Moro Ojomo gave ‘Inner Excellence’ to A.J. Brown. The lesser-known Eagle has his own motivational story.

Maybe A.J. Brown never reads a book on the sidelines if Moro Ojomo didn’t answer his door 11 years ago.

Ojomo, now an Eagles defensive tackle, didn’t go out for the football team as a freshman at Katy High School near Houston. He learned the sport after emigrating from Nigeria when he was 8 but struggled and decided he had enough after middle school.

But after the 2014 season started, Katy coach Gary Joseph asked the junior high coach if there were any kids he should know about who didn’t show up for the high school squad. The coach told Joseph about a big lineman who was two years younger than the rest of his grade. Joseph needed to go see him.

“I went to his house and talked to him,” Joseph said. “You’re intimidated when you’re that young and playing against older people. Most of those kids that were freshmen in high school were 14 or 15 and getting ready to get their driver’s license. He was 12.”

Ojomo decided to give football another chance. There was a spot for him on the team.

“Freshman team backup,” said Ojomo, now 23. “Freshman ‘B’ team backup. The fourth guy in my position.”

Ojomo didn’t know much, but he knew how to work hard, thanks to two parents who moved their family from the African country. He made Katy’s varsity squad as a junior, blossomed into a big-time recruit as a senior, played five seasons at the University of Texas, and joined the Eagles last season as a seventh-round pick.

And that’s how he was able to give Brown a copy of Inner Excellence, the motivational book that became a bestseller after Brown paged through it on the sideline during the Birds’ postseason win over Green Bay.

» READ MORE: A.J. Brown and the lessons from ‘Inner Excellence’ sideline book reading: ‘Clear mind and unburdened heart’

Ojomo enjoyed the book, which is author Jim Murphy’s attempt to “Train your mind for extraordinary performance and the best possible life.” He figured that Brown could use a copy after listening earlier this season to an interview the wide receiver had with reporters.

“I had the book for a while, but I hadn’t actually read it,” Ojomo said. “I read it one day and had it on my heart that A.J. would like it. … I think it was God. I had it on my heart to give it to him. I didn’t think it would result into what it has.”

Ojomo’s father, Ololade, is a missionary, and the Ojomos came to California from Africa to open a church. They lived with family near Los Angeles, and Ojomo’s cousins introduced him to football.

“They threw me in,” Ojomo said. “I went to tryouts, and everyone was trying to be the quarterback. I tried to throw a football, and they were like, ‘Go over there.’”

A few years later, the Ojomos moved to Texas when his father became the pastor of a holiness Pentecostal church near Houston.

“It was unique,” Ojomo said of growing up in the church. “I think it shaped a lot of ways that I am with work ethic and attitude in life. I think faith allows you to not feel like the world’s weight is on your shoulders and allows you to move in freedom. I know that God has me regardless of whatever, so it allows you to pursue anything to the best of your ability.

“Even if you fall short, you know there’s a better plan in hand.”

» READ MORE: Eagles DT Moro Ojomo credits everyone but himself for his rise: ‘You need the people around you’

Ojomo started school in Nigeria when he was just 3, so he was younger than students in the United States. But he was big. Ojomo was only a backup on Katy’s freshman “B” team, but the coaches knew they had something.

“You never give up on big kids like that,” Joseph said. “He was raw, but he was athletic.”

Ojomo worked tirelessly with the team’s coaches to turn himself into a recruiter’s dream as he learned the nuances of the defensive line.

Big-time college coaches were soon knocking on his door, just as Joseph had years earlier. The kid from Africa who hadn’t known how to hold a football signed a scholarship with Texas to play on Saturdays in front of 100,000 fans.

“I don’t think we understood the reality of it,” Ojomo said. “It was really cool.”

Ojomo, who is now 6-foot-3 and 292 pounds, was inactive for more than half the games last season and earned less than $1 million this year. But he still felt empowered to recommend a book to Brown, one of the team’s stars and the league’s third highest-paid wide receiver.

“I don’t think anyone is too little or too big,” Ojomo said. “At the end of the day, we are a team and we need everyone. It’s cool to have that kind of dynamic.”

