Ed Thompson: How's everything been going for you through this whirlwind
period of the Combine, Pro Day and heading into the NFL Draft?
Chris Houston: It's been a very good experience. I'm just learning as I'm
going on, and it's been a very blessed experience.
ET: I was really impressed by your poise and communications skills in the
media room at the Combine during your press conference. Have you always been
comfortable talking in front of crowds like that?
CH: Well, not really. It's just something that for me is about being
yourself. And when I talk to people, I'm just trying to be myself and I guess it
just comes out natural.
ET: You reportedly ran a 4.32 forty-time at the Combine. Did you even impress
yourself a little bit with that time?
CH: No, because I knew that I was running a 4.3 already. My personal goal was
a 4.28. At the start of the 40-yard dash, when I was just practicing, the shoes
I had on were slippery. So I was so focused on not slipping, and I told
myself I'm going to come out slow to try not to slip and then I'll pick up speed
as I keep going. So I could've run a little faster, but I'm just blessed
with the time that I ran.
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| (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis) |
ET: I know your other number that really jumped out at people was your 27
reps on the bench. But you've been a dedicated weight-room guy for years...
CH: Yes sir. I was always naturally strong for some reason, I started
realizing that in high school. A lot of the other guys were bigger then me and I
just always did the weights in high school and I just finally found myself doing
more weights than any other person that was on the football team in high school.
And then for my redshirt freshman year at college I was doing 420 pounds, and
that was a freshmen bench record. I've just always been stronger then most guys,
I don't know where that comes from, I guess it comes from a gift from God.
ET: You missed only three games during your college career, back in
2004. Considering the type of work you do out on the football field,
that's pretty amazing. What do you credit your that to?
CH: First to God and then to strength and conditioning. And also to
coach and me just wanting to put in the extra work to try and get myself to stay
healthy during the football game.
ET: How'd you feel about your performance during your position drills at your
Pro Day?
CH: I did very well. To me there's a lot of things I could work on, but
during the backpedaling drills I think I did very well. I wasn't planning on
doing anything because I had personal workouts set up with the New England Patriots and Tennessee Titans on the 27th and 28th. And I didn't know if I
needed to do anything at the Pro Day because I had just done everything at the
Combine about two weeks earlier. Some teams kind of got upset when they heard I
wasn't going to workout, so I told them that I would workout doing some position
drills. Everybody said they thought I did a very good job during position
drills.
ET: Who ran the workouts for your position?
CH: A Baltimore Ravens coach ran the position drills and all the other teams
watched.
Scout.com subscribers can read the rest of this interview with Chris
Houston and find out what he thought about his Combine results, who's been
showing interest in him, and more!
| A member of the Professional Football Writers of America, Ed Thompson's NFL and college football player interviews and features have been published across the Scout.com network and syndicated through FoxSports.com's NFL team pages. |
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