July 7, 2022 • 24 mins
Wideout versus cornerback. Big brother versus little brother. In the end, it's Stefon and Trevon Diggs versus whatever comes. SI senior writer Alex Prewitt wrote the cover story about these two brothers who lost their father, helped each other grow up, and climbed the heights of the NFL, together.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Before we begin, a reminder to please rate and review
our show. It helps new listeners discover us and grow
the program. On this episode of Sports Illustrated Weekly, Stephen
and Trayvon Diggs have made their mother, Stephanie, very proud. Yes,
(00:20):
because they're each among the best at their positions in
the NFL, and because they had to make it to
the top without the guiding hand of their father, Aron,
who passed away when they were just boys. I'm senior
producer Dan Bloom, and I have senior writer Alex Pruett
with me today. He wrote our cover story about the
Diggs brothers for sis Strength issue, and their journey, although
(00:40):
paved with pain, forged an unshakable brotherly love that now
extends through generations. How's that for a Philly reference? Gonzalez
from Sports Illustrated and I Heart Radio. This is Sports
Illustrated Weekly. My name is Alex pruittt, senior writer at
(01:05):
Sports Illustrated. Today we're talking about cover story I did
for our Strength issue about a pair of brothers in
the NFL, Stefan and Trayvon Digs. Stefan is a All
Pro receiver for the Bills, and Trayvon is an All
Pro defensive back for the Cowboys. Stefan is this shipmying, shaking,
(01:27):
joking receiver. Well, that's how you become the best receiver
of the National Football League like he was last year.
Trayvon is kind of the smooth operator. He has this
natural receiving backgrounds, natural feel for tracking passes. So there
are times when he like gets an interception and you
think he's the receiver perfect, it's Trayvon ditch tell the sideline,
(01:51):
Nobody's gonna catch him. House call, Travo ditch pick six.
Stephen said, all manner of time since Randy Moss and
Chris Carter stats in Minnesota and then most famous for
the Minneapolis Miracles games, winn ass for Trayvon, Iinecky going
(02:22):
to keep the field and interception number eleven for Trayvon Dick.
I don't know if anyone could have predicted, even Stefan
the leap, that he was going to make a bagged
eleven interceptions more than any NFL player in forty years.
Trayvon Dick, staring right back into Heinrich's soul, knew exactly
(02:42):
what he was gonna do. In perfect position, hit the
Jets and comes up with number eleven on the season.
What a phenomenal year this young man has had. Not
necessarily unique to have a couple of brothers, or even
elite brothers in the NFL. I would see it with
the Watts, with the bossas we've seen him with the Mannings.
(03:04):
But never has it been so condensed to this like
single matchup, the single isolated matchup of receiver versus defensive back,
opposite positions of a matchup that I think, in some ways,
speaking as an only child from my vast experience, mirrors
the sibling rivalry itself. Right, you're out on an island.
It's kind of mono mono. So you've intrigued me with
(03:26):
your talk of only childhood as I am also an
only child. Did your being an only child have anything
to do with your interest in doing the story and
its conception? No? If anything, it made me think maybe
I shouldn't do this story. Maybe I should find someone
who actually knows what it feels like. Now, why did
you think that this story would fit in well with
(03:47):
the strength issue? Beyond their obvious strengths as football players.
Beneath that layer, I think there's and once you peel
it back, there's a lot more themes of strength that
crop up the theme of of iron sharp and iron
going up against each other in workouts and Madden and
pick up basketball and um, all these things they've done
(04:08):
throughout their childhood that kind of formed the foundation for
what they've built today. And then even deeper than that
is I think the strength of love, how their relationship
has evolved as they've expanded past just the tough love,
the kind of doggy dog mentality. These like really intense
(04:30):
battles where they're like running routes against each other at
their grandfather's memorial service. So back us up a step.
Who is the Diggs family? Where are they from? What
are they all about? Trayvon is the youngest of five
going on down the list around Jr. Porsche, Stephen, Marshawn,
and Trayvon. Stephan and Trayvon are the only two of
(04:52):
those five whose parents are Aaron Senior and Stephanie Diggs.
They grew up in various areas are various places around
the DC Beltway region, but largely Montgomery County. That's where
Trayvon went to high school of Public Wouten and then
later Private Avalon. Stefan went to very famous football powerhouse
school council. Best as I could tell, their origins and sports.
(05:13):
Passion for sports started with Aaron, especially football. It was
a big Cowboys fan, but it was definitely something for
all the boys to do. I mean, Stephanie recounted Saturdays
where they would show up to the Pop Warner Field
at nine am and not leave till like four or
something because Stefan, Marshawn, and Trayvon would all have games
in succession. And you know, Iran I think certainly had
a vision. There's I think a famous family story about
(05:34):
one Halloween Stefan was maybe five or something, Neron looks
at him as like, that kid's going to the NFL.
You would tell Stefan, you know you're going to get
bins full of college letters when you're older. And again
Stefan's like in grade school. But he would put in
the work with them. He would stop at a park
on the way home from school and run bleachers or
ducone drills. They weren't really like running routes against each
(05:55):
other until they were much older, but it was just
like a lot of conditioning, a lot of hard work.
