The All-Pro quarterback sits down with Boardroom to discuss his extension in Jacksonville, learning from Dabo, modeling for American Eagle, and more.
Cameras flashed for Trevor Lawrence long before the Jacksonville Jaguars said cheese.
The $275 million man in Northeast Florida has been the subject of public attention since his sophomore season in high school when he threw for 3,655 yards and 43 touchdowns. Fall after fall, Lawrence has risen when it matters most, making a mark at each level every autumn.
Since graduating high school as one of the best passing prospects ever and achieving championship glory in college at Clemson, Lawrence has felt the impact of both back-to-school season and fall football. In that spirit, American Eagle has handpicked Lawrence as a model for its Live Your Life campaign.
Starring alongside the likes of Coco Gauff, Kristine Froseth, and Nikki Rodriguez, Lawrence leads a company campaign set on rebranding the $4.2 billion clothier. It’s an exposure play that makes sense. The helmeted hero will see his face appear on banners at malls across America, in an immersive experience in NYC, on 3D billboards, and more.
Ahead of training camp in Jacksonville, Boardroom caught up with the All-Pro QB to hear about his modeling work with AE, the class of quarterbacks taking the NFL by storm, and how he approaches building his brand beyond football.
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Ian Stonebrook: How did the partnership with American Eagle come about?
Trevor Lawrence: My marketing reps got approached about it a few months ago. American Eagle is a brand I’ve known about since I was a kid, I used to wear it. I feel like they’ve revamped over the last year and I really like their clothes. They’ve been great to work with.
The fall campaign is Live Your Life, and I think it’s encouraging people to live their life to the fullest, not compare to everyone else, and do what you’re passionate about. I think that’s a cool message and I like their clothes, so I think it’s a really good partnership.
IS: American Eagle was a fixture for a lot of us growing up. Any memories of back-to-school shopping stand out?
TL: Definitely the mall trips. As a kid, you’d hit American Eagle, Hollister, and Abercombie [laughs]. I remember all of AE’s stuff had the eagle logo, and some of it still has it, but they’ve simplified a lot of it. I don’t like big graphic tees and stuff with a lot of words on it. A lot of their stuff now is neutral colors, earth tones, simple stuff. That’s the stuff I wear now and I like their new stuff a lot. But as a kid? I remember going to the mall for back-to-school shopping and loading up.
IS: Modeling clothing is a lot different than suiting up on Sundays. What was that experience like?
TL: Everyone was really fun to work with. It was cool seeing the results of the shoot and getting to put on new stuff and see it first. All the people were great to work with and they made it super easy from wardrobe to tailoring. It’d be nice if I had that full-time! I’ve got kind of weird dimensions with pants and shirts so it was nice having something that would fix everything and make it fit you right.
IS: As you build your brand apart from football, what characteristics of a partner interest in you in expanding your portfolio?
TL: It always has to be a fit. It has to be something that I’m interested in first and foremost. All the numbers? That comes in and takes care of itself and I let my team take care of it. But it has to be a fit. It has to be a company I’m interested in, that I like, and has a good reputation.
Beyond that? It all comes through my marketing team and they know me very well. There’s probably a lot of stuff that doesn’t get in front of me that they say no to just because they know me now. That takes a little bit off my plate. They bring all the stuff they think I’d be interested in, lay out what it would look like, what would be needed on my end, and we take it from there. I don’t want to do too much and have too much out there, but I enjoy working with good companies.
IS: Your Clemson career came right before the ascent of NIL. Despite the timing, how did college prepare you for the business side of becoming a pro athlete and who do you work with for help in that space?
TL: Marketing was my degree in college so I’ve been interested in it for a while, but I don’t have the time to crunch numbers and negotiate. [laughs] So that’s why I have a team that does it for me. But as far as understanding what my obligations are for a company and what I sign up for? I prepare myself for what I’m accountable for and that’s a big part of it.
I try to diversify and put myself in different markets. My team’s done a good job of that. But it’s definitely all a business in and of itself and you need good people working with you to help lead you in the right direction because there’s a lot of stuff out there – good and bad – and I’ve had mostly good, but there are definitely some bad apples out there and you’ve gotta have somebody helping you out.
IS: On the field, how did Clemson prep you for becoming an NFL quarterback?
TL: I think, honestly, our system and the offensive we ran, I wouldn’t say would be the biggest thing that prepared me for the NFL. I mean, it wasn’t a pro-style system; it was spread, pretty simple dropback concepts. The run game was pretty simple. We let Travis [Etienne Jr.] do his thing. Our line did a great job as well, we had really good receivers on the outside, and when I had to make plays, made plays.
