deep pass in football, you judge it and track it just like a center fielder."

And could Brown ever go get it in center field.

"You're never certain," Moritz said. "As scouts, you're wrong more often than you're right. But I was as certain as I could be [that] he was going to be a good outfielder. He was going to be great in the outfield. There was too much athleticism. There was natural ability. You add all his tools together, that was the one thing I was pretty confident in: This dude is going to be a good outfielder in the big leagues."

Or an All-Pro wide receiver in the NFL, as it turned out. The skill sets aren't all that different, Moritz said. He was watching two weeks ago as the Eagles opted to go for it on a pivotal fourth down in the NFC Championship Game against Washington.

Rather than try something short and safe, Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts aired it out down the left sideline. Facing single coverage, Brown accelerated to beat his defender, decelerated to adjust for the ball, extended his arms to make the catch, then kept both feet in bounds as he braced for impact.

"There are a lot of attributes that translate," Moritz said. "Again, I'm just a football fan, I'm not going to pretend I'm a football genius. ... But that specific play, to me, I see a ball in the [left field] corner, and he has the body control, the ability to track the baseball, the ability to catch the baseball, and then slow down in enough time so he doesn't crash into the wall. I think that play is a really good example."

Now, if Brown could just tone it down a bit on Super Bowl Sunday. Moritz, who was born and raised in Kansas City, grew up rooting for Steve DeBerg and Dave Krieg at quarterback. He relishes watching Patrick Mahomes (another two-sport star with a baseball background) and this current Chiefs dynasty.

Moritz and his friends get together to watch most Sundays, along with their kids -- who he says ��have no idea how good this is.�� He plans to spend this Sunday the same way -- watching with friends and family, all clad in Chiefs gear. There will be no split allegiances.

"At the end of the day, I want to see the team that I grew up rooting for, been rooting for for 40-plus years now, lift the Lombardi Trophy again,�� Moritz said. ��But it's hard not to pull for a guy like A.J.

��It��s a little bittersweet. It��s like: Have a good game, A.J. But please don��t torch us.��