Eagles legacy rookie’s first preseason sack came with unbelievable symmetry with dad

Football runs in families. The most famous football family is the Mannings, but there are the Longs, the Greises, the Mathews, the Gores, the McCaffereys… the list goes on, but in the past 100 years there hasn’t been a father-son duo to play professional football together.

It’s easy to connect two family members playing the same sport, but when those two family members actually play against the same player is when it gets interesting. Jeremiah Trotter and Jeremiah Trotter Jr. have now played against the same player while with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Jeremiah Trotter Sr. and Jr. sacked the same quarterback, 15 years apart

Jeremiah Trotter, the Axe Man, a linebacker out of Stephen F. Austin, was drafted by the Eagles in 1998. His 11 year career in the NFL saw him bouncing back and forth between the Eagles and a couple of other teams until his final year in 2009.

Fast forward to 2024 and Trotter’s son, the Axe Man Jr., a linebacker out of Clemson, gets drafted by the Eagles in the fifth round. So not only are we talking about two players that play the same sport, but these two play the same position, wear the same number (54), and play for the same team, albeit separated by 15 years.

Every so often, we’ll get a quarterback that plays into their late-30s to early-40s and they become household names for their longevity. Kurt Warner, Ben Roethlisberger, Aaron Rodgers, both Mannings, Tom Brady, and, of course, Josh Johnson, all fall into this category. 

Johnson is 38 years old and playing for his 24th(!) professional football team. He’s had some pretty terrible recent history playing against the Eagles. He played for the San Francisco 49ers in 2022, and in the NFC Championship Game, Brock Purdy got hurt due to head coach Kyle Shanahan using a TE2 to block Hasaan Reddick. Johnson came in as relief, and after completing seven passes for 74 yards, he suffered a concussion which took him out of the game. 

In Week 5 of the 2009 season, the Josh Johnson-led Tampa Bay Buccaneers traveled to Philly to meet Trotter and the gang. In the Eagles’ first preseason game of the 2024 season, Trotter Jr. and the gang traveled to Baltimore to meet up with Johnson, who is now the backup quarterback for the Ravens. 

With just under five minutes left in the second quarter, the Ravens had a 3rd-and-2 from their own 33-yard-line. Axe Man Jr. was able to chase down Johnson from behind, and was credited with a sack to force a punt. 

NFL careers are short; the average length, per Statista, is 3.3 years. Kudos to Josh Johnson for still playing and giving the Trotter family the ability to connect two dots in a pretty cool way.