INDIANAPOLIS (93.7 The Fan) – The odds of an NFL player having a son in the NFL Draft is steep, the odds of having two sons in the same draft is astronomical. WPIAL star Lorenzo Styles is that dad.
Styles was a star at Farrell High School when the Steelers were in the WPIAL, winning a championship and eventually inducted in the Mercer County Hall of Fame.
“I knew,” said Lorenzo Styles, Junior about his father’s high school talents. “There’s an article, ‘The only player who can stop Lorenzo Styles is Lorenzo Styles.’ He was a force to be reckoned with on offense and defense.”
Dad then went to Ohio State, leaving after his junior season and played six years in the NFL, winning a Super Bowl with the Rams.
Now his role is as a very behind-the-scenes father with sons Lorenzo, Junior and Sonny working to prove themselves at the NFL Combine this week. Then hear their names announced at the NFL Draft in Pittsburgh in April.
“My dad didn’t really talk about his career a lot,” said Lorenzo Styles, Junior. “He wasn’t the type of guy to say he was this type of player. It’s actually funny. We’d never been to an Ohio State game, growing up.”
“But the one thing I will say is that when I was younger I remember me and my brother going into the basement. He had like this little area with his jersey, Super Bowl ring. We used to put the ring on our fingers -- it was huge on our fingers -- spin it.”
“So, we knew about the game. He instilled that in us. Like getting up early. Being disciplined. Being a good teammate. How to be a leader. Things like that. We may not have understood that at the time, but we understand it now.”
Sonny spent the day Thursday at Lucas Oil Field putting up numbers no one has seen from a linebacker since they started the NFL Combine in 1987. He ran a 4.46 40-yard dash, by comparison it was faster than Cowboys receiver CeeDee Lamb. At 6’5”, 244 pounds he also had a 43.5 inch vertical jump and 11’2” broad jump. To put the vertical jump in perspective, that leap, from a standing still position, would be an inch from being two feet over a basketball rim.
His brother called it, hours before he put up those numbers, Lorenzo Styles, Junior said of his brother ‘he’s about to have a great day today’,
Lorenzo would know, they’ve been playing with and against each other their entire lives.
“Me and my brother were competitive,” said Lorenzo Styles, Junior. “It could be video games, basketball. I got him pretty angry, being the big brother and stuff. It was funny to me at that time. But we got in fights over that a little bit.”
“Some of it I don’t even want to talk about. We had our battles. My dad used to always say, ‘Even if you win, you’re going to lose,’ because he’s going to get you at the end.”
Thursday in Indianapolis Sonny sure did. But it’s not about the competition right now, rather being a part continuing what Lorenzo called ‘a tight-knit family’.
“I’m excited to be with him, kind of dreaming about this, watching on TV when we were younger,” said Lorenzo Styles, Junior. “So, it’s kind of amazing, being here together.”
“It’s just awesome having your actual blood brother out there,” said Sonny Styles of their time together at Ohio State. “Being out there with him, you have a good play or a bad play, being out there being able to experience that with him, it was special.’’
“I remember he had a play, I don’t remember what game it was, he was upset. I just walked up to him and put my arm around him and then he goes to the flipside of that, he returned a touchdown. Experiencing that together, it was super special.’’
“We’re here, taking it day by day,” said safety Lorenzo Styles, Junior. “There’s a bunch of things being thrown at us. So, it’s just kind of like, ‘How did just your day go? How are you feeling? Where’s your head at?’”
Brothers helping brothers.
There have been approximately 215 father-son combinations in NFL history. If both Sonny and Lorenzo, Junior make it, Lorenzo will join the rarified air of Archie Manning, Howie Long and only a couple other former NFL players turned fathers.
Add to those odds, dad’s alma mater, Farrell High School, has an enrollment of 182 students in a town of 4,239.
It’s pretty incredible stuff for the Styles family.