Sports Psychologist and Former AD Eric Zillmer Breaks Down Superior Athletic Performance

Eric Zillmer watched Super Bowl LIX as closely as anyone, and not just because he’s a diehard Philadelphia Eagles fan, or that he serves as vice chair of the PHL Sports Advisory Board, chaired by Eagles president Don Smolenski. In the run up to the game, The Philadelphia Inquirer ran a Zillmer-authored piece on the behavioral science behind a Super Bowl win. That’s because Zillmer is a tenured neuropsychology professor at Drexel University, where he served as athletic director for 23 years. His areas of expertise include sports psychology, military psychology and happiness. Paul Steinbach spoke to Zillmer on the heels of the Eagles’ 40-22 win over the Kansas City Chiefs to pick his brain on these and other topics.

How does a psych professor become athletic director?
I’ve always been in athletics. I’m one of those guys who was good but not great. I captained my tennis team in college and in high school. My dad was a West Point officer who played football at Army, and my mother and sister were figure skaters. My sister was a three-time German champion, top 10 in the world and an Olympian. As her brother, I would travel with her to World Cup events and the Olympics. I saw a lot of sports, and I played a lot of sports. When I got to Drexel, I was running the Ph.D. program in psychology — that’s what I was hired to do. But at that time, I would literally go to the gym every day. I would play lunchtime ball. I would talk to the coaches. And then one day somebody said, “Well, you’re here all the time, and you’re a professor. Why don’t you be the faculty athletic rep?” I did that for a few years, and that’s how I got to know the president of the university. When they had a falling out with their athletic director, they said, “Well, why don’t you step in and be the athletic director?” I’m like, “Why me? I want to be a dean, a provost, a president.” “I’ll make you an offer. Why don’t you think about it for five minutes?” I think it’s hard to age gracefully in academics, so I said, “Why not?” It’s a different path, but it was really a privilege. I did it for 23 years — sixth-longest in the country at the time.

When did sports psychology become a focus for you?
I could predict whether my sister was going to do well or not on the ice. As a 12-year-old, I was already a sports psychologist, so I got really interested in the ingredients for high performance — what you can identify and say, “Look, this is important,” and then actually reverse engineer them.

What does that look like?
Of course, when you study this, the first surprise is that at the highest level — at the gold medal level and at the Super Bowl level — there’s a homogeneous personality profile. In other words, you can profile these people — men and women. So that’s surprising, because it’s really hard to profile anything. There’s always so much diversity. There’s so many outliers. I mean, if you wanted to profile what a typical medical student looks like in terms of their personality, you couldn’t do it. But In sports, the entry requirements or so high at the highest level they’re the same. These athletes are highly conscientious, meaning they’re highly disciplined. They work hard. They have a plan. They know exactly what they’re doing. And if they don’t, it’s not going to happen. They score high in terms of conscientiousness — 80th, 90th percentile. That’s as high as somebody who’s completing a Ph.D. That’s as high as somebody who is a world class musician. There are no shortcuts. The stereotype of an athlete brat who just shows up and plays is not true. The other thing that would make sense to anybody, these athletes don’t get easily rattled. How they process emotions, right? They’re not robots, but they’re more like fighter pilots than they are like rock and roll artists. They are able to keep their emotions together, which is hard to do. So that’s two findings. Another interesting one is what we call open-mindedness. That’s a new one. There’s new research to suggest that it would be really advantageous to have professional athletes score high on open-mindedness, meaning they’re flexible. They’re willing to consider different alternatives and solutions to problems. They’re not stuck in their way. These athletes are not stubborn. They’re open. 

You came to the athletic director role in a roundabout way. Do you know of any other ADs out there who have a sports psychology background?
When I became athletic director in 1998, I think it was rare, and it was a reflection of my president — an entrepreneur who basically looked for the best person. He looked for a skill set and somebody who works hard and has passion. And it’s true. I went to work every day, loving my job. I fully believed in what I was doing. But I would go to these meetings, and there were former coaches around the table — the other athletic directors. When we met as a league, I always felt closer to the presidents. At the end of the day, you’re solving problems. And those guys, and women, I worked with, they were very crafty. They were very interesting people. They were great problem-solvers. But I think now all bets are off. You’re hiring lawyers, you’re hiring marketing people. I think there’s one psychologist who’s an athletic director. You’re hiring “quarterbacks,” and they have to have a skill set, and I think the skill set is to create a culture. If you can do it in an organization from top to bottom — instill a culture and a work ethic and a belief system — then it doesn’t matter what your background is. The idea of a senior coach just stepping sideways into the job is still possible, of course, but it’s now a modern corporate job within the academic environment.

