For the first time in 20 years, Howie Long will watch an NFL game on a Sunday as a fan.
Long will be absent from FOX’s Sunday NFL pregame show to be in St. Louis to attend to a family matter — two of his sons will play against one another in an NFL game. Kyle Long is an offensive lineman for the Chicago Bears, and Chris is a defensive lineman for the Rams. The two will match up opposite one another on the line of scrimmage.
“I’ll have, I am sure, a few opportunities where it will be Chris and I going against each other,” older brother Kyle told Brad Briggs of the Chicago Tribune. “It is going to be really weird, but I already told him, ‘Do you realize how lucky we are to have this problem?'”
The elder Long is a Hall of Fame defensive end, but told The Washington Post that he didn’t want his kids to follow in his footsteps on the gridiron.
“Subconsciously, I probably pushed him to baseball because I wanted somebody to do something where you didn’t just get hit every day,” Howie said. “I fought it.”
That message clearly didn’t go through, though, since both Kyle and Chris ended up playing football at the highest level. Long will travel to the Edward Jones Dome with his youngest son, Howie Jr., and other family members to watch the memorable game.
“It’s going to be strange but it is exciting,” Howie Jr. said. “Offensive and defensive linemen going at each other is the most brutal one-on-one matchup throughout a game. I just hope the two of them don’t lose their cool toward each other because I know it is going to be very heated.”
Photo via Facebook/Howie Long