Ethic kind of instilled this belief that if you work
hard enough, you can achieve your goals. So now we
have to talk about the tragic event that happens to
this family, Iran's passing. How does that take place? And
how old were the boys when this happened? Yes, Iran Sr.
(06:18):
Died of congestive heart failure. He had been at out
of the hospital for for half a decade and passed
in January. Stephen was fourteen, Trayvon was nine. Yeah, so
I am having this conversation with you at age thirty eight,
and Iran Senior died at age thirty nine, and he
(06:39):
had kids, and I have a kid and I have
another on the way, and so damn this particular detail
really hit me hard, and I really feel in that
moment for this family. Can you just talk about what
it was like to lose Iran? Yeah? Do you want
to talk about how you feel? First though? How I
(07:00):
feel how you fell reading that? Oh my god? Well,
I love my son so much, and I also want
to pour every ounce of knowledge and effort and energy
that I can muster into his life and into his
soon to be brother's life. Our next child is going
to be a boy as well. So yeah, so I
(07:21):
see so much in like what's coming in my own
life in your story, And it is both extremely sad
to think that they lost this pillar human flawed perhaps
as we all are, imperfect in their way of loving,
but obviously such an important pillar in these really impressive
people's lives. So to think about myself as a Iran,
(07:44):
it's like, wow, how sad would it be to lose
my position within this beautiful family structure? And yet how
powerful it is to be able to transmit lessons that
stay with you even well beyond your own death. Well said,
I don't have kids myself, so it's again like that's
another moment where although I did, I lost my dad
(08:06):
two years ago, so I was, oh, wow, I was
able to connect to them a little bit. I'm sorry
to hear that. Yeah, I remember. We were talking about
just like little things that we do that we picked
up from our parents that you don't even recognize. And
Stefan like had just spit out the car and he
would with car window and he was like, oh yeah,
like spitting out the car. My dad used to do
that all the time. Where were we um describing a
(08:30):
RAN's passing and how it affected the family and how
they responded Stefan. He emphasized what you said, which was
the idea of lessons during his life. Iran sr. Was
the type to really teach you stuff. But at that
time it was a very rocky road because that was
around the time we lost our father or whatever, and like,
(08:51):
you know, you're kind of trying to find your way,
find yourself. It's hard to be a man when you
still the kid, I'm saying, when you're trying to be
a man and trying to find with you know, damn
their feedsure stuff. I'm trying to like start of fitting
for yourself because my mom God best her, she was
superwoman and dude everything she could. But you know, you
try to start figuring it out for yourself and for
your younger servants. Stephanie has worked various jobs for Amtrak
(09:17):
for decades now. When the boys were younger, she would
work on basically East Coast Corridor trains along night and
you have Corridor. Occasionally Stefan would tag along their stories
about him pretending to run routes in the aisles and
like joking past strangers. You know, they had extremely strong
(09:39):
parental influences, and not just Stephanie but Porsche in the house.
But as Porscha goes away to college and Stephanie's again
working these overnight, long overnight shifts on amtrack, um, the
boys are often at home together having to figure it out,
and um, you know, early on they said this manifest
in Stefan taking some liberties with what people would tell them,
(09:59):
which was that he was the quote unquote man of
the house. Now, so you know, one day, Stephanie comes
home from work and finds Travon on the couch hanging
out and he was like, what stuff, I told me
he didn't have to go to school today. But again,
you know, just it's working progress, right, and stuff On
himself is only just a teenager having to grow up
(10:20):
way too fast here, So tough conversations but also empathy
led to them being in a much better place and
this kind of protective relationship. Forming he did good in school.
You know, he had a hall of it. I say,
tea score he blew it out. It wasn't I to
a C T S. Yeah, he blew it out the
water like that was something that everybody was taking concerned about.
(10:41):
And I was like, and I tell you super smart,
Like I ain't concerned at all. He blew it out
the water. We both dealt with like some serious battles
as far as like the death of our father. Being young.
I was young, but he was younger than me, so
I can't imagine how we had to deal with it.
And you know how we fought through it kind of
like together, like going out how to be without a
dad and kind of keep pushing forward. Strength comes from
(11:03):
many different areas, you know, it used to come from pain.
You kind of got to thrive off of that. Stefan
Diggs was a huge star at Good Council of High School, which,
as you noted, is a football powerhouse in its own right.
And Trayvon described those games when he first started. I
(11:24):
just know the brother really really good at football in
high school. I used to saying, so watch him. I
used to go to all his games. You know, his
games to be packed the council so pack like a
college game. But it was just like, I hate my brother,
really really good at football. He's doing something right. I
think that was a really eye opening period for Trayvon.
That's Trayvon put it. Seeing the bins of recruiting letters
(11:47):
that Aaron predicted Stefan would get. Seeing these you know,
towers of bins in the family dining room. He remembers
fans lining up for Stefan's autograph after games, and like Tupper,
wears of fresh baked cookies that they brought for him.
Maybe there's something to this, Maybe this is like a
legit path. So as is revealed in your story, Stefon
(12:12):
Diggs now views his decision to attend the University of
Maryland perhaps as a misstep. Were you that that's gonna
be the biggest thing to come out of this? Probably right?
