There are some players who improve a team just by being out on the field. Chris Spielman was one of those players. His energy, his enthusiasm, his hustle, and his aggressiveness were contagious and helped inspire his teammates to do more than they thought they could. Not only that, but he was a pretty decent ball player as well, good enough to make the cover of a Wheaties box when he was in high school, to start for 3 seasons in college and make All-American status the last two, and to play 11 years in the NFL, making 4 Pro Bowls in the process.
Don't give me Gatorade, just give me someone to hit!Chris Spielman played high school ball at legendary Massillon Washington, where Paul Brown once prowled the sidelines. His performance as a senior brought him many awards and many offers from colleges around the country. At one point, he was actually considering that School Up North, but his father reportedly told him to choose Ohio State "or don't come home". He made the right choice. I remember at his press conference, Spielman said that Ohio State would "definitely win a national championship" while he was there. It was a bold statement, and sadly not fulfilled, but he had the attitude of a winner.
At Ohio State, Spielman went on to become a Lombardi Award winner and the school's 3rd all-time leading tackler with 546 total (he's first in solo tackles with 283). As a junior playing against Michigan, he set an all-time single game school record with an amazing 29 tackles. Then in the Cotton Bowl game, he collected 11 tackles, intercepted 2 passes, and ran one of them back for a touchdown to win defensive MVP honors. In 1985, he led the defense in an inspired effort in the rain against Number 1 ranked Iowa as OSU pulled the upset in the Horseshoe. In that game, Spielman had 19 tackles including a critical stop on Iowa RB Ronnie Harmon for no gain on a 4th-and-one play.
In 1984, Spielman was just a freshman, and he was not slotted to start the opener against Oregon State. But as the defense struggled against the other OSU's short passing game, Spielman became more and more restless. According to news reports later, Spielman paced the sideline asking again and again to be put in the game. Some speculated that when coach Earle Bruce finally did give him a chance to play, it was just to get the young linebacker off his back. In any case, he made an immediate impact (no pun intended). I remember watching from the stands as Spielman blitzed from the blind side and hit the opposing QB so hard it caused a fumble (recovered by Ohio State). That play, and the enthusiasm of the freshman coming off the bench, turned the momentum of the game in the second half. The Buckeyes scored TD's on their first 3 possessions of the second half en route to a 22-14 win. Spielman had 11 tackles and 2 sacks in his first game, creating a huge buzz in the media and among fans.
Unfortunately, Spielman severely injured his ankle against Washington State in week 2, and the off-and-on nature of the injury caused him to miss most of the rest of the regular season. He played in the Michigan game, but did not start. He returned full-speed for the Rose Bowl game, but he was overshadowed by the excellent play of USC's NFL-bound linebacker tandem of Duane Bickett and Jack Del Rio.
Upon finishing his career at Ohio State, Spielman was taken in the 2nd round of the NFL draft by the Detroit Lions. He spent 8 seasons in Detroit, leading the team in tackles the first 7. For his career, Spielman racked up 1181 tackles in 148 games, averaging 92 per season. Season after season, he was known as one of the hardest working, and the hardest hitting, players in the game. Former NFL superstar Bo Jackson paid tribute to Spielman when he said "Man, that's the hardest any white boy ever hit me". After 2 seasons in Buffalo, Spielman took a year off of football to spend time with his wife, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer. When she lost her hair due to chemotherapy, he shaved his head to demonstrate solidarity. When he went back to play football with the Cleveland Browns, he suffered a neck injury in pre-season that ended his career.
Today, Spielman works as a broadcaster for ESPN doing college football games, and also has a daily radio show here in Columbus. Spielman had previously served one season as head coach for the Arena Football's Columbus Destroyers team, and in fact he interviewed for the Ohio State job in 2001 after coach John Cooper was fired. He was recently inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, and was also named to the OSU Alumni Association's 100th Anniversary All-Alumni team. As the football season rapidly approaches, I look forward to many more saturdays listening to the former Buckeye great discussing football from the broadcast booth. It seems a fitting position for a guy who gave every ounce of himself when he was on the field.
