National Football League

Garafolo: It took a princess to adjust Broncos LB Trevathan's focus

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 3:13 p.m. ET

Mike Garafolo

JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- The maturation of Danny Trevathan happened on national TV in front of a huge viewing audience. Not quite as big as the one that will tune in on Sunday, but enough to make a young man think about the direction of his life.

Trevathan, a second-year linebacker for the Denver Broncos, had picked off the Baltimore Ravens' Joe Flacco and was on his way into the end zone for a touchdown that would've put the Broncos up by 31 in the fourth quarter. Except what happened next etched Trevathan's name alongside those of DeSean Jackson and Leon Lett.

Trevathan celebrated prematurely and dropped the ball at the 1-yard line.

The play had little impact on the game, which wound up being a blowout anyway, but Trevathan quickly found himself reacting differently than even he anticipated he would. Instead of feeling embarrassed for himself and a rage to make up for it with a bigger play just to clear his name, Trevathan kept feeling the pangs of knowing he'd let his teammates and coaches down and had done something to affect the image of the Broncos as a whole.

It was a new sensation. And in a strange way, it felt good.

"I was just an angry person. An angry, selfish person, just really focused on myself too much and it showed on that play," Trevathan told FOX Sports this week, as he and the Broncos prepared to face the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLVIII. "When I dropped the ball and did my celebration, I was like, 'I didn't just hurt me. I hurt everybody."

"It's about the bigger picture."

That picture has come into focus for Trevathan over the past five eventful months.

There have been the lows of that embarrassing moment in the opener and the day he left practice on a cart, thinking he'd just torn his ACL. But there have also been the highs of proving he's a budding playmaker: a game-clinching interception of the Dallas Cowboys' Tony Romo (after which he playfully tucked the ball under his shirt for safe-keeping on the way back to the sideline), two more interceptions and a key forced fumble in a victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.

The highest of the highs, though, came in November. That's when his girlfriend delivered a baby girl, Danoir. He has been absolutely smitten with his daughter since then, even to the point where he irks his girlfriend by waking up Danoir if she's sleeping when he comes home from practice.

"Before I had her, I was so young-minded," Trevathan said. "It was my second year, and I was so focused on myself and trying to get somewhere and do all of this. I started to be more of a team player. I started to be more of a family player, and that helped me grow to the person I wanted to be.

"I'm proud to say I took a step in my life and I'm never going back. I'll just enjoy it."

Trevathan has never had any serious behavioral issues. It's just that he didn't quite have the right mentality off the field. He didn't put in all of the necessary work to make himself a better and complete player. And as he admitted, he didn't have the proper team-first mentality.

Enter Broncos assistant director of pro personnel Champ Kelly. A former wide receiver and defensive back at Kentucky, Kelly had seen Trevathan's potential as a player and person since Trevathan's days with the Wildcats. And whereas other teams were scared off by Trevathan's slow 4.8-second 40-yard dash before the draft, Kelly believed what he heard from the Kentucky coaches about how a leg injury Trevathan suffered two weeks before his pro day was the reason for his slow time.

"I tried to warn other people," Trevathan said, "but Champ was one who always listened and always knew what was going on."

Kelly has been a big Trevathan supporter and has mentored him through this season, from the opening-night mistake through the birth of Danoir and beyond.

"He's always a bright person to see. He's always full of life," Trevathan said of Kelly. "He's got a family, a daughter, so I've been talking to him and he's been giving me hints - little princesses rule the world."

And speaking of princesses, Trevathan knows what he'll be doing if the Broncos win Sunday.

"I'm going to Disney World!" he said.

Told that honor often goes to the quarterback, Trevathan laughed and replied, "We're all going to Disney World then. We're going to party, man. We'll turn it into Broncos Nation."