Were you struck by his frankness and discussing this particular topic,
and how do you analyze his statement? What do you
think he's right? At this point, I'm not really struck
(12:34):
by Stefan's frankness. Talk to him enough, he says what's
on his mind. It was an explicit question I asked.
I think the way I phrase it was would you
have gone to Maryland if you were an only child?
And his answer was something like no. And he went
on to expeld briefly that that was just from a
(12:55):
development perspective, He didn't feel as prepared for the next level,
howle as he thought he would have been if he
had gone somewhere else. Why was Stephen's time at Maryland
so tumultuous. Yeah, they got down to their fifth quarterback
that year because three of the first four toward their
A c l s and the fourth I think had
a season ending Liz Frank or something like that. Their
(13:17):
fifth quarterback was a true freshman linebacker who was supposed
to red shirt that year, but they were just so
short on bodies that he played his high school position
a quarterback for the last like two thirds of the season,
and then from their stuff on broke his leg, he
lascerated his kidney, and then again just kind of a
period of transition Maryland of just kind of mediocre results
(13:40):
and him not showcase being showcased maybe perhaps the way
he wanted to, And I think all of which kind
of conspired to take his draft stock. That said, you
can't really put this in a vacuum, right because it's
not just about his football career. It was about the
people back home. He felt such an obligation to be
close spy, to be able to go watch Trayvon's games
(14:02):
in person, to be able to have Trayvon be with him,
to continue that relationship in a way. But also giving
Trayvon the up close look that he needed too one
day to do it on his own. Before we sat
down to lunch, we had some time before the meal came,
and Stefan was like, let's just go. Let's just drive
over to Maryland and see who's there, and you swing
(14:23):
by the football office. Like he's famous enough he can
just do that and like park on the curb, but
no one gives him a ticket. But on the way
there they got to talking about how you know, they
started reminiscing about, Oh, yeah, that's where we would go
get Italian nice, and that's where we would you know,
that's where we had a party, and that's where the
floor almost caved in, and Trayvon was basically like, yeah,
I like lived here. Trayvon said again he got to
experience a lot of college, a lot of that life,
(14:45):
not just with Stefan, but with all of Stefan's teammates who,
because he was Stefan's brother, were looking after him or
making sure that he wasn't getting in trouble. I used
to be at every day every weekend in college and college.
I'm at high school and now ninth grade, I'm going
to your empty and I say, like, I feel like
that probably kept me out of the troupe, being up
(15:06):
there with him, you know, being right there with him
and he looking after me. You know, he got his
teammates right there look at making strong straight. So you know,
it's just everything worked out as supposed to. And I
got to see a lot of stuff that a lot
of people, you know, my age, didn't get to see,
you know, and I never may know like bad decisions
on bad choices, you know, I'm just watching, just just
watching and learning. Like they say, like it takes a
(15:28):
village to raise a kid, and like so many people
played a part like and kind of like keeping him
like straight, Like I never had no concerned about him
ever being okay, especially at the crib because like trying
to be that like father figure that I didn't really
have to do it by myself, like I had like
basically a village of people making sure little bro was good. Trayvon,
(15:53):
in terms of college selection, again immediately learned from his
brother's quote unquote mistake and goes to Alabama, doesn't try
full and as as soon as he gets the offer
from Alabama, he's like done deal. Regardless of how it
ended up going for him, which was also tumultuous in
his own right. He saw that opportunity, he seized it. Yeah,
not necessarily only learning from the mistakes, but just wanting
(16:16):
to do better regardless, wanting to carve your own path
in a way too. And you know, I think that's
why some of what you mentioned. His position changed to
defensive back after playing it a safety returner receiver as
a true freshman. Nick Saban calls him in his office
and says, you're moving a cornerback, and Trayvon calls Stephan
(16:37):
in tears because he's so upset. I called him crime.
He wanted me to play DVM say, oh, no, we
ain't doing that now. I said, I get to work, right,
Let's go. That's that's what it is like. Like He's like, man,
I'm not sorry to hear all that. Crun, Let's get
to work. Ultimately, it was also a blessing in disguise
(16:59):
for Trayvon to switch positions, to play a different position,
to not necessarily be linked to his brother all the
way through college either, to be able to kind of
spread his wings and find his own path. The most
touching moment of this interview for me was when you
asked Stefon Digs about the concept of tough love, and
then he basically pivoted and said, yeah, tough love is great,
(17:22):
But when they were younger, tough love was was what
they knew, and tough love was what Stefan tried to
pass along to Traybon after their dad passed as well,
all these scenes of him working Trayvon super hard, taking him,
dragging him out of bed to go run routes and
run sprints and stuff. But that tough love, Like if
(17:44):
I could tell anybody life tough love, like I supported,
like I'm a hundred percent behind it, but I also
feel like a certain level of love like not necessarily
coddling because I'm not a fan of coddlm and he
knows like I ain't here to I should fall on
the ground to patch your back, like I'm gonna tell
you get up what I'm saying. But at the same time,
(18:05):
like it's okay to testimony you love them, it's okay
to teest somebody that like what I'm saying, Like if
you heard I got you like what I'm saying. We
always just always naturally had each other back because we
probably family because that's my brother. But it's okay to
testimony that you're proud of them, Like I'm saying, some
people need to hear that because you'll be on this
crash course of always chasing what's next. I need to
(18:26):
do more. I need to do more, like I had
to learn that, I'm saying, because you'd be so hard
on the person that you don't know what they can endure,
what they can do with an they can't break at
any given point. So at one point I wanted him
to know that I was proud of him. I love
him and I appreciate them, and that goes a long way,
especially considering like everything that we've been through individually, not
(18:47):
just together, but individually. Boy, Like, I'm proud of you. Boy,
you can't a long way. I used to wash and
wipe your assay. I'm just I'm saying, I love you.
