Oller: Ohio State former linebacker Steele Chambers strips, strums way toward NFL draft
This is the second in a series of stories on Steele Chambers’ quest to continue his football career in the NFL. The former Ohio State linebacker, who recently attended the NFL scouting combine, is working out at Ohio State and preparing for OSU’s pro day on March 20. He hopes to hear his name called during the April 25-27 draft.
If Steele Chambers’ journey to the NFL draft were set to music, it would be a country song. The former Ohio State linebacker might even perform it himself.
It’s all there, minus a pickup truck, bottle of booze and broken heart.
Underdog? Check. Chambers projects as a late-round pick who won’t be among the first linebackers taken, if he gets selected at all.
Seen it all? Done it all? Survived it all? Check. Chambers played tailback at Ohio State before switching to linebacker his second year. Three seasons later he led the Buckeyes with 83 tackles. He has bounced back from injury, beaten Michigan once and lost to the Wolverines three times. He experienced a Rose Bowl win over Utah and crushing Cotton Bowl loss to Georgia. He knows the NFL is a business, but he is determined to not let the biz beat him down.
Take-life-as-it-comes dude who remains cool when others heat up? Check. Chambers never sweats, except during workouts. At the NFL combine, he shrugged when instructed to strip to his underwear so teams could get a more, er, personal look at prospective picks.
“They said take your clothes off, so I took my clothes off,” he said. “I thought it was funny, if anything. ‘Strip to your undies and get in line.’ Once or twice a day. Random occasions. It was a little weird, but I wasn’t taking offense. I don’t know why anyone would get butt-hurt about it.
“It was like getting auctioned off like cattle, but in the nicest way possible. They just strip you down, weigh you, measure your wingspan, height, hand. Just very thorough. Squatting down half naked. Stuff like that. They even measured my head. I don’t know why. I asked the doctor. He gave some type of scientific explanation.”
Awkward relational interactions? Check.
“One guy asked if I was gay or something,” Chambers said, recalling the one-on-one interviews players have with NFL personnel. “He was just reading off a sheet: ‘Are you married? Significant other? Are you gay?’ No.
“I double-backed on the gay one. ‘Do you ask everyone you meet with if they’re gay?’ He said, ‘Yes, it’s on the sheet. Just following the rules.’ OK, man. Ask Cade (Stover) that question and you might end up getting popped in the face.”
Three buddies having each others’ backs? Check. Steele lives in Columbus with Stover and Tommy Eichenberg. They all started for the Buckeyes the past two seasons, Stover at tight end and Eichenberg at linebacker. They are thick as thieves.
Steele and Eichenberg, who roomed together in team hotels the night before games, went through the combine together. They ran. They jumped. They stripped. Steele could have done without the jumping.
“I don’t like to jump, dude. I’m a land animal, not a jumper,” he said.
Chambers was not a big fan of the combine drills in general, largely because players already were fatigued by the time specific drills were conducted.
“They sucked, because they gas you beforehand with all the position work, then afterward only like five guys did the 5-10-5 (back-and-forth sprint drill) because everyone was tired and didn’t want to do it,” Chambers said. “Me and Tommy were over there, just us two.”
Just us two. No surprise there. Chambers enjoys challenges, even thrives on them. He’s one of these guys who will try anything … twice. But he’s also smart enough to know when to say no. He chose not to run the 40-yard dash or lift weights at the combine, preferring to wait until OSU’s pro day on Wednesday, when he will feel more comfortable on familiar turf and when the 40 is timed by hand, not electronically. (Hand times usually are faster because, due to reflexes, the timer starts the stopwatch milliseconds after the athlete begins to run. Electronic timing measures the exact moment the “gun” goes off).
A thoughtful artist under the tough exterior? Check.
With no more school or studies to fill his time, Chambers has taken up the guitar. It’s been a slow go learning how to play by watching YouTube videos, but he’s determined to become proficient enough to strum some of his favorite songs.
“Most of the day I’m at the (Woody Hayes Athletic Center) facility, and I needed something to do while not eating. So it was guitar. Just acoustic. A Yamaha, I think,” he said. “Just made a random, split-second decision. Went to a guitar store and bought it.”
I ask what type of music he eventually wants to play.
“Country. Chris Stapleton. Zach Bryan. Cody Jinks. Right now it will be a year learning their songs,” he said.
How are the guitar lessons coming?
“The first couple days I was pissed off because I can’t move my fingers to play the strings, but I’m getting better at it. I know a couple songs, like (Bob Marley’s) 'Three Little Birds.' "
Reflective soul? Check.
Chambers also has gotten into reading, mostly books on war and military training.
“I try to do that more than sitting on my phone or watching TV,” he said. “Tommy got me into it. He’s a big reader.”
Chambers recently finished a biography of Ghengis Khan.
“It was about how he changed modern society," he said. "I like reading stuff about guys doing hard stuff and getting through it. I read about a dude who crossed the Trans-Arctic, 932 miles by himself without a motorized vehicle, walking with like 375 pounds strapped up to him.”
Compared to that, the April draft is child’s play. But that doesn’t mean Chambers is kidding around. He is serious as a country song about getting drafted.
“That’s the goal,” he said.
Don’t write him off.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State football linebacker Steele Chambers prepares for NFL draft
