Legends Don’t WANT To Be Great — They MUST Be Great|Jim Trotter (NFL Media)|DH091 - a podcast by Shawn Walchef

While Jim Trotter is too humble to call himself great, his resume proves he truly is that.


From reading Sports Illustrated as a kid to writing for Sports Illustrated as an adult, Jim Trotter’s ascent as a journalist mirrors the lessons he learned as a young athlete.“I always say, great players don't want to be great,” starts Jim Trotter (NFL Media) on his return to the Digital Hospitality podcast in April 2021. “They need to be great.”

Watch the full Digital Hospitality interview with Jim Trotter on our Cali BBQ YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/pG6Ngv-Dr2chttps://youtu.be/pG6Ngv-Dr2c

 Jim Trotter's Career:
Working for the likes of the NFL Network, penning Junior Seau’s biography and interviewing the likes of Steph Curry, Jerry Jones and other living legends, Jim Trotter’s career stats could put him in the sports journalism hall of fame. However, it all started like a prospect grinding in AAA ball.“I started my career in Muskegon, Michigan, which I had never heard of when I took the job,” recalls Jim Trotter. “I had never even been to the state of Michigan when I took the job.”

Writing for a small newspaper in the Midwest, Trotter had the space to learn the game, make mistakes and find his voice. In the late ‘80s, Trotter would find feedback from his peers and understand his audience via letters to the editor.Over the course of the 1990s and 2000s, the journalism industry changed drastically. Fast forward 20 years into his career and now having risen to ranks of writing for Sports Illustrated, the landscape of journalism was going digital and never looking back.

“Then, this would have been 2008 or 2009, I went out to New York for a staff meeting at Sports Illustrated,” Jim shares. “They bring in the marketing and promotion team and they start talking about wanting us to do more social media. In particular, they wanted us to get on Twitter. I'm not a big self-promotion guy so initially I was not interested in being on Twitter. I really didn't know much about Twitter at that time, that tells you how ignorant I was to social media.”
As the story unfolds, Jim’s humility and dedication to the grind reveals a major reason he’s been so successful in his field.Furthermore, another key ingredient proves his ability to adapt.
“The business is changing, the industry is changing,” Jim realized in that meeting. “I can either change with it and continue to progress or I can be a dinosaur and say, ‘Nope, I'm doing it the way I've always done it’ and sort of be left behind. I decided to get on Twitter.”

11 or so years into using Twitter, @JimTrotter_NFL has now amassed over 132K followers. He does not post to boast, staying true to himself and using the tool as a way to connect with his audience and remain on the pulse of the conversation.
“For me, social media was just a way to keep up with the times and to stay relevant,” notes Jim Trotter.“When I came out of college in 1986, there was no Internet. Cell phones were as big as a phone book. The only feedback we could get was people writing into the newspaper. I don't do this for followers. I get the whole game of being an influencer, but I always say just be authentic and be yourself. And for me, I try to be respectful of the audience.”

With an abundance of followers both individually and through his work for the NFL Network, Jim possesses a trusted and unique voice to discuss matters or sport and social issues to an engaged base.In his 30 plus years in the business, Jim has been able to craft a tone and perspective that is authentic to him that resonates with all those that read his work.
However, like an athlete working on their game, they’re bound to start their ascent by mimicking those they admire before defining their own destiny.“The interesting thing about this business for young writers is that many times you try to emulate people that you like or respect in terms of how they write,” begins Jim.

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