Why did you step aside, ultimately, from the AD role?
Well, it’s hard to step aside. It’s so much fun. I mean, we beat Alabama in triple overtime at Madison Square Garden in men’s basketball. We won the Henley Royal Regatta in London. We were ranked No. 1 in gender equity by U.S. News and World Report. We had so much success and also, of course, gut-wrenching failures. You just feel so connected to the emotional pulse of the university. For me, there wasn’t really a right time. I stepped down on July 1, 2021, and during that Winter/Spring, all four of my top teams made the NCAA tournament. The women’s and men’s basketball teams both won their tournaments and qualified for March Madness, which was terrific. Additionally, both our men’s and women’s lacrosse teams made it to the NCAAs, as well. That had never been done before. In fact, it was crazy to have the selection parties and all the hoopla involved in going to the tournaments. I felt a sense of accomplishment that would be difficult to match, and it seemed like the right time to return to the faculty to start something new, like the Happiness Lab, to inspire the next generation of students in a different way. I’m still a tenured faculty member. I’m back at the department. I teach happiness and sports psychology, and I have a think tank in sports, and it’s a lot easier in terms of the time commitment and all of the noise that’s going on in the athletic department. I felt like I only live one life, and I had to let somebody else take over. There are going to be new rules, and there’s a new way of looking at things. Step out. It’s a hard thing to do, but I think it was the right decision.

What is the extent of your involvement in Philadelphia sports these days?
Through my connections in sports, I always took every opportunity to participate. I wanted to be part of the Philadelphia landscape when I became athletic director, so I joined this sports congress. I’m still the vice chair of it, and our job is to bring international sporting events to the city, including a World Cup 2026 game. Philadelphia beat out Washington. We beat out Baltimore. It’s a big accomplishment. We put our heads around the table and try to figure out how to get the NCAA wrestling championships, which is coming, and how to get more NCAA regional games to come here — even the Final Four. But even things like Wrestlemania. The Major League Baseball All Star Game is coming in ’26, too. The NFL draft was here. We may play a big role, or we may just lay out the red carpet, but there’s an organization that thinks about it, and we harness and connect the entire economic infrastructure and the hospitality industry to put forward the best bid, because it’s very competitive to get these events. I’m still involved in that.

You have studied military psychology. As a sports psychologist, can you draw parallels between sports psychology and military psychology?
Of course. I never joined the military. I’m not a veteran, but I lived within the military structure for 22 years. Any building with a number on it, I’m at home, so I feel like I understand that culture. As a psychologist, I always felt close to it. We’ve published a book — it’s in its third edition now — called Military Psychology, and it’s translated into four different languages. Of course, I draw parallels. It’s clear to me, the military has physical requirements in terms of physical stamina and physical education. They truly also talk about the relationship between mind and body. In fact, at West Point, they have a department called Leadership in Behavioral Science, where they use psychologists to study how to prepare for combat or for solving problems. When the military looks at how they’re recruiting athletes to go into battle, they’re really looking at one psychological construct that they’re trying to build, and that’s called resilience. Their entire idea would be to make a participant in the military stronger in their ability to deal with adversity. This could be deployment and leaving your family behind, and coming back, which creates a lot of stress, as you can imagine. It could mean always taking orders and being in a structure where you don’t know what’s going to happen next. It could mean going to combat, or it could mean flying a $100 million plane when you’re 22 years old. You have to find a way to create resiliency, and so the question is, can you teach that? And I think you can. I think you can become more resilient. One way is through sports, but also through education. I think the big connection is that both sports and military functioning at the highest level really requires the same personality characteristics. They’re the same people. 

Can you talk more about the psychology of preparation?
In sports, we know now the difference between practice and performing, and it’s just the opposite of what I thought when I was a teenager. I wish I had a sports psychologist, because I would practice with a C effort, and then when performing, I’d give you everything I had. It should have been just the opposite. You should practice like a pro — hard practices, uncomfortable practices, practices where you are really giving everything you have. And then when you perform, you should perform like a kid, unburdened by anything, including the result of the competition. The military does that. They believe in hard training. There are many, many parallels, and I embrace them all. I feel that the military is actually one of our country’s leaders in showing us the way, because they have extremely stressful situations and environments that we can learn from. Well, guess what? If you’re in the Super Bowl, it could be perceived as an extremely stressful environment. In many ways, in my opinion, it’s a real-time laboratory. They’re all good — the Chiefs and the Eagles — so it’s a battle of nerves. Who can adjust? Who can have this belief?