Brown left the Eagles’ locker room on Wednesday carrying a stack of books. Inner Excellence, which Brown called his “recipe,” is not the only one on his shelf. It may have been different to see a player page through a book on the sideline but it wasn’t surprising for Ojomo that a football player was reading.

“The things that sell are clickbait,” Ojomo said.

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Ojomo was given Inner Excellence by DJ Giaritelli, a chaplain with Athletes in Action, a sports ministry organization. Ojomo met Giaritelli during college and would attend a Wednesday night bible study with other Texas athletes in Giaritelli’s garage.

Giaritelli is friends with the book’s author and thought it would be perfect for Ojomo as he entered the NFL.

“What Inner Excellence is about is trying to help people that deal with high-performance environments try to find deep peace, joy, and contentment outside of their circumstances,” Giaritelli said. “In the life of an athlete, you’re defined so much by your circumstances. I thought if Moro could disconnect from that, it would help him find joy in the process of being an athlete and not just when it goes well.

“Moro and a lot of the athletes, they all have a similar story. Your whole life, you’re trying to get to a certain level and you think it will fulfill you. In some ways, it does. In a lot of ways, it doesn’t. Then it just creates more stress and more pressure. … What’s the end goal?

“If it’s all results-oriented, then you’re going to go really far, really fast. But at some point, it will self destruct. So it’s been fun to watch Moro enjoying the journey to get there and not just the end results.”

Giaritelli was with Murphy after a photo first surfaced earlier this season of Brown reading Inner Excellence during a game. The author could not figure out how the book got to Brown. Giaritelli knew.

“I said ‘Jim, I gave it to Moro,’” Giaritelli said. “I told him how one of my friends plays for the Eagles and I gave him the book. He’s like, ‘You think he gave it to A.J.’ I said I’ll call him. I called him, and then he told me the story how he was reading it on the way home from the New Orleans game and A.J. asked about it. Next you know, it’s viral.”

Ojomo has a backpack full of books and said he wants to become a more avid reader. He has a financial-literacy book that defensive line coach Clint Hurtt gave to the linemen and is reading a few books about the issues of poverty. Other players had copies of Inner Excellence in their lockers. The Eagles seem to believe in the power of reading.

“I encourage people to learn little things,” Ojomo said. “Everyone wants to put you in a box. This is what you should be doing. This is what you shouldn’t be doing. You can’t fit us in a box.”

Ojomo expected to be drafted in April 2023, but that belief flattened as the day went on without his name being called.

“I thought it was over,” Ojomo said.

There were just 11 picks remaining when his phone rang. It was general manager Howie Roseman telling him that the Eagles were going to select him. Roseman asked Ojomo if he wanted to come to Philly. There was silence.

“Oh, gosh,” Ojomo finally said.

It was hard for Ojomo to find the words. He moved to America as an 8-year-old, stumbled upon football, tried to stop playing, and then mastered the game when he gave it another try. He struggled to answer Roseman’s question as his sister screamed in the background.

“The kids who you’re really proud for are ones who are self-made football players,” Joseph said. “They work with what they have, and he’s one of those kids. He worked. It wasn’t a fluke.”

A seventh-round pick receives little guarantee — “Zero,” Ojomo said — but that was fine. He just needed a chance. Ojomo played sparingly as a rookie and didn’t record a tackle until the penultimate game of the 2023 regular season.

But this season his role increased, and his first career sack was a pivotal one in the divisional-round win over the Los Angeles Rams. Ojomo is starting to show the promise that made a coach knock on his door.

Of course, he wanted to come to Philly for his next chapter. The guy who gave Brown a motivational book is living a motivational story of his own.

“Dream big,” Ojomo said. “God can do anything in your life. When you look at my story, what are the odds? The most random kid from Nigeria and his cousins are playing football. He starts playing football, and now he’s in the NFL. What are the odds? A seventh-round pick makes a deep, talented defensive line like this.

“Just keep believing in yourself and keep working. Just try. You only get one life, so why not give it 110 percent.”