But I would say just as a person and from a foundational aspect of my life, Clemson was huge in helping me become the person I am today. Coach Swinney was a great leader, a great mentor for me, and a really good guy that does things the right way. I know he sometimes catches some flack in the media, but he is a great role model, and if you talk about a guy who really lives his life the way he says he does? He’s one of those guys.
So that was a great example for me as a kid coming into college, and I’d say the same things to for a lot of our assistant coaches as well. They were a big influence on my life as were some of my friends that I met at Clemson. I was grateful to be surrounded by good people at a young, impressionable age, and I had good people to look up to and good mentors who helped me along the way. That helped me more than anything.
Having that leadership prepared me for the next step when it was time for me to be more of a leader. I felt very prepared to step into that. I’m thankful for Clemson for that and for Coach Swinney and all my coaches and teammates. It was a great place to go to school. I loved it. It’s in my blood now and that sticks with you. I’ve got a lot of pride in Clemson and always rooting for them.
IS: Regarding leadership, what makes a great NFL quarterback?
TL: I think it’s a mix of a lot of things. You’ve got to play well on the field, you’ve got to be consistent, you’ve got to have poise, you’ve got to be a guy that people can rely on. Being the same guy every day goes with consistency and in football? It’s a small margin for success and failure, especially playing quarterback. It’s not always going to go your way, but the consistency I’m talking about is just the person you are and the guy you are in the building. Being a leader and how you treat people.
It’s important to be the same person every day and I had some great experiences during my rookie year when things didn’t go well. We weren’t having a great year and I didn’t play well, so that was my first real opportunity to have that much failure in football in a short season.
That was new to me. All the teams I’d been on in the past were really good, I had all the success, and I played well. It didn’t go that way during my rookie year. So that was an opportunity for me to learn to be the same guy even with failing. And that was hard at times and it was hard to always show up and be positive and try to be a leader. But I learned a lot from that and it’s helped me a lot in my career.
In the last two years when things have gotten difficult? I look back on that rookie year and it’s helped me lead and be better from it. I’ve seen the worst of the worst from a football sense of not playing well and our team not playing well, so I understand what that’s like. It’s easier for me to put it in perspective when things aren’t going well for a two or three-game stretch. Now I can stay levelheaded and it helps me lead for sure.
IS: It feels like there are three eras of elite QBs playing right now. Speak on your class of ascending QBs.
TL: We have a really wide range of quarterbacks in this league. It’s fascinating to look at guys like Aaron Rodgers, who is 40, all the way down to CJ Stroud, who is 22. So that’s a pretty wide range of ages and guys that are playing really well. You’ve got guys in the middle of that as well.
I don’t know if it’s a changing of the guard. It’s hard to say because there are all different ages that are playing well at quarterback right now. But it’s always good when you have young players that are playing well in this league that are going to be around for a while. Especially with me and CJ being in the same division. It’ll be some good competition for years to come, and both of our teams are getting better every year, whether it’s free agency, drafting, or coaching.
It’s exciting having young quarterbacks to pair with guys that are experienced. You want to have as much talent as possible. It makes it more fun as fans to watch. You want to see guys go head-to-head like that every week. Everybody always asks me, and I say I don’t play against the other quarterback, so I don’t look too much into it, but you can’t help but keep up with what’s going on around the league and the success guys are having. You see it all, you watch all the games, so you can’t ignore all that. CJ had a great year last year and it’ll be fun to watch him moving forward.
IS: This offseason you signed a historic contract. First off, congrats. Secondly, how does it feel to lay real roots in Jacksonville?
TL: Thank you. It’s been great. The community has honestly embraced us ever since we got here — and we’ve been through a lot. Like I said, I mentioned the ’21 season and how that didn’t go so well and people have always treated us well and with respect here. That’s something we’ve always appreciated.
We love living here. The fan base is great, it’s a great city to live in, and we’ve really enjoyed it. It’s become home for us. The team and the situation matter a lot, too. I really like where we’re headed as a team. I know our best days are ahead. I love Coach Pederson and the staff that we have. The future’s bright. I’m excited to be here and we’re excited to be here for many more years to come. All those things paired together really made it a no-brainer for us. We’re just glad to get it done, move on, and hunker down to go and chase the Super Bowl that we want to bring to Jacksonville.
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