You might remember Trent Dilfer as a Super Bowl winning quarterback with the Baltimore Ravens in 2000, being the head coach of the Elite 11 program, and who is now the head coach for Lipscomb Academy in Tennessee. However, Dilfer was part of the NFL media from 2006-2017. To be fair, you probably remember that too.
Dilfer was Wingo’s guest on the latest episode of Trey Wingo Presents: Half-Forgotten History podcast. In addition to talking about his playing career, Dilfer mentioned how he met former ESPN analysts Trey Wingo and Mark “Stink” Schlereth (now at FOX).
Jim Kelly and Dilfer met Wingo and Schlereth at a bar in Detroit during the week of Super Bowl 40 when Dilfer was working for NFL Network and one compliment Dilfer and Kelly gave changed the way Wingo viewed NFL Live, the show he had only started hosting for a couple of years at the time (began in 2003).
“NFL Live had started in 2003. We thought we were doing ok. You guys came up to Stink and I and you guys were like we love your show because you guys talk about football the way we as football players talk about football. For a guy who was a terrible football player, but always wanted to be a great football player, that was the best thing you could have ever said to me. It was the first time I realized man, we might be doing something good here,” said Wingo.
Trent Dilfer told Wingo that he was one of four people that helped to make him a better broadcaster.
“I tell people all the time, I learned everything from Rich Eisen, you, and then admired Stink. Tried to copy Stink. I didn’t work a ton with Stink because we didn’t work a ton of shows together. Then, I would add Steve Levy to that too.
“Rich kind of taught me what it looked like because I was still playing. Rich was great because he was a truth-teller. Then, I spent hours upon hours with you and you corrected me all the time. You affirmed the things I did well and corrected the things I didn’t. Then, you would turn me over to Stink and be like watch how he does it because he is awesome at what he does.”
The one piece of advice that Levy gave Trent Dilfer ended up helping him improve as an analyst on TV.
“Levy told me go back home when you are done with TV and listen to yourself with your back turned to the TV and then watch yourself with the sound off…All of a sudden, I wasn’t running words together, my eyes weren’t looking all over the place, I wasn’t looking at the wrong camera, I was slower with my pace, doing the TV things. I tell people all the time I owe you guys so much.”
To this day, Dilfer still tells former football players that they should try to do television when their playing career ends.
“I have so many great relationships with the people at ESPN, it’s a great career. Players transition, they say should I go to TV? I say absolutely yes.”
