One of the stars of last summer’s season of Hard Knocks, Dallas cornerback Trevon Diggs followed up his breakout performance in front of HBO’s cameras with a stellar season on the football field that saw him lead the NFL with 11 interceptions and the Cowboys take home first place in the NFC East as well as a postseason berth for the first time in three seasons.
Turning 24 next month and entering just his third campaign in the NFL, Diggs already has the respect of his NFL colleagues as he finished at No. 23 on the peer-reviewed “NFL Top 100” list despite not even making the cut last season. The accomplishment was made just a little sweeter because Diggs finished three spots ahead of his 28-year-old brother Stefon, a two-time Pro Bowler at wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills. Given their ball skills, the brothers were obvious choices to each be named “Chief Ball Officer” for a SAXX Underwear campaign that will hook fans up with a 10%-off discount code via social media for every interception by Trevon and every touchdown by Stefon this season. (No word on what the plan is for a pick-six by the younger Diggs.)
In addition to working with SAXX, the Diggs brothers have engaged in some playful trash talk this offseason with Trevon going so far as to say Stefon wouldn’t have a single catch on him should the Bills and Cowboys meet in the Super Bowl. Despite the chatter, it was all love between the two when the rankings were announced. “I don’t do the negativity. We texted and set goals for each other, but we didn’t really talk about it. I expect him to be on that list and he expects me to be on it,” the younger Diggs tells InsideHook. “It’s a high honor and I appreciate it more than a lot of things that get put out there because it’s how your peers feel about you. These are the people you’re going against who know about you and what you can do. They really know what’s going on in the NFL world.”
To find out what else is going on in Trevon’s world before the NFL season kicks off on September 8, we caught up with him last week during training camp.
InsideHook: Are you relieved to be doing training camp this year without HBO’s cameras in your face?
Trevon Diggs: I had a lot of fun being on Hard Knocks. It was pretty cool for the most part with just the exposure and doing what I do on the field. I feel like they correlated together and it worked out. But, training camp is training camp whether the cameras are there or not. It feels the same.
IH: How much tape do you watch to prepare for games?
TD: A little. I try not to watch a lot of tape because I don’t want to be just thinking about the tape. I like being savvy, but I’d rather just go out there and play and get a feel from it. I’ll watch a little bit of tape and go over it and skim through it, but I try not to watch too much depending on who I’m playing. I’ll always ask my brother questions and touch base with him weekly.
IH: You guys haven’t played each other yet. Are you looking forward to it?
TD: Next year. But I gotta get through this season first. Hopefully I’ll cover him myself. But if we switched positions, he could probably do a better job covering me than I could do catching passes on him.
IH: Eleven picks last year though. You need good hands. Looking forward to building on that?
TD: It would be a blessing, but we’ll see where it goes. I’m just trying to take it one game at a time and focus on that one game. If the ball is there and there’s an opportunity, I will sure make sure to capitalize on it. I took advantage of everything that came my way last season except maybe one ball. This was a long offseason and I feel like this year is gonna be really special. We got a lot of great guys on the team that are ready to go and just hungry, you know? Can’t wait to see where it goes and what’s gonna happen.
IH: Fair enough. We talked about your “NFL Top 100” ranking. How about your Madden score?
TD: I’m happy for them about how far Madden has changed from when we were younger. They’ve been able to grow their video game and grow the whole Madden community. It’s always a blessing for them. But it’s just a video game. I don’t really think they be watching tape, for reals. You don’t get any extra money for being highly ranked on Madden.
IH: So do you have stuff in your contract for being included in the “NFL Top 100” rankings?
TD: I ain’t answering that.
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