Am I right in reading that Stefan just signed a
contract extension? He did? Yeah, And isn't Trayvon up for
(19:08):
a big today? Like not to be crass about it,
but you know they've been monetarily successful as well. Oh
absolutely absolutely. Um the term of generational wealth, of taking
care of Stephanie of taking care of their kids comes
up a lot, and Stefans said, kind of tongue in cheek, well,
thanks goodness, there's two of us to do it. But yeah,
you know, this past offseason, a lot of movement, a
(19:28):
lot of money given out to receivers, and Buffalo locked
him up with an extension that guarantees him seventy million
over the next uh six seasons. And yeah, Trayvon's bag
will follow soon enough. I'm sure. It used to be
a big topic of conversation among the family about if
they were ever going to play together. I asked Stephon
that and he he kind of pooh pooted and said, well, maybe,
but not after my extension. And I don't think Trayvon
(19:50):
is ever gonna leave Dallas. But then I asked Trayvon
that on a call a couple of days later, and
he was like, well, I don't know. Never said never,
So there's always the proball I suppose. Yeah. Well that
was was the start in its own way. When they
matched up against each other. Leave it to Kirk Cousins
to ruin the moment. Has checked in on offense, Stefan
is in on defense. These two went out of the
(20:11):
skills competition, and now they'll go at it here on
the Pro Bowl. Now it's on Kirk to to recognize
it and say, Okay, I gotta throw the ball over there.
I'm gonna predict a play their battles top of your
scream because goes to Kamara. I love Stefan, locked him
(20:34):
down right there, throw it to him, curtain. So how
does their mom, How does Stephanie feel about their success?
One can guess she's pretty happy. Absolutely, she's certainly I
think looking forward to the day that they match up
against each other, and I believe they're scheduled to face
next year and three. So I asked Stephanie what our
(20:55):
hopes are for when Stefan and Trayvon play for inevitably
play for the first time, and she said she's getting
two jerseys. She's gonna set them together. And then she said,
I'm hoping tray shuts down Stefana. Stefan thinks it's never
gonna happen. He's got that big brother syndrome. But I mean,
on a more serious note, it must be profoundly satisfying
for her to look at her family now after taking
(21:18):
such a hard blow at such a young age. Yeah,
and I think she's able to look forward and feel
something similar to when it comes to her grandkids. Um
Stefan's daughter Nova and Trayvon's son Aiden are pretty much
total opposites, but also exactly like their uncles. Nova's is
very reserved and shy, like Trayvon is as anyone who's
(21:38):
seen hard knocks nos Aiden is not afraid to march
up to anyone and tell him exactly what's on his mind. Hi,
how you doing? What's your name? Aiden? Your patro? I
mean not your death Plasco. So good to see you.
(22:05):
You can't keep giving me and Patrick confused. Stephanie's played
an incredibly impactful role in shaping both these brothers as fathers,
but also as a grandmother and being in their lives.
And not too long ago there was just these incredibly wholesome,
cute videos of Stephanie working out with Aidan and Nova
at the gym that Stefan and Trayvon work out at
(22:27):
in the DC area. That's where where we shot some
footage for our shoot as well. Yeah you go, you
did job? Would you say? Here you go? Good job? Grandmother,
granddaughter and grandson all like slamming medicine balls on the
ground and like waddling with dumbells around the track, and
(22:48):
it's just it's so cute wholesome to see, not just
again like generational accumulation of wealth, but generational accumulation of
love as well. Alex Pruitt, thank you for such a
beautiful story and I appreciate your work. Thanks for being here,
appreciate you, Thanks for having me. Alex PRUITTT is a
(23:10):
senior writer for Sports Illustrated. You can find a link
to his article about the Diggs brothers in our show notes.
Thanks for listening, and as a reminder, please rate and
review our show wherever you listen to it. It helps
people find us. Sports Illustrated Weekly is a production of
Sports Illustrated and I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
(23:32):
or wherever you get your favorite shows. And for more
of Sports Illustrated, the best stories and podcasts, visit SI
dot com. This episode of Sports Illustrated Weekly was produced
by Jessica Yarmaski, Jordan Rizzieri, and Isaac Lee, who is
also our sound engineer. Our senior producer is Dan Bloom.
