(Photo by Adam Wire)

Trent Dilfer's 14-year NFL career featured plenty of ups and downs. In his keynote address Sunday to USA Football 2018 National Conference at Pro Bowl attendees, Dilfer said the power of positive reinforcement by past coaches helped him bounce back from disappointments.

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"I was from being the worst player in the NFL for 2 1/2-3 years to a Pro Bowl a year later," Dilfer said. "Grit is passion and perseverance to a long-term goal. I had coaches that nurtured this into me. They were careful with the words they used with me."

View Dilfer's entire speech here:

Highlights include:

• (17:00) On the influence coaches have: "Billy Graham is one of the greatest humans to have ever been on this planet, and he's famous for saying this: 'The two most popular words in our culture today are, Coach says.' Meaning, whatever coach says trumps all the other inputs in his life. ... I know it means more than what parents say, because I've lived it. 'Coach says' has incredible power."

• (21:40) On his "You're awesome, but ..." coaching philosophy: "When you start with affirmation as a coach, as an influencer, when the first thing out of your mouth is affirming what a young person has done, and sometimes that's hard, sometimes it's hard to find anything they've done that's good, but when you take the time to find it, their heart, and their ears, and their mind, opens up, which allows you the 'but.'"

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• (29:15) On the importance of messaging: "Think about, as a coach, how much time you spend game-planning. How much time you spend the next X's and O's, building the next drill, how you're going to train your coaches, whatever. Think about the amount of time spent in that. What if you took the same amount of time and planned how you messaged your players? What if you spent the same amount of time and calculated the words you were going to use? What if you spent the same amount of time and developed a coach philosophy that allowed your words to positively impact young people, knowing that's going to be paid forward for years to come? ... making sure your 'Coach says' has lifelong impact."

• (31:45) On coaches' priorities: "You have your passion coaches, and your ambition coaches. I think you need to ask yourself a very important question. What am I? Am I a passion coach, or am I an ambition coach? Because if you are an ambition coach, good for you. Go make a bunch of money, go win a bunch of games. Know that you're going to leave a (bunch) of shrapnel on the sidewalk, and that shrapnel are kids. It's also going to determine how you talk. It's going to determine your 'Coach says.' Because if it's about you, those kids are going to know it's about you and the words you're going to say are going to be said to make you look better. If you're a passion coach, then you are going to choose your words carefully. Then you are going to care more about the future of those kids you're influencing than your future."

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