Comments
I still don't see why Spiels isn't on the coaching staff in some capacity. His energy could give us a much needed shot in the arm at times.
http://collegefootball.rivals....
Rivals previews ohio state
"The national title rides on beating USC and the league title likely will come down to winning at Michigan"
Rivals thinks Michigan is in the running for the Big 10?
Easily my all-time favorite player.
My H.S. football number was #63 in honor of him. I couldn't wear #36 because a knee injury in my freshman year ended my dreams of playing linebacker. I ended up playing OG.
I wish Tress would bring back the old-school mesh jerseys and make the guys all grow mustaches. That's old-school badass.
Spiels is an all-time great Buckeye and a damn fine American.
Who wouldn't love to see spiel's an an assistant defensive coordinator, and Orlando Pace as the O-line coach? Talk about recruiting power.
It's a sad thing when the runaway winner of the poll is Bollman getting a career extension.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports...
USA Today coaches pre-season poll released. I think Bama is in the wrong spot, but other than that looks about right. PSU loses a lot in the secondary so I'm not sure they will reflect a #8 ranking on the field.
Ooh 6 is kind of generous I think
I look at that poll and I see a 4 way tie for 1, and a 5 way tie for 2.
Anybody beg to differ?
I think we're better than Bama and should flip flop with them, of course the SEC team is gonna get the nod. No way is Va Tech better than PSU, there lion fans, happy now?
The preseason polls mean absolutely NOTHING. There should be no polls till at least week 6-- when we see teams play and know what we are looking at. I would rather be out of the top 10 to start and just win ...... losing when in the top - 10 seems to make the loss worse since you were supposed to beat everybody. Anyway, who cares until the end... just win and it all takes care of itself.
Ohio State is the highest ranked team that had more than 2 losses last year, and this despite losing a horde of players to graduation and/or the NFL. I realize this is just one poll, but it looks like media people are not as down on OSU as they seem to be when they write their stories. When no one is looking, they're picking OSU to finish pretty high for a team that lost its starting RB, both starting WR's, starting left tackle, both starting LB's, and best cover corner.
It is my understanding, as reported on the radio at the time, that overtures were made to Speils by Tressel to be an assistant on his staff. According to the reports, Speils wasn't interested and it was speculation that if he it wasn't the HC position he did not want it. Who knows what would have happened if he had accepted...
Those are fantastic points. It is funny how we always get ranked high, but then beat up when anyone discusses Ohio State from a National perspective.
That's the way I heard it, too. Spielman wanted all or nothing. I'll say this much though, I expect there's a great chance he'll change that stance in a few years. I don't think it's a secret that his wife is not doing very well and eventually he's going to need something to latch on to. I don't think radio is going to give him that fix and his kids will be getting a little older. I can definitely see him on the staff in 3-5 years. Never say never.
This is the coaches poll not the media. Expect to be a little lower with the AP poll.
Actually, #6 seems to be the consensus view of all available poll data at the moment.
http://lsufootball.net/article...
My all time favorite Buckeye. IMHO THE BEST Defensive player in tOSU history.
Still get shivers whenever I hear the story about him knocking his grandma flat on her ass when he was about 4. I was so lucky to have gotten to watch him play in HS at Massillon (pretty good baller there, too, as I recall) and at tOSU. All us West Coast Buckeyes hope that Steph is getting better.
As a Die-hard MICHIGAN fan & a Detroit Lions fan, I only found it fitting to name my 1st Chocolate Lab Spielman.
Even though he was from OSU & we had Barry Sanders in Detroit, Spielman was by far my favorite player. He provided the spark that propelled those Lions teams into the playoffs year in & year out. It was a shame when Detroit let him go to Buffalo. He was never the fastest player on the field, but when he was out there you knew he was not going to leave anything on the field either.