Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz offered up a touching tribute to Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek on Sunday, upon learning of the TV legend's passing.
Schwartz, formerly the head coach of the Detroit Lions, credited Trebek and Jeopardy! with honing some of the skills he would later use on the sidelines.
Speaking with NBC Sports veteran NFL reporter Peter King, Schwartz on Sunday said the influence of Trebek's quick wit combined with the rapid-fire responses required to excel on the show prepared him for the fast-paced life in the NFL.
“Alex Trebek and Jeopardy! trained me to be a football coach,” Schwartz said.
“In football, as a play-caller, you’ve got to be very quick, you’ve got to enunciate the play well when you call it, you can’t make errors. Those are all things Alex was so good at. His command of the show and the contestants was incredible. You need that kind of command when you’re in charge of a team too.”
Schwartz explained that his affinity for Trebek and Jeopardy took off during his college years.
“When I was a sophomore, junior and senior at Georgetown [in 1986-89], every night after dinner, me and a big group, maybe six guys, would watch the show," he said. "Very smart guys. We were speed-readers, very competitive. It was a challenge to see who could blurt the answer out the fastest. You might know the answer, but if you don’t do it very fast, you’d lose. With my friends, if you were a little slow, you’d get steamrolled."
Schwartz, 54, played four years with the Hoyas as an undergraduate before pivoting to his coaching career. The Maryland native's first coaching job came as a graduate assistant with the Terrapins in 1989.
After his five-year run as head coach of the Lions concluded in 2013, Schwartz spent 2014 as defensive coordinator of the Bills. He then joined the Eagles in 2016, coaching the unit in Super Bowl LII.
Trebek, 80, passed away after a 20-month battle with pancreatic cancer. The native Canadian was a big fan of sports, which frequently appeared as a question topic on the show.
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