You mentioned playing like a kid. To me, Patrick Mahomes performs like a kid on a playground. Wayne Gretsky was said to play hockey with great joy. How important is an athlete’s happiness to their athletic performance?
There are many rules related to happiness, but one is that if you’re not being in the present, you really can’t be happy. Most people who are happy and live long, happy lives, they live in the present. They don’t live in the past. They don’t live in the future. I had a coach who always coached the last play that was over, you know what I mean? “Why did you do that?” And while they were still playing. So, to be happy, you have to be present, in the moment. That’s true when you’re watching a movie, when you’re engaged in a conversation, when you’re listening to music, when you’re engaging in sports. Of course, you don’t have to be in the present all the time. You have to plan for your mortgage and things like that. But if you live in the future or in the past, you’re anxious, and that’s our No. 1 mental health concern in America — anxiety and depression. To be functional in the game environment, in athletics, you have to be in the present, and you have to anticipate the next moment. That’s really all you have to do cognitively, but it’s hard to do, right? When I say play like a kid, I think this term comes from Brian Levinson. He wrote a book called Shifting From Practice to Performance. I read it all the time. I gave it to my athletes, and it’s true. They’re two different psychological sets. You practice hard, and in practice, you can think about the future. I have a match coming up. I should be scared. Maybe I should run another two miles. But when you’re performing, you have to be able to shift. And that’s the hard thing for many athletes. You have to shift into a different mental set, which is to have fun, stay in the moment. You know, high five! And most athletes know that, and they practice it. You can practice it. I agree with you. I think that’s what Mahomes shows in his body language. I didn’t touch on body language, but that’s also something that’s always been important, but now research shows it’s really important. They can predict when somebody hits a penalty kick in soccer before they kick the ball based on their body language. Eight-year-old kids can predict better than chance which soccer team is going to win by how they listen to the National Anthem. Body language is super important — that you look like a winner. And certainly, Mahomes does. He has internalized winning. He, of course, does all the things you need to do — work hard, and he’s a great leader. He has kind of personified, “Let’s have fun and do it right.” And that’s really a big advantage to an athlete, to be able to do that in any in any sport and to stay in the moment.

One of my first exposures to sports psychology was researching the backstory of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, and how coach Herb Brooks had given his prospects a psychological test. He had a certain type of personality that he wanted to be on that team, and that was the only way he thought they had a puncher’s chance in those Olympics.
I watched the game on TV, and it meant so much to me that I actually pilgrimaged to Lake Placid, to actually see the arena, just to take a look at it, because it’s an interesting arena. It has 5,000 seats. It almost looks like our basketball arena. It’s really tight. There’s research on the relationship between fans and athletes in terms of their distance and in terms of their density. And then the coach was a maverick who may not have had sports psychology training, but he definitely played the mental game. And you could tell — at least I could tell — that they believed that they could do this. He knew intuitively that you stay in the moment, you execute what you know you can do, and you come together as a team. In sports, it’s always great when the sum is greater than the parts, and that’s what he did. It was amazing. I was sitting on the edge of my chair. Sports is so exhilarating. 

Is it safe to say that every pro franchise now employs at least one sports psychologist?
I think it’s still variable, and it doesn’t have to be the sports psychologist. I am a sports psychologist, but this has to be more systemic than that. It has to really be structural. There has to be a high-performance center, where you have an organization within the organization that looks after the welfare of the athlete, and that could include finances, the family. Many modern franchises are thinking of their players as investments, both financial and emotional. You see more medical care in terms of sitting them out — maybe even longer than they have to — when they have a concussion. You see that they’re being given help financially, not in terms of pay, but how to manage their money. The families are now part of the infrastructure to make sure that they feel that everybody’s onboard. I don’t think you can win otherwise. They’re looking at performance matrixes. It’s not only what happens mentally, but also now we can predict what’s happening physically. You’re looking at geo-positioning — where you are on the field when a play happens — so they wear monitors to see where you are, how much effort you put out. You just have to maintain the integrity of the person at the same time, right? You want to treat them as an individual, not like some machine. But it’s very, very important, and I don’t think you can win without it.

