Socks kept AJ Brown from pledging to Georgia. Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

Black socks were the reason AJ Brown picked Ole Miss over Georgia

Originally posted on CFB-HQ on SI | By James Parks | Last updated Aug 6, 2025 3:05 PM ET

There’s no science to analyzing the ins and outs of college football recruiting, and sometimes a prospect can pick a school for just about any reason.

Case in point: AJ Brown, the now Philadelphia Eagles star wide receiver, who revealed that he didn’t commit to SEC powerhouse Georgia because of the color of its socks.

“I didn’t choose Georgia. I got recruited by Georgia. I didn’t choose Georgia because I don’t like wearing black socks,” Brown said on Pardon My Take recently.

AJ Brown didn’t commit to Georgia because they wear Black socks during games@rhoback pic.twitter.com/jzEtI3u9E5
— Pardon My Take (@PardonMyTake) August 6, 2025

“That may be crazy, but I hate wearing black socks... Putting on black socks with black cleats, it’s just so hideous. Because when I put on white, I feel so fast, so smooth. It’s just something about it.”

SEC football programs were very interested in Brown when he was a recruit coming out of the state of Mississippi, where he was a four-star prospect out of Starkville in 2016.

Alabama, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State were also in the mix to earn Brown’s commitment, and the wide receiver eventually gave his pledge to the Rebels, a move that paid off for Hugh Freeze and ultimately for the player’s own future NFL prospects.

Ole Miss has several different versions of its football uniform, but crucially for Brown, those variations all included white socks.

Brown went on to catch 189 passes for 2,984 yards and scored 19 touchdowns at Ole Miss, including one very memorable day for the player against Georgia and its black socks

In their 2016 meeting in Oxford, the Rebels routed the Bulldogs in a 45-14 result, with Brown catching four passes for 46 yards. All in white socks.

This article first appeared on CFB-HQ on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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