Eagles' Jeremiah Trotter Jr., was "the silent assassin," according to St. Joe's Prep head football coach
Several local players on the Philadelphia Eagles are playing in the big game this Sunday. One of them is linebacker Jeremiah Trotter, Jr.
"He got to the NFL, he's back home with the Eagles and then has an opportunity in his first year to go to the Super Bowl," said Tim Roken, head football coach at the Prep.
Trotter Jr. is one of his former athletes.
"I'd used to call him like the silent assassin. He would just be in the weight room, and he would just look at the board, see what it is, and just work the whole time," Roken said.
It was that hard work in the weight room, on the field and in the classroom — Roken believes — that helped shape the young linebacker into the player he is today. Number 54 agrees.
"Building that discipline as a student-athlete, they really prepared me, like all areas of life," Jeremiah Trotter Jr. said.
Take it from fellow alumni Rich Gannon from the class of 1983. His number hangs high above the Prep's fieldhouse at 17th and Girard.
"I think it's really where it all began for me," Gannon said.
The NFL star turned sports commentator also repped the Prep in the NFL's biggest game back in 2003. He offered this advice to Trotter Jr.
"Just go out there and cut it loose. I mean, you know, people make it a bigger game than it is," Gannon said.
In the school's lobby, it's hard to miss the sprawling trophy case. Inside sits everything from trophies for football state championship titles, several of which Trotter Jr. played in, to a golden football etched with Gannon's name.
"I think being a great athlete is one thing, but having those values and having that work ethic and structure that we instill in these young men is kind of what helped them get to this point, right?" said Daniel DiBerardinis, athletic director at St. Joe's Prep.
It's that history both Gannon and Trotter Jr. agree they are proud to be a part of.
"Being here, you're always going to strive for excellence. And that's something that … Rich and Jeremiah both did here as students, as well as on the football field and continued that in their careers," Roken said.
Whatever happens Sunday, the Prep feels more alumni will join these two in achieving this dream.
"I'm confident that I think some of our young men will continue to make this a trend, and we keep appearing in Super Bowls," DiBerardinis said.