Do you find that the use of sports psychology or psychologists has grown at the college level?
It has. You know, this term “sports psychology” is a little confusing. In the article, I used “behavioral science.” What’s the behavioral science behind a Super Bowl win? I think they’re interchangeable, but I don’t want to make it sound like it’s shrinky, you know? I’m really interested in high performance and, of course, college programs are interested in that. But their primary concern for sports psychology is mental health, really, and they’re hiring a lot of psychologists not only to help with the performance side but to help with the mental health side. These kids are really anxious. It’s complicated. You know, it shouldn’t be, but it is.

Has that changed over time?
I think it’s worse. The new happiness report from the United Nations 2024 ranked the United States 24th in the world in happiness. But they did it by age group, too, and the 20-year-olds are the unhappiest age group in America, and globally that’s number 67, or something. That’s not high for such a wealthy country as ours, and we have all these opportunities. They’re anxious. They worry about their future. They worry about employment. They’ve been through the pandemic. So, there are a lot of health issues in terms of anxiety and mild dysphoria. A lot of psychologists are also helping with that. Sports psychologists can do that, too. I had 480 student-athletes, and the level is one step below, but it’s still very high. I think you can get through college as an athlete based on talent, where you’re not going to maximize your ability. And you see that a lot — an athlete comes in, they don’t get any better within four years. I know for a fact that the large schools that have money have three, four, five sports psychologists, and the smaller schools might have one or they hire somebody who comes in. They might spend 50% of their time helping teams come together and realize their capacity, and the other half they’re helping people feel like they’re emotionally and mentally stable. They’re providing part of the work that maybe the counseling center would have done, but it’s nicer to do it in-house and treat the person like an athlete.

We heard so much in recent years about the NCAA making student-athlete mental health a priority, but the fact that we now have conferences that span four time zones doesn’t make any sense to me in terms of sleep deprivation, time out of the classroom, all of these added stressors. Where do you come in on all that?
Well, of course, I come in on the side of the student-athlete. As a psychologist, I have empathy. I relate to the human issues. When you sit in a conference room with your colleagues and there’s a discussion about travel, they’ll give lip service to the student-athletes’ mental health, but at the end of the day they’ll make a logistical decision about money and competition, competitive equity and competitive opportunity. To have a softball team travel from L.A. to Penn State on an airplane to play two games or three? Yeah, it’s problematic. I think it’s not where we want to be. It makes you unhappy. Shifting time zones always puts a burden on your internal clock. It’s like when we go through daylight savings time, but it’s like doing this once a week. It’s not good. But it’s really the schools that are doing this. The NCAA only has 1,000 employees. They’re trying to keep it together, but they have 1,000 member schools, of which 350 are Division I. It’s always been like, “Hey, you have institutional control over your athletic department locally and you do what’s best for your students.” We always, always put that first, to always make the place safer. When I became athletic director, there were still coaches driving the vans at midnight. We wouldn’t do any of that. We would try to make it safe, because you can get hurt — not only moving people around, but also on the field. So that’s number one. And I know, as a psychologist, if you don’t feel good, you don’t feel safe. I’ll leave you with this. When you look at sports, one of the most incredible feats — besides, of course, the gold medal in 1980 — is high jumping, because the best high jumpers in the world jump higher than their own height, right? So how do you do that? Mentally, how do you go about that? I think you can only do it if you have a complete belief system in yourself, you stay in the moment, and you divide the task into the little increments that have nothing to do with jumping over that bar. Because if you look at that bar, you go like, “There’s no way I get over this. It’s 6 foot 7.” The point is that if you have any mental health issues, if you have any jetlag issues, if you have any nutritional issues, you’re not going to be able to do it. You’re not going to jump over 6 foot 3. That’s the new realization in competitive sports. You need a clear mind. You need to be mentally on task. You need to stay in the present. You have to not only practice sports, you have to practice how to think, and the support system has to be completely nurturing. You don’t see this person jump over this bar and they’re arguing with their coach before they jump. It’s not possible. What they try to do is clap and get the whole stadium behind them and have some kind of faith in this happening. I find that very illuminating. That’s really where this is all heading: to allow people to do their job on the athletic field to their best of their ability. In the past, that meant physically, but now it’s physically and mentally. And, quite frankly, it’s all the same. It’s all managed by the brain. Psychology is biology.