A year ago, Dan Orlovsky did not know what was next.
He had retired after 12 years as mostly a backup quarterback and was perhaps best known for authoring one of the more infamous plays in NFL history. Orlovsky was watching the Week 10 Panthers-Dolphins Sunday night game and was explaining to his wife the Xs and Os behind a Cam Newton touchdown pass.
“She said you should make a video and put it on social media,” Orlovsky told The Post recently.
“At this point I thought social media was stupid, I had maybe 1,000 followers on Twitter. Three minutes later, I came to my senses. I paused my television, used the camera in my phone and just broke the play down. I went to bed and it went viral [on Instagram], and that was my moment to be like, ‘Huh, that’s how I can separate myself.’ ”
And that’s just what Orlovsky has done to break through the tangle of retired players and pundits looking to rise in the business. The 34-year-old was living in Philadelphia and he parlayed the success of that video into Eagles radio spots and then a role on NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football.”
Then the journeyman player became a sought-after media free agent. Orlovsky chose ESPN over NFL Network because of the opportunity for not only studio work, but to call college games from the booth.
“Either you know it or you don’t and you can’t fake it,” Orlovsky said. “This isn’t 2010. You will get exposed fast if you don’t know what you’re talking about.
“There’s always that feeling I’m a backup and I have to prove it. I’d tell people this during my auditions and it was not in a bragging way, it was in a very real way: There’s not a lot of people who know football the way I do that can articulate it the way I can.”
Orlovsky was one of the NFL analysts tabbed to boost the sagging ratings for the morning show “Get Up!” when the season began. Orlovsky also calls college games nearly every weekend, is a regular contributor on “NFL Live” in the offseason and is often on ESPN Radio.
The 35-year-old UConn grad is not afraid to give strong opinions, and backs them up with the same film breakdown that helped launch his second career.
The first one took him to Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Tampa Bay and back to Detroit — and, of course, included that play. In Orlovsky’s first career start on Oct. 12, 2008, he scrambled over the back line of the end zone for a safety in what would be a Lions’ 12-10 loss against the Vikings in an 0-16 season. It was in the first paragraph in the ESPN story about his retirement, the NFL YouTube page puts it in a category of “NFL’s Worst Plays Ever” and he was reminded of the 10-year anniversary by “Get Up!” co-host Mike Greenberg last month.
“I look back 10 years later and knowing I played another nine years it’s easier for me to laugh at,” Orlovsky said. “It wasn’t the last play of my career. I look back the very next week we were in the same situation and I threw a 96-yard touchdown pass to Calvin [Johnson].
“If you play sports for a long enough time you are going to fail and you are going to do some stupid stuff. My kids are going to see that one day and it’s important for my kids to see daddy fail or do something stupid. But I didn’t let that define me and you have to laugh at yourself, too. Hey, life’s short. I played for another nine years. I find myself way smarter than that play is indicative of. It is what it is.”