• Tools:
• Save |
• Print |
• E-mail |
• Most Popular |

Chambers aiming for career in NFL

Adjust font size:

LONDON, England -- British sprinter Dwain Chambers is banking on a career in NFL in the United States to repay his debts.

Chambers returned to athletics last year, having served a two-year ban for testing positive for the steroid THG (tetrahydrogestrinone), but agreed to repay all prize and appearance money he earned while using the drug.

"I owe a lot of money, and there's no way I can pay it back with the little I'm earning from track and field," said Chambers, who was stripped of his 2002 European 100 meters title, in Monday's Daily Telegraph.

"But, ultimately, if I do well in American football and go professional, I can afford to pay off my debts. I've got to be determined, and think of other ways of surviving."

Chambers admitted he had been using THG, the drug at the center of the BALCO case in the U.S., for 18 months before he tested positive in August 2003.

The 28-year-old is currently at a training camp in Barcelona where he is hoping to earn a contract with a team in NFL Europe, a stepping stone to earning a place with an American side.

"I have come to a sport where you've got to be tough, to stand up and take a hit," Londoner Chambers said.

"But it doesn't put me off, it just shows me what I have to know if I want to make it as a professional in the NFL. I've got to go through those hardships and I'm prepared to."

Chambers, who also caused the British squad to be stripped of their 2002 European 4x100 relay golds, said he would continue trying to rebuild his reputation in athletics.

He was part of the squad which won the relay title back in Gothenburg last year but the celebrations were muted when team mate Darren Campbell refused to join in the lap of honor.

"Some people dislike me and don't want me back," Chambers said. "But I've got to earn a living. I have the ability and the opportunity to perform with the British team, and I want to do so."

Get up-to-the minute news from CNN CNN.com gives you the latest stories and video from the around the world, with in-depth coverage of U.S. news, politics, entertainment, health, crime, tech and more.

---

• Ebola toll rises in 'unprecedented' outbreak
• Report: MH370 a criminal investigation
• Life inside the densest place on earth
• Ocean Shield's mission of hope, uncertainty
• Cosmetics queen fights skin bleaching

• Irish PM to quit over payments scandal
• NATO chief: Afghan troop increase likely
• Militants hunted as calm retuns to Basra
• Pressure on Bush to skip Olympics
• BA sending misplaced T5 baggage to Milan

• Recruiting suicide bombers (2:50)
• London was lucky (2:36)
• Cars in London rigged as bombs (3:48)
• Second explosives-packed car foun (2:32)
• Soviet culture returns (3:47)