That's me our executive producers are Scott Brody and John Gonzalez,
(23:52):
who we hope is having a wonderful vacation. Our theme
song is by Nolan Schneider and if you've stuck around
for this long, we to you with this. I thought
the most touching moment of the whole day was when
Stefan wiped the booker off of tray Bon's nose, also
touching literally, Yes, I digress, Let's not go there. U
Before we begin, a reminder to please rate and review
our show. It helps new listeners discover us and grow
the program. On this episode of Sports Illustrated Weekly, Stephen
and Trayvon Diggs have made their mother, Stephanie, very proud. Yes,
(00:20):
because they're each among the best at their positions in
the NFL, and because they had to make it to
the top without the guiding hand of their father, Aron,
who passed away when they were just boys. I'm senior
producer Dan Bloom, and I have senior writer Alex Pruett
with me today. He wrote our cover story about the
Diggs brothers for sis Strength issue, and their journey, although
(00:40):
paved with pain, forged an unshakable brotherly love that now
extends through generations. How's that for a Philly reference? Gonzalez
from Sports Illustrated and I Heart Radio. This is Sports
Illustrated Weekly. My name is Alex pruittt, senior writer at
(01:05):
Sports Illustrated. Today we're talking about cover story I did
for our Strength issue about a pair of brothers in
the NFL, Stefan and Trayvon Digs. Stefan is a All
Pro receiver for the Bills, and Trayvon is an All
Pro defensive back for the Cowboys. Stefan is this shipmying, shaking,
(01:27):
joking receiver. Well, that's how you become the best receiver
of the National Football League like he was last year.
Trayvon is kind of the smooth operator. He has this
natural receiving backgrounds, natural feel for tracking passes. So there
are times when he like gets an interception and you
think he's the receiver perfect, it's Trayvon ditch tell the sideline,
(01:51):
Nobody's gonna catch him. House call, Travo ditch pick six.
Stephen said, all manner of time since Randy Moss and
Chris Carter stats in Minnesota and then most famous for
the Minneapolis Miracles games, winn ass for Trayvon, Iinecky going
(02:22):
to keep the field and interception number eleven for Trayvon Dick.
I don't know if anyone could have predicted, even Stefan
the leap, that he was going to make a bagged
eleven interceptions more than any NFL player in forty years.
Trayvon Dick, staring right back into Heinrich's soul, knew exactly
(02:42):
what he was gonna do. In perfect position, hit the
Jets and comes up with number eleven on the season.
What a phenomenal year this young man has had. Not
necessarily unique to have a couple of brothers, or even
elite brothers in the NFL. I would see it with
the Watts, with the bossas we've seen him with the Mannings.
(03:04):
But never has it been so condensed to this like
single matchup, the single isolated matchup of receiver versus defensive back,
opposite positions of a matchup that I think, in some ways,
speaking as an only child from my vast experience, mirrors
the sibling rivalry itself. Right, you're out on an island.
It's kind of mono mono. So you've intrigued me with
(03:26):
your talk of only childhood as I am also an
only child. Did your being an only child have anything
to do with your interest in doing the story and
its conception? No? If anything, it made me think maybe
I shouldn't do this story. Maybe I should find someone
who actually knows what it feels like. Now, why did
you think that this story would fit in well with
(03:47):
the strength issue? Beyond their obvious strengths as football players.
Beneath that layer, I think there's and once you peel
it back, there's a lot more themes of strength that
crop up the theme of of iron sharp and iron
going up against each other in workouts and Madden and
pick up basketball and um, all these things they've done
(04:08):
throughout their childhood that kind of formed the foundation for
what they've built today. And then even deeper than that
is I think the strength of love, how their relationship
has evolved as they've expanded past just the tough love,
the kind of doggy dog mentality. These like really intense
(04:30):
battles where they're like running routes against each other at
their grandfather's memorial service. So back us up a step.
Who is the Diggs family? Where are they from? What
are they all about? Trayvon is the youngest of five
going on down the list around Jr. Porsche, Stephen, Marshawn,
and Trayvon. Stephan and Trayvon are the only two of
(04:52):
those five whose parents are Aaron Senior and Stephanie Diggs.
They grew up in various areas are various places around
the DC Beltway region, but largely Montgomery County. That's where
Trayvon went to high school of Public Wouten and then
later Private Avalon. Stefan went to very famous football powerhouse
school council. Best as I could tell, their origins and sports.
(05:13):
Passion for sports started with Aaron, especially football. It was
a big Cowboys fan, but it was definitely something for
all the boys to do. I mean, Stephanie recounted Saturdays
where they would show up to the Pop Warner Field
at nine am and not leave till like four or
something because Stefan, Marshawn, and Trayvon would all have games
in succession. And you know, Iran I think certainly had
a vision. There's I think a famous family story about
(05:34):
one Halloween Stefan was maybe five or something, Neron looks
at him as like, that kid's going to the NFL.
You would tell Stefan, you know you're going to get
bins full of college letters when you're older. And again
Stefan's like in grade school. But he would put in
the work with them. He would stop at a park
on the way home from school and run bleachers or
ducone drills. They weren't really like running routes against each
(05:55):
other until they were much older, but it was just
like a lot of conditioning, a lot of hard work.
Ethic kind of instilled this belief that if you work
hard enough, you can achieve your goals. So now we
have to talk about the tragic event that happens to
this family, Iran's passing. How does that take place? And
how old were the boys when this happened? Yes, Iran Sr.
