Going from football to the courtroom was a snap Chris Sammarone

Moving from college football to the courtroom was a snap for Chris Sammarone

By Ryan Buck

sports @vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Chris Sammarone is three games into his new venture as the Youngstown State football color analyst for WKBN-AM 570.

Sammarone played for the Penguins during their 1990s Division I-AA championship run. He has been away from the game since 1994, but the game has never been far from his heart.

Sammarone personifies Mahoning Valley football.

He starred at Chaney, playing on offense and defense, before he committed to play at the University of Kentucky over offers from many college suitors.

After one season, he made the decision to transfer home, where his father, Chuck (the current mayor of Youngstown), led the Penguins’ offensive line in the early 1960s.

“It was a combination of reasons,” Chris said of his commitment to the Wildcats and decision to transfer.

Recruited as a linebacker, the Kentucky coaching staff moved him to the offensive line.

“I guess they knew something, because I ended up staying there,” he said.

Sammarone red-shirted under previous NCAA transfer rules in 1991. YSU won its first national title that season under coach Jim Tressel. A year later, Sammarone assumed the starting center position and started for his final three seasons.

“It was the right place at the right time,” Sammarone said of the years he spent at YSU. “He (Tressel) was building something there. He told me when he recruited me, ‘We’re going to be really good here and really good for a long time.’”

In 1994, during the Penguins’ third championship run, Sammarone was named to several All-America teams as a senior. He worked out for several NFL teams after the season ended, but was never invited to training camps. When Canadian football clubs showed earnest interest, he had a choice to make.

“It was to further my education or the money, and back then I didn’t think the amount of money was worth the time to pursue it,” Sammarone said.

Armed with a biology degree from YSU, he then earned his Juris Doctor at Cleveland State’s John Marshall College of Law.

He has since opened his own practice, where he and colleagues practice in a variety of areas, in Youngstown.

Some things still carry over from the football field to the courtroom.

“Once you’ve grown up in athletics, you have that competitive edge,” Sammarone said. “In law, you still like to compete, but on behalf of your clients. It’s always tempered and there’s no score kept.

“I do like to amp it up and compete when the opportunities arise, though.”

Sammarone said opening his own practice, and becoming a business owner, was his greatest risk and the challenge was a worthy opponent.

“When I opened my own law practice, it was the most stressful time of my life,” said Sammarone, who has a wife and five children at home. “Everything falls on you. There’s no cushion of that paycheck every two weeks.

“I’ll tell you what, though, it’s been worth every penny.”

The anxiety of snapping the football and forcing his counterparts off the line of scrimmage in national title games has been surpassed. The only scoreboard he sees is in his mind.

“It’s still pressure-packed,” Sammarone said. “You control how the business operates. I’d rather have that control. Athletics teaches you that process. You have to produce and perform. Your success is based on that performance.”

This past spring, Bob Hannon, friend and YSU play-by-play man, asked Sammarone to join him in the booth.

Sammarone has been a fixture at games and program functions, including his induction into the school’s athletics hall of fame in 2004.

“I thought about it for a month or two before I committed,” he said, knowing he would need to find balance between his family and his law practice.

“I really enjoy it and I didn’t think I’d enjoy it as much as I have,” said the old offensive lineman. “I love YSU football. Now I get to be an armchair quarterback, so to speak.”