Eagles give draft pick Jeremiah Trotter Jr. the No. 54 his father wore
Trotter is feeling comfortable and at home as rookie minicamp kicks off for the fifth-round pick whose father was an Eagles Hall of Fame linebacker.
Jeremiah Trotter Jr. didn’t have to pay anyone. He didn’t have to make any side deals. His number 54, the one his father wore for the Eagles, and the one he wore in high school at St. Joseph’s Prep and college at Clemson, was ready and waiting for him after the Eagles selected him in the fifth round of last weekend’s draft.
“I’ve been wearing it my whole life,” Trotter said Friday. “I wore it because my dad wore it when he was playing here. I was very happy that it was available and they decided to give me that number.
“[I’ll] wear it with pride and be the best player I can.”
This weekend’s short rookie camp offered Trotter, a linebacker like his father, the next step in a homecoming of sorts. Trotter used to hang around the NovaCare facility with his sister, TreMil, when their father played for the Eagles. It had been a while since Trotter was at the Eagles’ facility, but he said once he arrived, he started to recognize things and knew where things were.
Trotter said he plans to continue to live at his family’s Hainesport, N.J., home. It’s close enough to the team’s facility, and it offers him a chance to “save money.”
It has been a week filled with a lot of emotions for the Trotter family, and it all started with a phone call. Videos of NFL teams calling their draft picks are in vogue, and the call the Eagles made to Trotter, featuring an emotional Jeffrey Lurie, has more than two million views.
“It was emotional because I know the memories he had with my mother and my dad, the family in general, me coming around when I was a kid,” Trotter said of the call. “Hearing him get emotional was definitely emotional for me, too. We both were thinking about her, the memory of her, during the moment. It really did show the type of connection he had with my family.”
» READ MORE: Jeremiah Trotter Jr. carries on legacies of father and late mother into the NFL: ‘It was also a dream of hers’
A connection that will continue. Trotter Sr. played eight of his 11 NFL seasons with the Eagles. He appeared in four Pro Bowls and was once named first-team All-Pro. Trotter Sr. was inducted into the Eagles Hall of Fame in 2016.
Trotter said he isn’t worried about how quickly he can get on the field with the Eagles, who are undergoing a change on defense with new coordinator Vic Fangio. (Linebacker Shaun Bradley wore No. 54 last year and is a free agent after missing the season with an injury.)
Among the familiar faces for Trotter this week at rookie camp and heading into his first NFL training camp is running back Will Shipley, a teammate at Clemson. Both players talked Friday about the battles they had in practices at college, which will continue throughout offseason workouts.
“It’s always helpful when you go into a new stage in your life or the next stage on your journey to have people around you who you’re comfortable with,” Trotter said.
“It helps you be free, more comfortable in your environment, and feel like you’re at home.”
In place, and in jersey number, Trotter certainly is home.