(06:18):
Died of congestive heart failure. He had been at out
of the hospital for for half a decade and passed
in January. Stephen was fourteen, Trayvon was nine. Yeah, so
I am having this conversation with you at age thirty eight,
and Iran Senior died at age thirty nine, and he
(06:39):
had kids, and I have a kid and I have
another on the way, and so damn this particular detail
really hit me hard, and I really feel in that
moment for this family. Can you just talk about what
it was like to lose Iran? Yeah? Do you want
to talk about how you feel? First though? How I
(07:00):
feel how you fell reading that? Oh my god? Well,
I love my son so much, and I also want
to pour every ounce of knowledge and effort and energy
that I can muster into his life and into his
soon to be brother's life. Our next child is going
to be a boy as well. So yeah, so I
(07:21):
see so much in like what's coming in my own
life in your story, And it is both extremely sad
to think that they lost this pillar human flawed perhaps
as we all are, imperfect in their way of loving,
but obviously such an important pillar in these really impressive
people's lives. So to think about myself as a Iran,
(07:44):
it's like, wow, how sad would it be to lose
my position within this beautiful family structure? And yet how
powerful it is to be able to transmit lessons that
stay with you even well beyond your own death. Well said,
I don't have kids myself, so it's again like that's
another moment where although I did, I lost my dad
(08:06):
two years ago, so I was, oh, wow, I was
able to connect to them a little bit. I'm sorry
to hear that. Yeah, I remember. We were talking about
just like little things that we do that we picked
up from our parents that you don't even recognize. And
Stefan like had just spit out the car and he
would with car window and he was like, oh yeah,
like spitting out the car. My dad used to do
that all the time. Where were we um describing a
(08:30):
RAN's passing and how it affected the family and how
they responded Stefan. He emphasized what you said, which was
the idea of lessons during his life. Iran sr. Was
the type to really teach you stuff. But at that
time it was a very rocky road because that was
around the time we lost our father or whatever, and like,
(08:51):
you know, you're kind of trying to find your way,
find yourself. It's hard to be a man when you
still the kid, I'm saying, when you're trying to be
a man and trying to find with you know, damn
their feedsure stuff. I'm trying to like start of fitting
for yourself because my mom God best her, she was
superwoman and dude everything she could. But you know, you
try to start figuring it out for yourself and for
your younger servants. Stephanie has worked various jobs for Amtrak
(09:17):
for decades now. When the boys were younger, she would
work on basically East Coast Corridor trains along night and
you have Corridor. Occasionally Stefan would tag along their stories
about him pretending to run routes in the aisles and
like joking past strangers. You know, they had extremely strong
(09:39):
parental influences, and not just Stephanie but Porsche in the house.
But as Porscha goes away to college and Stephanie's again
working these overnight, long overnight shifts on amtrack, um, the
boys are often at home together having to figure it out,
and um, you know, early on they said this manifest
in Stefan taking some liberties with what people would tell them,
(09:59):
which was that he was the quote unquote man of
the house. Now, so you know, one day, Stephanie comes
home from work and finds Travon on the couch hanging
out and he was like, what stuff, I told me
he didn't have to go to school today. But again,
you know, just it's working progress, right, and stuff On
himself is only just a teenager having to grow up
(10:20):
way too fast here, So tough conversations but also empathy
led to them being in a much better place and
this kind of protective relationship. Forming he did good in school.
You know, he had a hall of it. I say,
tea score he blew it out. It wasn't I to
a C T S. Yeah, he blew it out the
water like that was something that everybody was taking concerned about.
(10:41):
And I was like, and I tell you super smart,
Like I ain't concerned at all. He blew it out
the water. We both dealt with like some serious battles
as far as like the death of our father. Being young.
I was young, but he was younger than me, so
I can't imagine how we had to deal with it.
And you know how we fought through it kind of
like together, like going out how to be without a
dad and kind of keep pushing forward. Strength comes from
(11:03):
many different areas, you know, it used to come from pain.
You kind of got to thrive off of that. Stefan
Diggs was a huge star at Good Council of High School, which,
as you noted, is a football powerhouse in its own right.
And Trayvon described those games when he first started. I
(11:24):
just know the brother really really good at football in
high school. I used to saying, so watch him. I
used to go to all his games. You know, his
games to be packed the council so pack like a
college game. But it was just like, I hate my brother,
really really good at football. He's doing something right. I
think that was a really eye opening period for Trayvon.
That's Trayvon put it. Seeing the bins of recruiting letters
(11:47):
that Aaron predicted Stefan would get. Seeing these you know,
towers of bins in the family dining room. He remembers
fans lining up for Stefan's autograph after games, and like Tupper,
wears of fresh baked cookies that they brought for him.
Maybe there's something to this, Maybe this is like a
legit path. So as is revealed in your story, Stefon
(12:12):
Diggs now views his decision to attend the University of
Maryland perhaps as a misstep. Were you that that's gonna
be the biggest thing to come out of this? Probably right?
