ASHBURN, Va. -- The latest in a season-long series, trying to give you a little more insight into some of the Washington Redskins. This week: Trent Murphy.
Position: Linebacker
Age: 23
College: Stanford
Best season: As a senior, Murphy was named an All-American by a handful of publications, including the Sporting News. He was a second-team All-American by the Associated Press.
Person you most admire: Hands down my dad, the role model he is and how hard he’s worked and sacrificed for his family. He can carry the weight of the world on his back and he keeps fighting. I always respected him and he’s always kept me going, no doubt about it.
Biggest obstacle you’ve overcome: Probably being injured my first two years of college and not playing and falling to the wayside and having to fight an uphill battle was challenging. You just show up every day, try and get better and know all that work will pay off and believe in yourself when everyone else forgets about you. It’s really hard. That was tough.
Favorite football moment: There’s been a lot of them. Individually the sack I had on Matt Barkley my junior season. It was one of those bonecrushing hits. They had a great picture of it and it was posted everywhere and it was the momentum for me. I was over the hump and got put on the map. It was a great sack, the ball went flying like 20 yards and winning the Rose Bowl at Stanford was awesome. But more than both those was winning a state championship in high school (for Bishop Brophy Prep in Arizona). It was just awesome. We were underdogs the entire season and we shouldn’t have won a game probably and just came together as a team. It was the epitome of what a team should be. The lessons I learned from that will carry with me the rest of my life.
Habit you wish you had: If there was a trait I wish I was more forgetful probably, probably better if I didn’t think about football so much. Sometimes I overthink things. But it has its positives as well.
Habit you’re glad you have: Probably the same thing, that I obsess over it. Even if I’m wrong the first five times I eventually figure it out and I unlock whatever I’m trying to figure out. I think that’s paid dividends for me.
As a kid what did you dream of being: Oh man. When I was really young I probably wanted to be a bull rider or a professional skateboarder. My dad said I’d be too tall for it and I wanted to prove him wrong.
Favorite off-field activity: Probably in this area it’s to go out on the Potomac River and fish. It’s the most relaxing thing in the world. The water is glass. You just fish and relax. That’s pretty nice.