There are seven brothers and sisters, his mom, assorted aunts and uncles and cousins to whom he's not even sure if he has yet been introduced, all making the trip to watch Trotter play. It's a 170-mile jaunt from tiny Hooks, Tex. -- a onetime World War II munitions supply center on the Red River, where the population has dwindled to 3,000. The biggest regret for the third-year veteran, and a guy around whom coordinator Jim Johnson has designed one of the NFL's best young defenses, is that his father won't be among the vocal contingent in attendance.

The Colts' Mike Peterson took the starting weakside LB spot last year beacuse of an injury and never left the lineup. (Allsport)

Myra Trotter died just weeks after Jeremiah was selected in the third round of the 1998 draft.

"He's always with me," said Trotter, who once had to battle his dad to allow him to play football in high school. "That's the man who taught me all about hard work. No way would I have gotten to this point without the values he taught me. I'm glad he was with us long enough to see that I got drafted, and that the family would be taken care of really good. But I wish he was still here to see how well things are going now."

Indeed, things are going very well, thank you, for the young linebacker. In a season when there is the usual generous quota of potential "breakout" performers at the position, Trotter is this year's SportsLine.com selection as the linebacker most likely to make a quantum leap, not only on the field but also in terms of public profile.

At the weakside spot, we love Indianapolis second-year veteran Mike Peterson, who moved into the starting lineup in 1999 because of an injury and never surrendered the position. At strongside linebacker, the "breakout" choice is another second-year pro, Cleveland's Rahim Abdullah. Both players have bulked up for their sophomore campaigns, Abdullah by nearly 25 pounds, and will be even better in 2000 than they were as rookies.

Among the other young 'backers who were considered: Jamie Duncan, who inherits the middle spot in Tampa Bay manned so brilliantly by Hardy Nickerson in past seasons; fellow middle linebackers Wali Rainer of Cleveland and Denver's Al Wilson, both of whom were starters last season; Baltimore's Jamie Sharper, who is beginning to play himself out of the shadow of Peter Boulware; two guys with Simmons as a surname, Anthony Simmons in Seattle and Brian Simmons in Cincinnati; Warrick Holdman of Chicago, a potential double-digit sacker from the weakside spot; and first-time starters Joey Porter of Pittsburgh and Keith Newman of Buffalo.

Any of the players in this group could emulate the success of last year's "breakout" selection by SportsLine.com, weakside linebacker Donnie Edwards of Kansas City.

Given that Peterson and Abdullah play so much in space, their efforts likely will be more readily discernable. Look for the Colts to allow Peterson, who started the final 13 games in 1999 and ended up with 111 tackles, to blitz a bit more this season. The pumped-up Abdullah now is better equipped to play head-up on the tight end and to drop more effectively into coverage.

But if the Philadelphia defense is as good as some observers feel it is, and Trotter has become the player he is advertised to be, no young linebacker might progress as much this year. This is a key season for Trotter, 23, since even with two campaigns remaining on his original four-year, $1.21 million contract, Philadelphia officials have told agent Jimmy Sexton they like to work out a long-term extension.

The more tackles Trotter makes, the more zeroes that figure to be on the contract, whether it's with the Eagles or, should they renege, with another team when he becomes a free agent after the 2001 season. In his first season as a starter, Trotter led the Eagles with 202 tackles in 1999, a new franchise record. The skeptics who question whether he can repeat that performance don't know Jeremiah Trotter very well at all.

And certainly they have no idea about what fuels his passion to succeed.

"He's not a backward or slow kid by any means, but he came from a pretty rural area where they maybe were a little naïve about big cities and things," allowed John Pearce, former head coach at Stephen F. Austin, where Trotter landed when the bigger Texas universities somehow overlooked him as a prospect. "The one constant for him, on the field and off it, was hard work. And he has carried that through. I think, because of what his daddy instilled in him, he's afraid to shirk hard work, you know? He's a kid who doesn't mind paying the price."

When he was a youngster, Trotter would help his dad -- a tough, leathery Texan, who had already retired -- provide for the family by cleaning up felled trees. The two of them would chop the trees and sell the remnants for firewood, trucking it around Hooks and the surrounding area to families with fireplaces and ancient, wood-burning stoves.

Coaches at Hooks High School, who realized they had a diamond in the rough once Myra Trotter finally acquiesced to his son's wishes to play football, would drive Jeremiah home after practice. Most nights, remembered head coach Glenn Coen, there was a big floodlight on in the side yard, focused on a pile of uncut wood. After two hours of practice, and before he began his homework, Jeremiah would have to reduce that tall woodpile to marketable kindling.

The most tangible evidence of the hard work with his father is a scar that runs across Trotter's left hand, left by a chain saw accident. The most noticeable byproduct of the work ethic demonstrated by Trotter in the weight room at Stephen F. Austin and with the Eagles is an incredibly sculpted physique. While the 6-foot Trotter is a tad shorter than most teams like their middle linebackers, he is a 260-pound, squarish player with deceptive quickness.

Said Johnson: "He just loves to play the game. He's got a real passion for it, the will to succeed. And he's determined not to let anything or anybody stop him."

In college, Trotter's most devastating setback came in his sophomore season, when he blew out the anterior cruciate ligament and the medial collateral ligament of his left knee. Most weeks, he cried in the parking lot as the team bus departed, then headed to rehabilitation. A year later, after his junior season, he decided to petition for early entry into the draft. By that time, Myra Trotter was 64 years old and able to work only sporadically. Jeremiah knew what had to be done to take care of his family.

The day he was drafted, the 72nd player selected overall, is a memory overshadowed by the death of his father soon after. Myra Trotter was buried on a Saturday and Jeremiah reported to his first NFL minicamp a day later in a funk that continued virtually his entire rookie season. That year, he played in just eight contests and started none, with coach Ray Rhodes and coordinator Emmitt Thomas privately convinced they had made a mistake in the draft.

But last spring, Johnson and rookie head coach Andy Reid saw progress in Trotter during minicamps. The team released incumbent middle linebacker James Willis and allowed Trotter and '99 second-round pick Barry Gardner to compete for his starting job. The competition turned into no competition at all. A year later, Gardner is now the starter at weakside linebacker and Trotter is established in the middle.

While the coaches in the NFC East know all about Trotter, he remains relatively anonymous to even the most knowledgeable fans across the country. But all that could change this season. The Eagles might be a year or so removed from contending for a playoff spot, but Johnson's defense, which last year led the league in takeaways, should catapult him to stardom, just as it has free safety Brian Dawkins.

A player who makes tackles sideline to sideline, Trotter is about as inaptly named a player as there is in the league. He trots nowhere, in fact, sprinting full speed to the point of attack and usually ending up on the bottom of the pile.

Having learned the real-life definition of humility from his father, Jeremiah Trotter isn't about to make any outlandish predictions about where his career is headed. He does, however, have one simple individual goal for the coming season.

"I want to make so many tackles," he said, "that everyone is going to have to say, 'Hey, who is that No. 54 out there?' I want to be a player the other teams have to look out for."