Were you struck by his frankness and discussing this particular topic,
and how do you analyze his statement? What do you
think he's right? At this point, I'm not really struck
(12:34):
by Stefan's frankness. Talk to him enough, he says what's
on his mind. It was an explicit question I asked.
I think the way I phrase it was would you
have gone to Maryland if you were an only child?
And his answer was something like no. And he went
on to expeld briefly that that was just from a
(12:55):
development perspective, He didn't feel as prepared for the next level,
howle as he thought he would have been if he
had gone somewhere else. Why was Stephen's time at Maryland
so tumultuous. Yeah, they got down to their fifth quarterback
that year because three of the first four toward their
A c l s and the fourth I think had
a season ending Liz Frank or something like that. Their
(13:17):
fifth quarterback was a true freshman linebacker who was supposed
to red shirt that year, but they were just so
short on bodies that he played his high school position
a quarterback for the last like two thirds of the season,
and then from their stuff on broke his leg, he
lascerated his kidney, and then again just kind of a
period of transition Maryland of just kind of mediocre results
(13:40):
and him not showcase being showcased maybe perhaps the way
he wanted to, And I think all of which kind
of conspired to take his draft stock. That said, you
can't really put this in a vacuum, right because it's
not just about his football career. It was about the
people back home. He felt such an obligation to be
close spy, to be able to go watch Trayvon's games
(14:02):
in person, to be able to have Trayvon be with him,
to continue that relationship in a way. But also giving
Trayvon the up close look that he needed too one
day to do it on his own. Before we sat
down to lunch, we had some time before the meal came,
and Stefan was like, let's just go. Let's just drive
over to Maryland and see who's there, and you swing
(14:23):
by the football office. Like he's famous enough he can
just do that and like park on the curb, but
no one gives him a ticket. But on the way
there they got to talking about how you know, they
started reminiscing about, Oh, yeah, that's where we would go
get Italian nice, and that's where we would you know,
that's where we had a party, and that's where the
floor almost caved in, and Trayvon was basically like, yeah,
I like lived here. Trayvon said again he got to
experience a lot of college, a lot of that life,
(14:45):
not just with Stefan, but with all of Stefan's teammates who,
because he was Stefan's brother, were looking after him or
making sure that he wasn't getting in trouble. I used
to be at every day every weekend in college and college.
I'm at high school and now ninth grade, I'm going
to your empty and I say, like, I feel like
that probably kept me out of the troupe, being up
(15:06):
there with him, you know, being right there with him
and he looking after me. You know, he got his
teammates right there look at making strong straight. So you know,
it's just everything worked out as supposed to. And I
got to see a lot of stuff that a lot
of people, you know, my age, didn't get to see,
you know, and I never may know like bad decisions
on bad choices, you know, I'm just watching, just just
watching and learning. Like they say, like it takes a
(15:28):
village to raise a kid, and like so many people
played a part like and kind of like keeping him
like straight, Like I never had no concerned about him
ever being okay, especially at the crib because like trying
to be that like father figure that I didn't really
have to do it by myself, like I had like
basically a village of people making sure little bro was good. Trayvon,
(15:53):
in terms of college selection, again immediately learned from his
brother's quote unquote mistake and goes to Alabama, doesn't try
full and as as soon as he gets the offer
from Alabama, he's like done deal. Regardless of how it
ended up going for him, which was also tumultuous in
his own right. He saw that opportunity, he seized it. Yeah,
not necessarily only learning from the mistakes, but just wanting
(16:16):
to do better regardless, wanting to carve your own path
in a way too. And you know, I think that's
why some of what you mentioned. His position changed to
defensive back after playing it a safety returner receiver as
a true freshman. Nick Saban calls him in his office
and says, you're moving a cornerback, and Trayvon calls Stephan
(16:37):
in tears because he's so upset. I called him crime.
He wanted me to play DVM say, oh, no, we
ain't doing that now. I said, I get to work, right,
Let's go. That's that's what it is like. Like He's like, man,
I'm not sorry to hear all that. Crun, Let's get
to work. Ultimately, it was also a blessing in disguise
(16:59):
for Trayvon to switch positions, to play a different position,
to not necessarily be linked to his brother all the
way through college either, to be able to kind of
spread his wings and find his own path. The most
touching moment of this interview for me was when you
asked Stefon Digs about the concept of tough love, and
then he basically pivoted and said, yeah, tough love is great,
(17:22):
But when they were younger, tough love was was what
they knew, and tough love was what Stefan tried to
pass along to Traybon after their dad passed as well,
all these scenes of him working Trayvon super hard, taking him,
dragging him out of bed to go run routes and
run sprints and stuff. But that tough love, Like if
(17:44):
I could tell anybody life tough love, like I supported,
like I'm a hundred percent behind it, but I also
feel like a certain level of love like not necessarily
coddling because I'm not a fan of coddlm and he
knows like I ain't here to I should fall on
the ground to patch your back, like I'm gonna tell
you get up what I'm saying. But at the same time,
(18:05):
like it's okay to testimony you love them, it's okay
to teest somebody that like what I'm saying, Like if
you heard I got you like what I'm saying. We
always just always naturally had each other back because we
probably family because that's my brother. But it's okay to
testimony that you're proud of them, Like I'm saying, some
people need to hear that because you'll be on this
crash course of always chasing what's next. I need to
(18:26):
do more. I need to do more, like I had
to learn that, I'm saying, because you'd be so hard
on the person that you don't know what they can endure,
what they can do with an they can't break at
any given point. So at one point I wanted him
to know that I was proud of him. I love
him and I appreciate them, and that goes a long way,
especially considering like everything that we've been through individually, not
(18:47):
just together, but individually. Boy, Like, I'm proud of you. Boy,
you can't a long way. I used to wash and
wipe your assay. I'm just I'm saying, I love you.
Am I right in reading that Stefan just signed a
contract extension? He did? Yeah, And isn't Trayvon up for
(19:08):
a big today? Like not to be crass about it,
but you know they've been monetarily successful as well. Oh
absolutely absolutely. Um the term of generational wealth, of taking
care of Stephanie of taking care of their kids comes
up a lot, and Stefans said, kind of tongue in cheek, well,
thanks goodness, there's two of us to do it. But yeah,
you know, this past offseason, a lot of movement, a
(19:28):
lot of money given out to receivers, and Buffalo locked
him up with an extension that guarantees him seventy million
over the next uh six seasons. And yeah, Trayvon's bag
will follow soon enough. I'm sure. It used to be
a big topic of conversation among the family about if
they were ever going to play together. I asked Stephon
that and he he kind of pooh pooted and said, well, maybe,
but not after my extension. And I don't think Trayvon
(19:50):
is ever gonna leave Dallas. But then I asked Trayvon
that on a call a couple of days later, and
he was like, well, I don't know. Never said never,
So there's always the proball I suppose. Yeah. Well that
was was the start in its own way. When they
matched up against each other. Leave it to Kirk Cousins
to ruin the moment. Has checked in on offense, Stefan
is in on defense. These two went out of the
(20:11):
skills competition, and now they'll go at it here on
the Pro Bowl. Now it's on Kirk to to recognize
it and say, Okay, I gotta throw the ball over there.
I'm gonna predict a play their battles top of your
scream because goes to Kamara. I love Stefan, locked him
(20:34):
down right there, throw it to him, curtain. So how
does their mom, How does Stephanie feel about their success?
One can guess she's pretty happy. Absolutely, she's certainly I
think looking forward to the day that they match up
against each other, and I believe they're scheduled to face
next year and three. So I asked Stephanie what our
(20:55):
hopes are for when Stefan and Trayvon play for inevitably
play for the first time, and she said she's getting
two jerseys. She's gonna set them together. And then she said,
I'm hoping tray shuts down Stefana. Stefan thinks it's never
gonna happen. He's got that big brother syndrome. But I mean,
on a more serious note, it must be profoundly satisfying
for her to look at her family now after taking
(21:18):
such a hard blow at such a young age. Yeah,
and I think she's able to look forward and feel
something similar to when it comes to her grandkids. Um
Stefan's daughter Nova and Trayvon's son Aiden are pretty much
total opposites, but also exactly like their uncles. Nova's is
very reserved and shy, like Trayvon is as anyone who's
(21:38):
seen hard knocks nos Aiden is not afraid to march
up to anyone and tell him exactly what's on his mind. Hi,
how you doing? What's your name? Aiden? Your patro? I
mean not your death Plasco. So good to see you.
(22:05):
You can't keep giving me and Patrick confused. Stephanie's played
an incredibly impactful role in shaping both these brothers as fathers,
but also as a grandmother and being in their lives.
And not too long ago there was just these incredibly wholesome,
cute videos of Stephanie working out with Aidan and Nova
at the gym that Stefan and Trayvon work out at
(22:27):
in the DC area. That's where where we shot some
footage for our shoot as well. Yeah you go, you
did job? Would you say? Here you go? Good job? Grandmother,
granddaughter and grandson all like slamming medicine balls on the
ground and like waddling with dumbells around the track, and
(22:48):
it's just it's so cute wholesome to see, not just
again like generational accumulation of wealth, but generational accumulation of
love as well. Alex Pruitt, thank you for such a
beautiful story and I appreciate your work. Thanks for being here,
appreciate you, Thanks for having me. Alex PRUITTT is a
(23:10):
senior writer for Sports Illustrated. You can find a link
to his article about the Diggs brothers in our show notes.
Thanks for listening, and as a reminder, please rate and
review our show wherever you listen to it. It helps
people find us. Sports Illustrated Weekly is a production of
Sports Illustrated and I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
(23:32):
or wherever you get your favorite shows. And for more
of Sports Illustrated, the best stories and podcasts, visit SI
dot com. This episode of Sports Illustrated Weekly was produced
by Jessica Yarmaski, Jordan Rizzieri, and Isaac Lee, who is
also our sound engineer. Our senior producer is Dan Bloom.
That's me our executive producers are Scott Brody and John Gonzalez,
(23:52):
who we hope is having a wonderful vacation. Our theme
song is by Nolan Schneider and if you've stuck around
for this long, we to you with this. I thought
the most touching moment of the whole day was when
Stefan wiped the booker off of tray Bon's nose, also
touching literally, Yes, I digress, Let's not go there. U
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